We are Cafédirect

posted at 11:27am, 02 Apr 09 by Alex [ 1 comment ]

I spent Tuesday at a unique conference organised by Cafédirect.

The producers we work with own shares in Cafédirect – and these shares are managed by Cafédirect Producers Ltd (CPL) which represents our grower partners’ views and opinions.

We are working together to increase the influence of CPL within our business and ultimately throughout the coffee, tea and cocoa producing countries in which Cafédirect operates.

This will lead to even greater engagement between Cafédirect and producers and, critically, will involve producers in the management, implementation and evaluation of the Producer Partnership Programme activities (this is the department that reinvests over 50% of our profits)

It was really motivating to see the enthusiasm from everyone involved – managers and board members of organisations that represent 250,000 small holder growers and their families. These are some of the messages that the producers will take back to their organisations:

Joseph Callistus Alles from Sorwathe, Rwanda;
“We are no longer a voice in the wilderness. The CPL structure shows how empowered we are”

joseph

Nimrod Wambette from Gumutindo, Uganda
“The producers have reached the doorstep of the consumers; strategies that have been made through CPL are edging producers closer to consumers. Coffee drinkers will understand the issues and therefore consume more high quality products with a fair understanding of the background”
nimrod

John Nuwagaba from Ankole, Uganda summed up the enthusiasm to progress quickly sharing this wisdom;
“You can forge a metal while it is hot but when its cooled it can’t be shaped”
john

Comments

Sally says:

April 2, 2009 at 2:09 pm

Hey Cafedirect,

Thanks for sharing the comments from your producers. I’m glad to hear there was a lot of positive thought and progress generated through this conference and look forward to seeing how it grows and develops.