Transparency

As traders, we bear a special responsibility within the coffee value chain. Our role as a link between producers and roasteries means we have access to crucial data that spans continents and is often missing for those involved. For this reason, we place great emphasis on transparency and confidentiality in our work.

We share detailed information about the relationships, quantities, qualities, and prices achieved for our coffees. In an industry often marked by a lack of transparency, it is our duty to communicate with reliable data, showing how our work makes a positive difference.

However, for us, transparent work goes beyond tables and numbers. We believe true transparency arises from real, human relationships. Through direct exchange and trust between the actors in the coffee value chain, we create a new level of openness and traceability.

Our overarching goal is to make the entire coffee value chain as accessible, fair, and sustainable as possible. We take pride in the close relationships we build with our partners and see ourselves as part of a community working together for a better future. Every cup of cumpa coffee tells a story of commitment, responsibility, and the pursuit of a sustainable world.

We place great importance on complying with laws and standards to ensure the highest levels of transparency and responsibility throughout our value chain.

Through origin certificates and the EUDR (European Union Deforestation Regulation), we are legally required to maintain a high level of transparency. Every coffee in our supply chain is clearly traced back to the people and land that produced the raw coffee. We strictly ensure that all applicable local laws are followed and make certain that the purchase of our coffees does not contribute to deforestation.

Our Organic-certified coffees undergo additional audit processes. Together with our partners, we ensure that the strict regulations for organically produced food are met and that our products adhere to the highest ecological standards. Regarding the prices we pay and our price transparency, we intentionally refrain from using Fairtrade certifications. We believe that through direct and fair pricing, as well as transparent communication, we can better achieve our goals.

We disclose the FOB prices we pay at the origin port to give our customers insight into the return-to-origin of their payments.

It’s important to note, however, that production costs for green coffee vary widely across the world, depending on country and specific circumstances. As such, the FOB price alone often lacks sufficient context. We view it as a useful point of comparison, but with certain limitations.

For instance, our coffee from the D.R. Congo must be shipped via Tanzania, so the FOB price also includes the cost of transporting the coffee from the D.R. Congo to the port in Tanzania—meaning not all of the price paid by the importer reaches the origin. In countries like Vietnam and Peru, coffee cherry processing practices differ. In Vietnam, cherries at varying ripeness stages are sold to central washing stations, whereas in Peru, farmers often process their harvests directly on their own farms. Therefore, direct price comparisons are challenging, as different levels of value are added to the coffee cherries through on-farm processing before they pass through the farm gate.

The reality of price transparency, as we’ve encountered in our work, is complex. Especially in remote regions, obtaining reliable data is often challenging, and to our knowledge, no standardized solution fits every situation or country.

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In the proverbial jungle, information is scarce and the costs of reliable data collection are often disproportionate. The situation in Peru illustrates this: A container of our cooperative lot “Kuntu Organic” contains coffees from up to 150 farmers who bring their parchment from different hills to the cooperative. This diversity makes price transparency difficult, as it is not possible to trace whether coffee from neighbors was added and at what price. In addition, the coffees vary in quality (residual moisture, cup score, percentage of good beans by weight, etc.) and payment terms (cash immediately, in two weeks, in the form of fertilizer, etc.). Theoretically, you could travel to the hills in person and interview the farmers, but this requires hours of travel and walking for a few kilos of coffee – a cost that is prohibitive.

Our commitment to our customers is therefore to provide all relevant information as required and to work with our local partners to develop reliable estimates for complex issues.