Tag: coffee supply chain

  • Women in Coffee: Joy Mavugo of the Long Miles Coffee Story Team

    Women in Coffee: Joy Mavugo of the Long Miles Coffee Story Team

    Two Burundian on a coffee farm in Burundi

    Joy joined Long Miles in 2018, and has been an invaluable member of the Story Team ever since. With a background in public health, she uses every opportunity to share what she’s learned with partner farmers while listening to, and finding ways to share their stories.

    What is your earliest memory of coffee?

    I grew up seeing coffee being ground in our house because it is my dad’s favorite drink, but I had no idea of where coffee came from. In primary school, I learned that in Burundi we have industrial or export crops that brings foreign currency into the country. At that time, it was cotton, tea, and coffee. Something that confused me was hearing that coffee brings foreign currency into the country, meanwhile my dad was buying it in Burundian francs. But, as I was still a child, I didn’t ask.

    How and when did you get involved in the coffee industry?

    When I heard about Ben and Kristy [Carlson], before meeting them, I had been told that they are in coffee business. In my mind, being in the “coffee business” was the shops where people used to meet for coffee, places like Café Gourmand in Bujumbura, and other places like that. As I mentioned, I didn’t know anything about coffee apart from seeing my dad drink it. I never thought about working in coffee.

    In 2016, during coffee harvest, the Carlsons took me with to visit Bukeye Washing Station. There were two things that surprised me that first time visiting a washing station. One, was seeing so many people working there. Second, was seeing cherries. When they told me that it was coffee, the first question that came to mind was, “Are there two kinds of coffee?” This was the comparison I was making between coffee in the cup (the one I used to see my dad drink, and in the coffee shops), and coffee cherries at the selection tables.

    There were a couple of reasons that pushed me to work in coffee. Coffee connects different people from different cultures, different countries, and different continents. Coffee is people. This is the reason that I was interested to learn more about coffee, and is something that I am now proud to be a part of. Of course, there are still many, many things to learn in coffee, but at least today I can help somebody to understand coffee out of the cup.

    The second reason that pushed me to work in coffee is to help others with my degree in Public Health. I thought maybe there are people who need my help, especially in upcountry Burundi where many people don’t have access to information like they do in the city.

    Long Miles Coffee team visiting coffee farmers in Burundi

    What is your role in the coffee supply chain?

    I started working in coffee in 2018. My role is to listen to, collect, and share farmers’ stories. Working in coffee means a lot to me. I am working in the Story Team, and we are in communications. Together, we are helping the world understand the story of coffee: its origin, who grows it, what growing coffee looks like, what a coffee farm is like, what happens to coffee at the washing station, what the next step is after processing it at the washing station…

    I don’t use my background in public health every day, but there are always opportunities to do it. I have many examples, but I’ll just share one:

    I visited a coffee farmer on Gaharo Hill, and during the interview they explained the challenges farmers face, one of them being malaria. Both her husband and baby were sick with malaria at the time. While she was talking, I saw that in front of her house, there was a small farm of vegetables covered with a mosquito net. During our conversation, I asked why the mosquito net was covering the vegetables. She said that it prevented the chickens from eating the leaves. I asked her if she knows the cause of malaria, to which she replied, “It’s mangoes”. I asked her, why mangoes? “Because many people get malaria when it’s mango season”.

    I took the time to explain the actual causes of malaria, that mosquitoes are prevalent during mango season because of the rains during that time of year, and how to prevent malaria. It was a really valuable discussion!

    Apart from growing coffee, farmers are growing other crops that are good for their health, but don’t always eat them. Through the interviewing process, I’ve been able to help them to understand the relationship between food and health.

    Two women speaking to a child on a coffee farm in Burundi

    Are there any challenges that you think exclude women from working in coffee?

    There are no challenges that exclude women from working in coffee. The problem is the lack of information, or having access to false information. For example, women farmers have repeatedly heard something that’s not true, which is that “coffee is for men”. Other women farmers know that coffee can be prepared as a drink, but don’t know that there are many other things to do in coffee. Sometimes, women in Burundi don’t have enough time to research as men do.   

    When you consider the coffee industry, do you think that women are empowered to be in leadership and decision-making roles?

    In the coffee industry the number of women must be less than men, but those women who are there are empowered to be in leadership and decision-making roles.

    Burundian woman working in a coffee storehouse in Burundi

    Is there anything that you would like to learn or do to further your understanding of how coffee is produced or processed?

    I would like to improve my photography skills, and how to share information on social media. 

  • A guide to working with Long Miles Coffee

    A guide to working with Long Miles Coffee

    Photo of the Long Miles Coffee team at Bukeye Washing Station in Burundi

    We’re often asked the question, “How do I begin working with Long Miles?”

    Irrespective of your size or location, the process always begins the same: Talk to us. Whether you are buying one bag or five containers, we want to know you. Few industries are as relational as coffee and we take this element of our industry very seriously – it is our sincerest pleasure to do so. The best way to be in touch is to email David Stallings, who handles Roaster and Importer Relations.

    Regardless of where you are located and how much coffee you are looking to source from and/or through Long Miles, our goal is always the same: To interact directly with you and to keep you connected to a transparent and equitable supply chain. 

    Coffee farmers in Burundi hand-sorting their coffee cherries at Long Miles Washing Station

    Once you reach out we will schedule a phone/Zoom call or continue the conversation over email, whatever is best for you and the time zones we find ourselves working to reconcile. Together we will discuss your needs in many areas: The types of coffees you are looking for, the volumes of coffees you are looking for, and more. From there we will work together on a plan that works for your business. This can look any number of ways. Typically one of two primary paths will be decided upon:

    1. Roasters purchasing less than a full pallet (ten bags) of coffee from any given origin in any given year are typically referred to our importing partners – more on this below. In most cases and markets, our importing partners take a certain amount of Long Miles coffee into their position specifically with the intention to service our smaller clients. This is not done, by any means, to “hand-off” smaller roasters. In fact, we began operating this way to make sure that our one bag clients were receiving the exact same level of care and attention as our largest clients. As coffee farmers, producers, and exporters, we are not expertly suited to handling sampling and contracts for the smallest of our partners. We remain, however, 100% committed to these partnerships and are available by email, phone, WhatsApp, etc., at any time in order to make sure you have the tools necessary to represent Long Miles coffees in the marketplace. As stated above, regardless of size, we want every partner to be and feel as connected to the supply chain as they wish.
    2. For roasters buying ten+ bags from any given origin each year, you will liaise directly with David for samples, etc. At the appropriate time, David will connect you to our importing partner in your market for contracting, etc.

    Once the coffee leaves the country of origin, the primary contact for all things logistics-related will be the importing partner to whom you were introduced by our team. These critical partners will see the coffee safely from port to port, oversee the legal process of getting the coffee into the country/region of delivery, and oversee the logistical process of getting the coffee from the port and into a warehouse. Finally, they will be your primary point of contact for releasing the coffee from the warehouse, paying for the coffee, and seeing that the coffee gets to your business. All of that being said, our team remains at your service throughout the entire process. Whether you have a question about the current state of the coffee or a question surrounding information related to the coffee itself, we are and always will be here for you.

    David Stallings, head of Roaster and Importer Relations. Photo by Julianna Stallings.
    Photo by Julianna Stallings.

    To better understand why we operate as we do, it may be helpful to note something about who, exactly, Long Miles is. As owners and operators of washing stations in multiple East African nations, we are coffee producers. As owners of farms, we are coffee farmers. We are also coffee exporters. There are other labels that can be applied to Long Miles in East Africa but these are the most important for the sake of this guide.

    It may also be helpful to make clear what Long Miles is not. Most notably, Long Miles is not a coffee importer. There are a number of implications associated with this. Firstly, and most importantly, we partner with importers. We are frequently asked questions such as, “Can we buy directly from you and not involve an importer?” The simple answer to that is, “No, that is not possible.” It’s not possible because it’s not legally possible. Unless you live in the country in which the coffee was produced, it must be legally exported by an entity and it must be legally imported by another. There is no way around this. The closest thing that we can do to not involve an importer is to air freight our coffee directly to you. Even then, someone is technically importing the coffee, whether that be your business or a representative you hire. Furthermore, while there are legitimate reasons to occasionally air freight coffee, it is by no means a sustainable approach to coffee logistics – economically or ecologically.

    Secondly, the importing partners we work with differ from market to market. We partner with companies based on a certain set of criteria: A general alignment on vision surrounding the purported goals of specialty coffee, the degree to which key roaster partnerships in the market endorse the importer, how expert the importer is in that particular market, how reasonably priced the importer is, etc. No single one of these is the most important factor under consideration. Rather, we weigh each of these points and consider the complete picture. If you are of the size that you are purchasing full or near-full container loads, our logistics team would be more than happy to liaise with an importer of your choice.

    The third implication of not being a coffee importer is the fact that we do not typically have an Offer List, nor are we always able to clearly answer questions surrounding the exact final price of any given coffee. We will always be able to tell you the price to purchase the coffee from the country of origin, as this is the price we sell the coffee to importers for. That said, importers provide a service – and no small one at that. Not only are they handling global logistics, they also finance the coffee from the time that it leaves the country of origin to the time your roastery or business takes possession of it. There is a cost associated with shipping, importation, customs clearance, etc., and then the importer also needs to include a margin to cover their own expenses and to make a small profit. On top of all of this, coffee is nearly always bought and sold in U.S. dollars. If your roastery is located somewhere in the world where you will be invoiced in a currency other than USD, then of course the exchange rate and the exact time of the currency exchange needs to be taken into consideration, as well. We do know, generally, the prices charged by our importing partners and will do our best to provide a reasonably accurate quote upon request. Furthermore, we will be more than happy to connect you with our importing partners in order to get an exact logistics quote.

    We are writing this post in early June, 2021. The Burundi harvest season is just beginning to ramp up. As such, if you are interested in beginning a relationship with Long Miles Coffee, and particularly if you are interested in purchasing Burundi coffee, now is the ideal time to reach out and make a plan surrounding this harvest.

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