What does the life of a sustainable sourcing manager look like? A good question! One thing for sure is that it involves tons of travel. I am responsible for 40+ coffee growing partners, this can be co-operatives, producers’ organizations, big farms or small farms. It is my responsibility to ensure that these producers understand and comply to our code of conduct, and in rare cases, there are standards that need attention, I can help or guide them on how to implement corrective actions. It’s also my responsibility to cup coffees for quality control and calibration, take photos and records so you can see who is producing your coffee, and where needed I assist in procurement related issues such as contracts, price-negotiations, or shipping logistics.
Not one day or week ever looks the same, and that makes the job so challenging and interesting. It involves a lot of intercultural communication, learning and of course drinking coffee and cupping. I visit our roastery in London three to four times a year and normally try to stay for a couple of days.
In 2018 I visited 6 origin countries (+1 as I lived in Panama) compared to 9 in 2017. In 2018 I visited Costa Rica twice and Ethiopia 3 times! This means I travelled at least once a month. We source from 14 countries so it is great that we have a wider team who can also visit, build relationships and share knowledge with our farmer partners. In 2018, Rudy (our Quality Control Manager) visited: Guatemala, Burundi and Rwanda and Violeta our managing director Brazil, as well as our co-founder Jeremy, made several trips to Ethiopia, and our other co-founder Steven to Guatemala and Indonesia.
January
The year had just started when Steven and I travelled to the country where my coffee journey began: Guatemala. In this colourful and mountainous country, we visit La Candelaria, Hunapu and our long-term relationship Esquipulas. Esquipulas is a 7hour drive from the capital of Guatemala (Guatemala City). Guatemala has such exquisite and beautiful coffees that it is a must when sourcing speciality coffee. The country and its people are wonderful, welcoming and hard-working.
Six months later the country and more specifically the area where La Candelaria is located is severely affected by an eruption of Volcan de Fuego, and we organize a fundraiser to support La Candelaria.
February
Harvest is full on in many central American countries, as well in Panama where I spent a great deal of the year. We travel to Costa Rica, a beautiful country for travelling and coffee. Violeta, our Managing Director and Kerry, our National Account Manager join for a part of this trip. The Chiripo region has already finished harvesting, but the west and central valley are still harvesting. Our agenda, therefore, contains a very nice mixture of observing the harvest in full action as well as cupping coffees that have been harvested recently.
We visit producers whose coffee we use in Revelation Blend such as MICEPA and San Jeronimo, but we also visit Genesis, which has been producing delicious microlots for Union for several years now.
Before Violeta and Kerry join me, I visit new coffee farmer partners’ harvest Finca Santa Anita and Coopeatenas. Before we start working with new producers we visit them. Finca Santa Anita runs for more than 80% on solar power, isn’t that amazing! Whereas Coopeatenas is so much more than a coffee co-operative offering services to 1300 farmers, it has a supermarket and even a petrol station. It is important that the partners we work with fully understand what ‘Union Direct Trade’ means, that we work with a Code of Conduct – a set of standards that all producers should comply with.
March
In March we visit Yayu in Ethiopia, where we have worked with The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, to preserve a wild coffee forest and where our delicious Yayu coffee comes from. We run project meetings, documenting outcomes, interviews and visits to the wet-mills. But, we also need to prepare this year’s export. We faced many challenges as Ethiopia was going through very challenging times in the beginning of the year with a lot of unrest, including roadblocks, protests the shut down of the internet and social media. You can imagine this makes it difficult to export coffee. Yayu is located a two-day drive from Addis where the milling takes place. Once the coffee is milled, we can establish quality through cupping.
April
In April we submit our yearly report to the Ethical Trade Initiative. This report is very important as it helps us summarize, analyze and revise our past and future approach to Ethical Trade, an important component of Union Direct Trade. Farmworkers rights have been a key priority to Union since Steven and Jeremy started the company in 2001.
April is also the month for SCA (Specialty Coffee Association) gathering, this year held in Seattle. With thousands of visitors and hundreds of stands, this is one of the largest coffee gatherings annually. Full coffee emersion, lectures, meetings, the newest roasters and espresso machines, sustainable packaging is all there. For me, it is amazing as I had a chance to meet with our partners from Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Colombia, Peru, Brazil - 9 out of 14 countries! Lots of potential future partners. How often you get a chance to speak at 9am with your sourcing partner from Brazil, to meet an hour later with the people you buy coffee from in Rwanda?
May
In May Steven, co-founder of Union, and I headed off to Indonesia. We visited two islands this trip; Sumatra and Flores. Our main objective was to explore what Indonesia has to offer and potentially start new relationships, very exciting! During our trip, it was Ramadan, which added some extra challenges, but fortunately, we found people willing to cup as late as 11pmin the evening, after breaking fast and attending the mosque. When flying from Sumatra to Flores, my luggage got left behind, thus shopping!
June
In June, there is a European spin-off of SCA. A lot smaller but more intimate. This year the event was held in the capital of my home-country, Amsterdam! Again, I met with a lot of partners and potential partners and had a chance to join some talks and lectures on my favourite subject sustainability. Plus, we got to eat a lot of cheese and stroopwafels which are delicious.
In June I also spent quite some time in the UK. I love going to the office and seeing the rest of the Union family. Remote distance working has its advantages, but it can also be very lonely. Spending time at the office, and especially in our cupping lab with Rudy our Quality Control Manager is not only great fun, of course, but it is also important to stay consistent. Steven and I visit Kew Botanic Gardens – and I take a mental note that next time we really should schedule in some time to walk the gardens which are spectacular.
Personally, the highlight of this month is my visit to Edinburgh - what a beautiful city! I visit Brew Lab, the birthplace of our amazing cold brew coffee. After a day and a half, I return to the Netherlands, with a desire to go back very soon to this amazing city!
July
Ethiopia – again: workshops, trainings, cuppings - this origin keeps us very busy. Ethiopia trip requires a lot of preparation. Besides our quality improvement programme, we have been focussing a lot on financial management with these co-operatives and the workshops are built from scratch. After working in Yayu we noticed that a deeper understanding of costs and cost-related indicators could make a difference in the co-operative’s ability to make a profit. Therefore, we discuss indicators such as revenue, profit, loans, costs of production (total profit, profit per kg) and the value chain structure with these co-operatives basically every year. I celebrate my birthday in Panama and reflect on a busy and exciting time; Africa, Europe and Latin America, how often do you visit three continents in a month?
August
In August I spend a full week in Costa Rica refreshing my Q grader exams and my license is valid for the next three years. I took advantage of my stay in Costa Rica to visit our microlot producer Brumas de Zurqui, conducting a social audit, and travel to San Juan de Turrubares to discuss with the farmers of APROCETU their self-assessment and Corrective Action Plan.
September
Brought me to Peru, with Violeta and some of our customers to enable them to meet the producers of their coffee. A trip of more than a week, we travelled from Cusco to the North meeting producers from all over the country.
October
Next stop, Honduras. I visited our long-standing partners COCAFELOL and it was amazing as I was invited to the coffee and maize festival. Isn’t it amazing coffee playing such an important role in the lives of communities that there is a yearly coffee (and maize) festival!
By the end of October, I travelled with Jeremy to Ethiopia for an 8-day trip to Yayu. This year we started and implemented an exiting programme. Watch this space for more on this to come!
November
The first week of November is spent in Ethiopia, and then another crazy sequence of travelling occurs. I travel to the UK and catch up with the team at the roastery, and then I go to Bangkok. The Ethical and Responsible aspect of trade is very important to Union. I audit farms against our Code of Conduct, this is only one element of all labour right due diligence we perform. I spend a week in Bangkok to become a certified SA8000 auditor, the only ISO standard related to Sustainability. I passed my exams for my SA8000 auditor course.
December
Christmas; what you probably did not know is that during Christmas many central American countries are harvesting coffee, with quite a few regions at the peak of the harvest. It is a very busy month, with lots of things going on. With all the travel in November, I need to wrap up things (writing reports etc.) and have some rest time in one place – so no travel for me this month!
It truly is exciting and fascinating travelling and meeting our producer partners and balanced with this I have a lot of planning and reports to write, so it’s not all fun travelling. I need to prepare my travel, organize logistics, agendas etc. During the year producers have questions about contracts, shipping dates and quality requirements. I cup coffees, write audit reports follow up on these reports. I try to drive positive change throughout our value chain and build relationships and trust with the people we source from. If I am not working I love to spend time with my family, especially with my son Eliah. According to Eliah I love cleaning the house, but I do not necessarily agree with him.
I like Netflix – but I rarely watch TV at home as I spend enough time in planes or waiting to watch episodes of my favourite series.
Written by Pascale Schuit, Sustainable Sourcing Manager
March 2019
