Just being fair, sometimes is enough.
“Transparency is a tool to ensure that marketing claims are backed by actual facts.” The Pledge
The Specialty Coffee Industry unquestionably evolved into a worldwide movement which, due to its enormous logistic challenges, fluctuation in price and bigger focus on promoting producers at origin, sparked conversations about sustainability, transparency, supply chain integration and colonial bequest. Rightfully.
Prices per pound of commercial coffee are systematically encouraging and discouraging coffee farmers due to fluctuation connected to yearly available volume, price speculation and other environmental factors. The graph below represents the price per pound since the early 70’s.
Each country faces various economic, environmental and/or logistic difficulties. To put things in perspective, to produce a pound of specialty coffee in Colombia, the cost of production alone for specialty coffee varies from 700.00 – 750.000 pesos per carga (140kg of parchment coffee) which translates to $1.67 USD per pound of coffee.
This price does not include any post milling or exporting costs and therefore, does not even represent F.O.B. (Free On Board*) price. Without going into exact numbers it is clearly visible that the stock market price for commercial coffee,for large periods of time, has been far below cost of production.
While we mainly focus on specialty coffee, we recognize that every farm produces a variety of different qualities. As we grow, our intention is to buy the majority of what each partner can produce, improving their practices if necessary and creating a line of trust between a stable buyer and a human being.
At Nemesis, without big words and commitments or popular buzzwords, we are striving to always pay respectfully and never bargain, and to hold The Pledge vision close to our heart:
“Ensure a sustainable supply of coffee by working towards a living income for producers so they will continue to invest in the future of their businesses.”
transparency reports
We are purposely differentiating F.O.B. from F.G.P. . Find definitions of these terms:
*Free On Board – price that is paid for coffee that is delivered and placed onto the ship at the port in the country of embarkation. They typically cover any overland transportation costs from mills or warehouses to the port of origin, but not any overseas shipping, insurance, or any transportation, customs, and overland freight costs incurred on arrival to the port of destination (International Chamber of Commerce)
Farm Gate Pricing – if working directly with a landowner / farmer, this price defines the real value we purchased coffee for. Farm Gate Price includes costs of production, margin, labor, utilities, fertilizing / compost input into the soil etc.