Well, at the beginning, we thought that it was the name of the game, and then we were like, this is not sustainable, this is not, this is not, and then thankfully enough, the structure that we put in place, we didn't put in place because it was a crisis, we put in place because we know it works. Right. So telling, telling the roaster, this is the coffee that you're looking for, if you like it, this is going to be the price. So if you like it, fantastic.
We bring the amount that you need that you're thinking of and we deliver it to you, no problem. But if you don't like it, it doesn't matter. So we don't buy from the producer, he or she will find a way to put it in the market and that's going to be it. We don't risk for anybody in the chain to bring coffee that nobody wants or a prize that it doesn't work.
Yeah. If you're a roaster, you've probably felt it. It's getting harder and harder to find great quality coffee at volumes and prices that still make sense. One origin that's often been overlooked in the search is Honduras.
For years, it's been treated as a conventional origin, even though there are producers quietly growing exceptional coffees that never make it into the specialty conversation. The Honduran Coffee Alliance is a social enterprise with a simple mission. Connect those producers and buyers in a fair, sustainable and commercially viable way. They work with organized producer groups across regions like El Paraiso, La Paz, Olancho and Kormoyagua, helping them evaluate quality, tell their farm stories and move coffees that belong on specialty menus, not buried in anonymous blends.
What that looks like for roasters is previously untapped to lots that heat your flavour and quality targets, a minimum of just four bags to get started, transparency reports so everyone can see where every cent of the purchase goes and turning that first buy into a long term trade relationship, not just a one off. If the idea of forming a long term relationship with producers in Honduras is of interest to you, reach out to the Honduran Coffee Alliance so that they can work to find you a fit for your 2026 menu. People are going to be ready soon. You'll find Sean Horner's WhatsApp and email in the show notes, send him a message and tell him you heard about the Honduran Coffee Alliance here and start exploring what these overlooked Honduran coffees could do for your menu today.
Check the show notes for links. Welcome to the Daily Coffee Pro by Mapper Ford Friends, I'm your host Lee Safar and this is episode one of a brand new series with a first time guest, Agusto Amaya from Arcadia Green Coffee. Welcome to the podcast for the first time. Thank you Lee.
You have to be here. Long time, long time. What is your? And I have to tell you after meeting you in their monthly discussion groups and getting to talk to you a number of times, just one on one, I become a fan of what you guys are doing.
For full disclosure, folks, Arcadia Green Coffee is a brand new advertiser on the podcast. That's not why he is on the podcast, but it is something that we always disclose. The reason that Agusto, you are on the podcast is because you opened a green coffee importing company, exporting an importing company or in the middle of a coffee crisis. And I find that both deeply inspiring and fucking nuts all at the same time.
And so I was like, we got to have a conversation and the way that you do it is very interesting. And I think that people would find it very intriguing to understand how you do things. You come from a very interesting background as well, which is another reason that I wanted to have a conversation with you. You don't come as someone who is like an ex-corporate who wanted to do something that was like, I just want to go and do something that's super easy and I want to go and open a cafe because clearly the coffee industry, that's not your story.
You have a very interesting previous life to what you did in coffee. So having said that, Agusto, could you introduce who you are and what you do and what Acadia green coffee does? Thank you. So it's a long story with a short beginning, let's say.
As you said, I was doing commodities for almost 20 years. I was selling Colombian coal for power stations and it was in Europe. That was the reason I was brought to Dublin. Mining in Colombia is huge.
So I was working at the time with the biggest coal producer for power stations, open-cance mine, 12,000 people working together, huge company, Colombian, the workforce. I started at the mine, so I'm a mechanical engineer, I have an MBA, but I started doing maintenance and then I grew my professional career in the company, it's called Sarajan. And long story short, I loved it. I loved working with a lot of local people in the way, here in North of Colombia, and that showed me that Colombians, we can do a work-class, any work-class enterprise that we can put our minds on and compete and be very good at it.
And I really enjoyed that. I was traveling in order of Europe once where I was transferred to Dublin and lived here since 2010. And four years ago, one of the shareholders, one of the biggest companies in the world in mining, Glencore, decided to take everything to Switzerland, he bought the other two, and I decided to stay because my wife told me to, that we needed to stay. I love it.
And we have a beautiful daughter, and her family's here, I have some family as well. So yeah, which we said, Switzerland's not an option, mainly because her wishes, of course, but as well because I've been living away from Colombia since 2010, and if there was no need for my wife and daughter to go through the same in a different country, so why do it? So that was a decision, and my plan was to take a year off and think about what to do next, enjoy a little bit of free time, and I did that, and in month nine I was in Colombia visiting my parents, and the pressure started getting into my head in terms of what to do, and I was always thinking, okay, well, I can get back to work for somebody, or the other alternatives just start something. And I was thinking what I can use with my experience of dealing with a commodity, selling to customers from different backgrounds, different locations, different areas, and building a long-term relationship based on that.
So I was having coffee with one of my friends in Colombia, and he was like, what, you should do coffee then? I have no clue about coffee. The similarities were there. It's just another commodity, right?
Yeah, in that regard, well, Colombia has a very reputable name in the business, at least from what I knew, because I knew zero about it, and they're starting up a bit, and then you always have somebody who has a cousin who has a farm, and somebody who I know that you can sit down with. You sound like arrows. Yeah, well, yes, there is a lot of similarities, you guys and ourselves, so I went to a farm, only enough. I got coffee from this farmer, he's working with us now, but I brought it back to Ireland as perchmen, and there is no maves in Europe, so I have to do that on my hands.
So I had zero about coffee, but yeah, I could say it was my chance, but as well as it was very allowing to what I was doing on my skills. So I started having a look, so I got in touch with the Irish government for some stats just to understand how the trade worked, and people were not bringing coffee directly from Colombia, so it was coming through the UK, and Europe, and the continent, and as you were saying, I mean, we were in the middle of a crisis, and because I wasn't part of the market, I didn't know that it was a crisis, I was learning about the market as I was in, and for some people was a huge challenge, some things were a huge challenge for us were opportunities, one of them Brexit. So the UK was supplying Ireland with a lot of products, coffee included, so the roasters in Ireland were just getting a lot of options and a lot of alternatives from the UK, and with Brexit that finished, that was gone. So we saw it as an opportunity, and we explored ways to take advantage of that, and then our focus was what we can bring from Colombia that can help the Irish roasters, but at the same time how we can work in a way that we can build this link between producers and roasters, because our focus has always been security supply.
So if you want to have security supply, you need to have, you need to build a relationship with a producer in Colombia to secure the product that you want to supply, and then you need to have a great relationship with the roaster in order to be able to supply to that entity sustainable coffee for them to rely on. So it is about building those bridges and those relationships that we were focused on, and that's our focus, and we thus take more time to get the coffee, but you're going to get what you want, and you're going to get the amounts that you want, and at the time means that you need. And in the other side, the producer is supplying to us, to us, to a roaster, and it's fully open relationships, so there is not a black box that they sell to us, and then we can just send the coffee anywhere, and there is a footer's ability, and it works both sides. So the ability doesn't work on this for the roaster's side, so it works for the producer's side as well.
So the producer will know where the coffee is going, which roaster is getting, and how the coffee looks, and all of that. And they're delighted. I can tell you that, they're all over the moon, and when you come back to see them and bring three different bags with a prologue on it, and they have the chance to try it, it's just fantastic. Well, and so in this series of folks, we're talking about green coffee sourcing as diversifying, and this seems to be one of the ways that you're doing business or coursework is one of those ways that it does seem to be diversifying.
Traditionally, most people in the coffee industry were buying coffee from an importer, or they were buying, they were trying to do something direct, so they were the two options, and direct trade, and I know that's a term that you don't quite like, and a lot of people don't like that term. But they had companies that were big enough where they could go directly to origin, pick the coffees, and use an importer to bring the coffee in, or they were just, there was an importer, they would either buy the coffee spot, or they would forward contract through an importer. But there was always this middleman that was really responsible for all the action at origin. Now we have different things that are happening.
We've got our canine coffee marketplace who full disclosure is an advertiser on the podcast, but they facilitate people having direct relationships with farmers in Ethiopia through a digital platform, and everything happens between the buyer and the seller on the platform except like the communication. But the payment is done outside of the platform directly to the farmer, right? That is one example of the way that things are done. You are another example of the way that things are done quite differently than the traditional way, and I guess your experience in coal, if I understand it correctly, is a part of figuring out what the right way for your business is to do that, is like, let's see what roasters want, and let's match make that with going and finding the coffees so that there is a connection in making sure that the coffee that the roasters want is what we're going and sourcing for them, and we have a home for that coffee when we're buying it, and the farmer knows exactly who the person that's going to have that coffee is.
Am I understanding that correctly? Yeah. Yeah. Sorry.
You're completely right. And I love that through the community that you're putting together or being the vehicle for us to have the chance to have the space, you start realizing that there is no solution that fits all, and poor, you start seeing new solutions, and I love that. I love that people are realizing that there is the legacy way of doing things, and that's going to be there for the long term, and fantastic. They have a job in the market, and they have their space in the market, but you have new ways of sourcing, and that's, and I love that, so what I tell to our customers is we can only talk about Colombia, and we can only talk about the way we do business in Colombia, so don't generalize, because if we work in a way, some people will do it in a different way, and that's great as well, it can work for you or it can, and it's fine, but the whole point is, we start asking the questions, what are you looking for?
We don't start asking the question to our customers, this is what I have, what we like. Right, it's a different point of reference, right? Yeah, we don't believe in that system, it's sustainable, and in that business model, and that's probably a personal point of view, and I could be wrong, but I believe in, because that's my experience, the finish is, go and find the customer, try to understand what they need, and try to find something that will fulfill those requirements, but if I start doing that with a stock of 50 different coffees, it's like going to the lake and fishing with the dynamite, so you're going to throw the dynamite bit, you're going to expect them to blow, obviously something is going to work, but what if it likes one of the 50 lots that you have, what can happen with the other 49 lots, you need to move there, you need to find it, whatever, so we have a different approach, we try to ask the question first, it takes more time, yes, because it will be very, very lucky for themselves saying, okay, what do you need, then you tell me I need this, oh I have it in stock right now, how many of you need, I need to 500, oh I have 500, so that's difficult to achieve from the get-go, so we use a little bit of more time, but it pays, at the end of the day, so it's something that, it has helped us doing it for the last three years, because we're getting better at it, and at the same time, we have been able to find and supply some coffees already, so some of those profiles are already identified, and as well as, we're a team of four, two of them are seasoned roasters, one of them is a co-grader, so it's very easy for between roasters to talk to each other, and explain what kind of coffee I'm looking for, and if something that we have done before, we can bring it in, or if we need to look for it, Jessica, which is one of our team members, she's been in Columbia for the last two years, so she will find it, that's no problem, and I'm from a region in Columbia, or my business partner who only deal with logistics is from a different region, but we don't have favorites in Columbia, Columbia has six different regions of coffee, and if somebody needs something, we will find it, but there is no, there is no, oh you need to buy from Sierra Nevada, because I was just for Sierra Nevada, I need to buy from Santa Ana, because Jorge's from Santa Ana, or Jessica loves, oh Jesse, she loves Wila, so you need to buy from Wila, no, no, the more the merrier, basically. So you're sourcing for what your customers need from you?
Yes. Right. So we started a conversation with what are you looking for? Right.
It's a big question, but the more detail we get at the better, we can focus on, so because, as I said, Columbia is very different, there is different regions, different times for harvests, some places will have coffee once per year, some coffee probably twice, coffee regions, some others can produce a tiny bit all year round, so it depends, it depends, but we try to pinpoint, and the more we know from the requirements of a customer, the better we can be able to source something for them. What has it been like, as you realize that we were in a coffee crisis, what has it been like to, first of all, how did you figure it out? Well, so, if you're opening a company to sell green coffee for the first time, first of all, your eyes that nobody replies to your emails, and coffee people are assholes from that perspective. I mean, I get it, I get it, you're roasting, you're focusing on roasting, you're standing on pretty much, you know, they are packing, or attending deliveries, or whatever, I get that, 100%.
So you need to show up, so with that showing up, time to understand a little bit, so, but you realize very quickly that if you want to sell coffee or start selling coffee, you need to have the coffee with you. Right. So the big question was, what to bring for the first time? Ah.
Only enough, I have a very close friend of mine, that he has the same name of one of the Caravilla guys. Okay. So it's exactly the same name. The first and the second name?
Yes, both. Okay. So, yeah. Shout out to Caravilla.
Yeah. I'm following him on LinkedIn learning a lot about coffee, right? Uh-huh. So I was in Colombia, and I was getting my flight connecting in Bogota, and I was talking to my friend.
I said, how come you know so much about coffee? Because he's a lawyer. Okay. And it's like, what?
Yeah. How come you know, I'm learning so much about coffee. They didn't know that it was your hobby or something or whatever, but you know so much. It's like, you're out of your mind.
No, he's, he's like, I don't know, he's on the podcast. He's super-filed. It's like, it's not like five months ago. But my brother has a coffee visiting with us, and he's brother and I, we are so very good friends.
We went to the same university in Bogota. So got in touch with him and said, yeah, yeah, we started this in COVID. We, one of the guys Ricardo is from a town called Nataga, and he is, he started doing COVID buying coffee from the region because he went to spend COVID there, his mom and his close family. They all have farms.
And one day the mom said, could you, could you help me selling the coffee to the, to the local buyer? Yeah. So he went there and he realized that they were not screwed up, but they were taking, they've been taking advantage of it because Ricardo went to university, he knows all of that. So I went to the day with the coffee and he went to a different buy shop.
And it's like, how come you guys, out of me, this amount of money, when in the next town, I checked the indices and they're giving me 20,000 pesos more per kilo than you guys. I said, well, that's the price. So he, he started making the calculations. He realized that per harvest, they were leaving a lot of money on the table because these two buyers were in couch, right?
So, so he started doing that during COVID. So when, when, when I was asking questions, they were very well established at the time. So, um, I said, well, if I can't start with somebody that I can trust Diego is one of them. So we asked five for five different samples and we were, we were very clear.
So we need a coffee that the profile should be stable, obviously, harvest by harvest, they can have some variations, whatever, but the coffee, the profile should be stable throughout the year because if you think about it, we're going to open the market, we're going to sell some coffee. And my, my, my very first worry is that one of the customers will say, okay, I need more in six months time and I can, I cannot be the guy to say, no, sorry, we don't have that coffee anymore, but we have this one or this one for the other. Right. You don't want to be that.
So, so they were saying, yeah, yeah, we can do that. That's no problem. And they're buying for, from, from a, what we call a single origin, which is another term that I don't like, but it is what it is. So it's a single area, they're buying for, from around two hundred two hundred fifty coffee growers.
And, and they were saying, we are confident that we can put the same profile. So we built this protocol, San Antonio, which is one behind me. And we have been a sport in San Antonio since three years, and they have been able to, to match the profile year after year. So, but, but we have to buy one container because right, very quickly realized that it only has to be in containers.
Otherwise, the economy doesn't work. So we, we bought one container and Colombia, and this is Colombia, and I don't know all the countries. In Colombia, we have two major market definer, defining statements the same. One is, you need to pay for the coffee, otherwise you don't have coffee.
So you have to pay, you get delivered, you pay, that's it. Cash, cash against coffee, that's the terms that we live in Colombia. And the second one is, the FNC sets a price every day, it's a minimum price guarantee. So any, for many in the country, on the day, they decide when, when to sell or when they need to sell, and they will have access to that price, and they will make their choice whether to sell or not.
So, we know how much money you need to pay for a particular standard of coffee. Obviously, the high, if you go with high, if you go with high, if you want to incentivize the producers with, with, with, with the premium, whatever. So, so you know what the price, and what the price is, what the price is, is being traded in Colombia. That price is obviously based on the sea price.
So even moves up and down, it will go up and down, and it has the exchange rate applied for every day. So you have another, another variable into the, into the equation. So we realized in, during, during the first nine months that we were in, in kind of a crisis, because first of all, we bought the coffee with 20 tons, and we place it in the market, open new customers, brand new customers for us, our first customers. It gave me a lot of long nights, because when the container was in the middle of the Atlantic, I was thinking, well, that does the future of my family, because they were my savings, my own money.
Yeah. No bank will actually will give you a loan for, for a container for you to sell it in six months. And I said, oh, no, so, but, but we were confident in the product. We had very good feedback from, from the samples that we've run around Ireland.
So we knew that we had a product, but then after six, nine months, when we went buying, buying again from the same people, we're like, price, what the hell is going on? I mean, I, I'm coming from a commodity site, and I know how commodities work and react. But sometimes you see these volatilities that you say, like, what the hell is going on? Right.
And then you start asking the questions and all of that stuff. So let's say that we, we didn't realize that we were in a crisis because we were in the middle of it. Right. And we thought that those were, those were the conditions of the business.
Right. But then we were like, wait a minute, this is not normal or at least with my experience. And did you ask someone, did you, how did you figure out that the crisis was a crisis? Well, because we, we started building the relationship with the customers and then I was, I was, some of them were very open with us.
And they told you. Some of them, one of them was very, very close from here, Nick, he said to me, yeah, I buy from you. But you tried a coffee. Yeah, I love it.
The coffee. But do you know the price? I'm going to be fine. I'm worried about it.
So I calculated the price, gave it the price. I said, yeah, no problem. And then six months after, the price is totally different, like, but radically different. Yeah.
I mean, how, how can these people run a business and it's like, oh, we can't if the price keep going this way. The risk is too high. Yeah. Yeah.
So that's one of the dates that every time I go to Columbia, I try to explain the producers as well. So both sides are trying to run a business. Both sides are trying to do the rest for their communities and for the fund. The volatility is not helping at all.
No, but, but you need to understand that they're, they're sending a product. And they need to make a profit margin. It's the same as you. Yeah.
In the same way. Yeah. Both ways. So, so yeah, at the beginning, we thought that it was, it was the name of the game.
And then we were like, this is not sustainable. This is not, this is not, and then thankfully enough, the structure that we put in place, we didn't put in place because it was a crisis. We put in place because we know it works. Right.
So telling, telling the roaster, this is the coffee that you're looking for. If you like it, this is going to be the price. So if you like it, fantastic. We bring the amount that you need that you think it off and we deliver it to you.
No problem. I think it doesn't matter. So we don't buy from the producer. He will, he or she will find a way to, to put it in the market.
And that's going to be it. But there is no risk for anybody in the chain to bring coffee that nobody wants or a price that they need to work. And we have lost customers along the way. They say, I kind of pay more than nine euro or nine fifty per kilo.
That's a fair enough. That's fine. But you haven't committed to the producer or to your company. Yeah.
I can go back to the, to the, to the, to the producer and say, I don't need to sell 25% less if you want to keep this cost. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The way work is has to work for everybody. But we understand that.
If we don't like, I said, losing customers, I know they are very open with us. Yeah. And they say, well, the market is again, back to this level. We buy from you.
Fantastic. Yeah. And we know that. But the idea is not to go back to the, to the producers.
I know you need to discount your product in 25%. Yeah. So it can work because that's not the way we do it. And it, the, the thing I love about your business model is it, the aim is to make sure that all the stakeholders win out of this, whether it's the producer, whether it's your business or whether it's the roaster.
It's a winning relationship that you're facilitating. And that's what we're going to talk about in the next episode, folks. What does it mean to source green coffee that's beneficial for all the stakeholders? So join us for the second episode in this series.
Peace, love and peanut butter. Have an amazing rest of your day. If you enjoyed this episode, consider supporting my beforeward our guests and advertisers on social media. Subscribe, hit the like button, leave a comment, and share this episode with a friend.
And if you'd like to support our work more directly, become a paid premium YouTube subscriber or Patreon backer to get early access to the show ad-free directly to your inbox each week. You can find links in the show notes.