Coffee

Behind petroleum, coffee is the world’s second most commonly traded commodity and the second largest export earner for developing countries. The specialty market for coffee, while exacting, offers opportunities for many ACDI/VOCA beneficiaries. We work with grower groups, governmental entities, coffee experts, major buyers and roasters and other actors throughout the global coffee industry to enable smallholders to access this elite market, realizing higher incomes and a better way of life.

There’s no all-purpose formula for success, but producers must be organized into a critical mass and must develop awareness of their crop and its market. Foremost, they must come to appreciate the importance of quality.

They may need to form cooperatives or like organizations and hire managers to help them improve production and processing practices, purchase inputs in bulk and bypass middlemen to get the full value of their production. They may need revised government policies, financing, Fair Trade or organic certification and other business support such as technical assistance, new infrastructure and equipment or training in “cupping,” or critical tasting. And they’ll need to forge market linkages across daunting cultural and language barriers.

ACDI/VOCA helps producers overcome these barriers and learn to compete in this demanding arena. Our 43-year experience in helping farmers and entrepreneurs overseas grapple with vagaries of product value chains is a perfect fit in the coffee sector. We have helped coffee producers worldwide organize to add value to their crop, become business savvy and achieve success in the global marketplace.