PRIJSOPBOUW: VANUIT DE BOER

 

BENCHMARK: THE LOCAL REALITY

Every farmer is different, and the needs of one household, are different to the next. So what do we compare against?

  1. Local alternative price. What would a farmer have received for this coffee, if This Side Up was not there?

  2. Costs of production. Were the time and expenses covered for the kilogram of coffee? Here we also differentiate between those running it as a fulltime business, and those that have coffee on the side.

BENCHMARK : FINANCING NEEDS

In order to produce good quality coffee, capital is needed. This Side Up has partnerships with financial institutions, as well as own capital to provide this. For the Amsterdam blend, the partners from Rwanda, Tanzania and Indonesia requested prefinancing. The Brazilians had arranged this via their own network. In the graph we show how much of the contract value (%) we prefinanced, and how many months before export.

BENCHMARK : MARKET QUALITY SEGMENTATION

Here we show you the spectrum of qualities defined by cup score we buy from Rwanda as an example. Each quality is priced differently showing the effort it takes to produce it. The lower end specialty requires less effort to process it from the production side compared to the higher scoring coffees.

In 2026, the prices of all qualities will be a bit higher to match the inflation, local market prices and cover costs of production. Every year these variables are considered closely and then price is fixed.

Here there is a small catch in the final data point being high scored but has a lower price - it is because of volumes they produce at scale, they can afford to sell it a slightly lower price at 8$/kg.

Here we show you the spectrum of qualities per origin that works with the Amsterdam Blend for 2025 harvest.

This is an overview of how we buy coffee in these countries and to understand why TSU is an important partner for them.

The Brazil portfolio can be divided into three main segments - Blends (that are made based on the desired flavour profile. It usually scores between 83-85 and pays the bills!), Single farmer lots - coffees that come from one single estate and a specific group such as women’s lot and experimental lots - those that get you a high price but requires a lot of effort.

The Tanzanian portfolio is fairly straightforward regarding the quality vs price division. The higher scoring coffees are priced slighter more than the lower end specialty. We have started buying more grades beside A1 starting from 2025. It expands the possibilities for diversification and reduces the pressure on farmer to produce only high scoring lots.

We buy both Arabica and Robusta from Indonesia. We propose the Robusta in blends for that extra “kick”! We contract from Flores and Java islands in Indonesia working with youth in both these groups. A mix of these two go into Braine.