STiR coffee and tea magazine

20 STiR coffee and tea | 2024 Issue 4 (August / September) etc.) that I'm aware of have missed an opportunity to capitalize on the emergence of specialty coffee in a collaborative, community-focused way before the coffee hunters, followed by the aid programs, and finally the multinationals, created the conditions for it to become a competitive, individualistic, gladiator-style environment. This wasn't necessarily their fault. In some cases, they were also undercut by structural and politi- cal factors that favored foreign intervention, the same resource constraints that favor foreign buyers over smallholders, and the generalized economization of rural com- munity existence by outside forces. And in other cases, they were always extensions of traditional power structures." Sucafina approaches the human aspect of coffee with a focus on increasing pro- ductivity and boosting smallholders above the poverty line. Regarding producers in Rwanda, where Sucafina has a significant footprint, Celi says, "The underlying factors are that productivity is low and farm sizes are small. We bring short, medium, and long-term strategies to help with productivity, introducing stumping to rejuvenate the above-ground part of the plant, while introducing new varieties with better genetic material between the rows to fix the density issue." They also work with communities to support their village savings schemes (we will cover these schemes in more detail in our next issue) and add other crops to increase income per farmer. Other farmer initiatives include education and give-back schemes, such as those perpetuated in areas of Ethiopia by companies like ZEM Coffee and Dumerso Cof- fee; nonprofit accelerators driving local innovation, such as The Chain Collaborative, and many origin-specialized importers with a strong footprint in origin communities like Terra Negra, JNP, Primavera, and more. There is no question that these initiatives mean well but there is uncertainty about whether they are effective enough—or even whether social enterprise stacks out positively at the end of a cycle. What Is Owed by a Corporation to its Stakeholders? All but the most rapacious businesses acknowledge the need to support stakeholders at all levels. If too much value is extracted from soil, it will cease to bear. The same ap- plies to an entire supply chain. Most companies of size have an ESG or sustainability department, which brings methodology, research, and reporting to the impact of work done (or attempted). This is clearly a necessary step, raising the next obvious question: who watches the watchers? Additionally, the question of how much social impact is enough is complicated by the different perspectives of the firms and individuals asking the question. Wienhold says, "Under conditions of power asymmetry (such as between actors along the coffee chain), when one person or group holds the reins, social impact is still optional, re- gardless of owners' and employees' stated convictions. The balance between profits for the company and the increased well being of stakeholders is still a compro- mise, and an acceptable split is inevitably subjective. I realize this is considered rad- ical, but to me, unless there is an explicit obligation, such as stakeholder owner- ship and/or democratic decision-making, exploitation is still a one-sided right." Thus, we circle back around to the original perplexity: What does a corpo- ration owe to its stakeholders? Starting with the first corporations, value has been reaped with a primary focus on enriching shareholders, which inevitably creates a structure not initially dedicated to social enterprise. Here we enter moral grounds and exit the scope of an exploratory article. What has become clear to many is that an intentional focus on returning value to stakeholders down the supply chain can only benefit the business in the long term. Jalinga Estates will reduce its production cost by 25% through a mesh of environmentally focused interventions while adding jobs and accessing new profit opportunities. Jalinga is also, to Pa- tel's knowledge, the only estate embarked on this journey, the first to take advan- tage of the international push toward carbon neutrality. Muñoz has determined that coffee produced on Monarch Farm alone isn't enough to keep the lights on and has added educational and tourism components to her business model as well as enacted careful operational and environmental improvements, which have reduced operating expenses by 202% in the last year while continuing a robust growth curve of +100% annually. If it benefits a business to enrich its downstream stakeholders, then Good Growth is merely common sense. What that looks like is to be determined in- dividually—which is where both the exploitation and the opportunity arise. The human spirit, expressed through enterprise, continues to demonstrate its capacity to dream and do, to build and weave new shared futures. With a focus on environmental and social investment, coffee and tea farm models have a higher chance of success in an ever-changing world. Cati Simon in a Cajamarca, Peru coffee farm.

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