Tag Archives: coffee

About Transparency Coffee

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Transparency.coffee – Coffee is a business of pretty pictures and harsh realities. Roasters and coffee shops around the world depend upon farmers to produce the excellent beans that we love. Too often however, producers reap too little of the profits that are being generated along the value chain.

An increasing number of actors in the coffee industry have recognized that the only way to secure the production of great coffee is to increase its sustainability along the value chain. And ultimately sustainability in coffee production must start with producers earning a living income. If producers cannot make enough money from their work, they are forced to cut corners on sustainable production or eventually move out of coffee completely.

Transparency certainly can’t solve this problem by itself. Transparency might not be able to guarantee if the business relationship between farmers and coffee buyers is right. It cannot guarantee that trading relations are meaningful or that the prices that are paid for green coffee are adequate and can guarantee a living income to producers.

What it might reveal though, is when business relations aren’t as good as they seem. Transparency can ensure that marketing claims that would otherwise stand for itself must be backed by actual facts. Therefore it can make communication towards consumers more honest.

What transparency can also accomplish is to enable actors along the supply chain to make informed choices. Transparency can contribute to challenge current pricing mechanisms based on commodity stock market prices. Transparent Trade Coffee and the Specialty Coffee Transaction Guide are excellent initiatives that tackle this challenge.

The idea to create The Pledge popped up during the transparent trade colloquium in Hamburg in 2018 and evolved from there. As a group of committed people in the coffee supply chain, we feel that transparency should necessarily mean one thing: transparency of pricing in coffee negotiations. To set an example for the coffee industry, we need to openly communicate how much we are paying for our coffees.

In a lot of ways, transparency is a word like freedom. It’s a positively connotated symbol that can be filled with different content and is subject to interpretation. When it comes to transparency reporting, that can be a problem. Companies that misuse this concept for marketing purposes will define transparency in a different way, not revealing green coffee prices but still claiming to be transparent.

Companies that sign The Pledge agree to share a fixed set of variables when reporting on green coffee purchases. We aim to create a common standard for transparency reporting that is applicable throughout the coffee world. By disclosing additional information like the name of the producer organisation, the lot size and the cup quality of the coffee we add context to our transparency reports that makes them comparable and truly transparent.

In a nutshell: In order to be truly transparent, we should be transparent about what we are transparent about.

Sign The Pledge

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Sign The Pledge as a signatory (green coffee buyer)

The “signatories” category of The Pledge is reserved for all the companies that buy green coffee beans and are able to disclose all of the information required in the “commitment” section of The Pledge. Companies that sign this pledge must publish the required information about at least one of the coffees they are selling.

If the published information is called into question, companies that signed The Pledge agree to share a randomly selected number of green coffee contracts with other participants in order to verify information published in the transparency reports (peer review).

In order to sign The Pledge and commit to transparency reporting please read the how-to guide and fill out the form below. We will then process your request as soon as possible.

Contact form to sign The Pledge as a signatory:

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Thank you for your response. ✨

Become a supporter

The “supporter” category of The Pledge is reserved for all the individuals, organizations and companies who do not buy green coffee but would show their support to the transparency movement. Signing The Pledge with your name/logo to show your support is possible for any individual or organization that identifies with our goals and is excluded from the signatory category. Companies that do buy green coffee however cannot join the supporter category.

In order to sign the support section of The Pledge please write an email to sign[at]transparency.coffee and we will process your request.

Become a supporter

The “supporter” category of The Pledge is reserved for all the individuals, organizations and companies who do not buy green coffee but would show their support to the transparency movement. Signing The Pledge with your name/logo to show your support is possible for any individual or organization that identifies with our goals and is excluded from the signatory category. Companies that do buy green coffee however cannot join the supporter category.

In order to sign the support section of The Pledge please fill out the form below and we will process your request.

Contact form to become a supporter:

← Back

Thank you for your response. ✨

 

How to sign The Pledge

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This a short instruction on the steps required in order to sign The Pledge:

1. At least one coffee you are currently selling must be considered transparent according to the criteria of

2. Transparency information must be publicly accessible on the website and kept up to date.

3. If not all your coffees meet the transparency requirements, this is not an obstacle. However, you must indicate  the share of transparent coffees (in percent) in relation to the total volume of coffee (in lbs/tonnes) sold in the stated/current year. This period of time could either be 2019 or e.g. the last 12 months. The selected period of time should be indicated and adequately explained.

4. As soon as you have published the required information, you can contact us via the contact form on the website or write an email to info[at]transparency.coffee. Please indicate where your transparency information is located by sending an URL. We will then review your published information and let you know if you’re good to go or if we require any further information.

5. Please also send us your logo so we can use it on the website, social media and on PDF of The Pledge.

 

In order to be considered transparent, the following information must be available about all the coffees you wish to report on:

  • Name of the producer/producer organization the coffee was purchased from;
  • Free On Board (FOB) price paid for the coffee;
  • Indication of the quality of the coffee, for instance by using the SCA score in order to indicate cup quality;
  • Lot size (volume) of the coffee purchased;
  • Length of the relationship between producer/producer organization and buyer.
  • state the percentage of transparent coffees in relation to the total volume of coffee (in lbs/tonnes) bought in the stated year.

As soon as we have received your application and checked the information, you will be considered a signatory company and your logo will be added to The Pledge. We ask all companies that have signed The Pledge to indicate this on their websites and add a link to www.transparency.coffee (not mandatory).

We also encourage signatories to register all your transparent coffees with Transparent Trade Coffee. It’s a great organization that uses the data to generate useful information for producers, buyers and roasters. We advice you to also check out the “Specialty Coffee Transaction Guide”.

If you have any questions, please contact info[at]transparency.coffee or fill out the contact form. We will do our best to answer all your questions and support you in the implementation.