The coffee industry is fundamentally an unwieldy and ugly beast, being the manifestation of centuries of insensitive propagation and unequal trade. It operates at the mercy of capitalism and free market devices, deaf to the needs of person, community or environment.

We did not imagine when we entered the industry that the only way to participate would be to take an activist’s stand against the beast.  And yet that is where we find ourselves, at the fringes of traditional market operation, working to our own set of guiding principles.

Shared Source seeks to support smallholders who are consciously working to farm and process coffee in a way that is simultaneously profitable and environmentally conscious. We prioritize purchasing from smallholder producers, because they are more likely to be disadvantaged in terms of market access, and because we have the experience and skills to provide meaningful value by linking them with roasters who align with our principles.

 We prioritize long-term relationships, and strive to be a reliable buyer who can be counted on for consistent purchases at fair prices, year after year. We do this by working with producers to calculate their projected production volumes and sharing our projected purchase volumes so they can go into their harvests with an understanding of the volumes we intend to purchase. We’re regularly in touch with producers, and offer interest-free pre-financing to ease the burden of seasonal production.

We recognize inherent power imbalances in relationships between buyers and sellers, and we seek to empower producers to recognize the value that they can and do add to their product. We do this by regularly sharing cupping notes, visiting producers to learn about their processing techniques and making suggestions when it’s helpful and relevant. 

We advocate for the environment by supporting and purchasing from producers who are actively seeking ways to reduce their dependence on synthetic chemical inputs (conventional fertilizers, insecticides and herbicides), tending to native hardwood shade trees in their coffee plots, and managing waste water in a manner that protects soil and waterways. 

We promote and organize peer-to-peer agricultural training to assist them in their transition away from chemical inputs. We incentivize regenerative agriculture by paying bonuses in addition to parchment price, based on environmental initiatives taken by the grower.

We are conscious of country-specific differences that challenge the idea of a one-size-fits-all model. 

Our relationships with producers allow us a deeper, more informed understanding of the realities of each individual’s coffee production. To ensure that producers receive a fair price for their coffee, we negotiate directly with them to agree on a farmgate price for parchment coffee that takes into consideration the cost of production, steps taken towards environmental preservation, and premiums for quality commensurate with the way the coffee is sold. We value transparency and want to play our part in creating a more just industry that values and compensates producers for the work they do. Get in touch to find out the farmgate prices paid for any coffee you’ve purchased.

We purchase from producers who are engaged and interested in producing coffee that has high cup quality. We do this to reward the hard work required to process coffee well; because consumers won’t pay prices required to pay producers fairly for coffee unless the coffee tastes good; because we enjoy drinking great coffee.

We have no interest in supporting a product that isn’t oriented towards quality of taste because that is the realm of high volume commodity trading, and is not within our scope as a small business. For us, the high volume trade of coffee has a large question mark hanging over its future. We feel that as with all consumer items, we need to consume less of it at a higher quality. Our world’s future can’t sustain anything on a mass-volume scale.

We’re not content to accept the status quo. We aspire to purchase from women because they are often marginalized in the industry, have less access to credit, information, and training at origin. We aspire to purchase from young people because we want to promote coffee production as a viable long-term option for producers to do our part to ensure a future for the industry we’re a part of.

We didn’t set out to be a green coffee seller; we set out to be the best green coffee buyer we could be.

We are the drop in the ocean that could become a tidal wave. We are tiny and a work in progress. We seek to operate in a lean and mean fashion and to avoid first world excesses in comforts. We want to help people realize that it’s not for marketing benefit that we should buy this way, but because it’s the right way to buy. It’s the only way to participate in the industry while aspiring to be a good global citizen.

We care for people, communities, and Earth, in this order, all through paying more for quality.