January 5Ć5 Night at Start Garden
Voting Closes:
January 20, 2025 11:59 pm
Impact
Many African coffee farmers are in economic traps with middle men buying their beans raw for very little money and sending them to be processed abroad where the price increases. My model has all value addition being done on the continent. We do not export raw materials from Africa, we import finished products. Itās a simple but powerful shift that challenges an industry thatās evolving, yes, but is still built on colonial economics. Our model is direct relationships with farmers and roasters. We believe the African coffee industry is still in its infancy and we are well positioned to capitalize on its growth.
What I'll do with $5,000
The $5,000 will be used to purchase a roaster in Cape Town. We currently rent the machine used to roast our beans, while thatās a good relationship. It does slow us down because we canāt roast to order. It takes a fair amount of coordination to get dates aligned. Renting also eats away at our profit margin. Additionally, with our own roaster, we can experiment and fine tune our blends to make them as good as possible.