Trader Caravela Coffee Pledges $130,000 to World Coffee Research

Photo by Devon Barker, courtesy of World Coffee Research.

Green coffee trading company Caravela Coffee has announced a pledge of $130,000 to the nonprofit World Coffee Research over the next two years.

The donation involves direct support plus Caravela’s ongoing participation in WCR’s checkoff program, in which companies can pledge as little as half a cent for each pound or kilo of coffee they sell. Caravela said it matches its roaster accounts’ contributions to the checkoff program dollar for dollar.

In an announcement late last week, Caravela CEO and Co-Founder Alejandro Cadena described the support of WCR’s ongoing work as “the most worthwhile investment any coffee company can do for the future of coffee.”

Photo by Devon Barker, courtesy of World Coffee Research.

“The coffee industry needs to invest more in science and hard facts, as they are so key to informing our decisions affecting coffee’s future and to help growers cope with the enormous risks and challenges that they are facing,” Cadena said. “Every year we make a substantial investment in technical training through our Grower Education Program (PECA), but the impact of this investment could be doubled or even tripled if we had the kind of data and analysis that is available for almost every other crop grown in the world. I hope more companies will join us in investing in supporting science.”

World Coffee Research has greatly expanded its reach in recent years. The organization is now involved in work in 28 countries, expanding scientific research and knowledge for the coffee sector as a whole, particularly as it relates to coffee breeding, genetics, cataloging, farmer profitability, climate change adaptation and resilience, pest and disease resistance, and quality standards and control.

Photo by Devon Barker, courtesy of World Coffee Research.

According to its own estimates, Caravela Coffee currently works with more than 4,500 producers across eight countries in Latin America with some 80 staff members at origin providing services like technical assistance, agronomy training, vocational training and more — all while offering market access to partner farmers that includes premiums for quality. In addition to its operations at origin, the company maintains import offices in Europe, North America and Australia.