Sustainability Program
The Kahua Coffee sustainability mindset helps to drive corporate, social and environmental responsibilities that benefits the company as a corporate entity and its employees, customers, vendors and the community at large.
In order to consistently measure, report and enhance these benefits and the inherent accountability to our customers , Kahua Coffee has developed an in-house sustainability program. Our software driven sustainability program ensures consistency and continued execution that iteratively adapts itself to dynamic corporate, social, and environmental landscape.
The sustainability program is built around the following core objectives and processes:
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Corporate – our core principles are simple: integrity, creativity, sustainability and equity.
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Quality – product processing centered around making sure that we are meeting the best in class standards, are consistent and deliver on our promise while eliminating waste and ensuring the continual regenerative use of resources that would otherwise be considered waste. Waste is used as food for other processes,
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Customer – each customer interaction is focused on delighting you through professionalism, courteousness and friendliness. We value candid feedback.
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Employees – fair, stable, equitable wages and benefits. We want you to know the individual's compensation and let you see it's impact on the individual and community writ large.
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Occupational Health and Safety Management – We track the compliance to established safety standards and safe practices aimed at eliminating workplace injuries.
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Environmental Management – Our industrial processes are focused on a "closed loop" that feeds both organic and inorganic elements back into our processes with the goal of reducing the resources used, as well as the waste and leakage created through operating.
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Vendors – transparency through our supply chain builds an auditable track of each product, monitors capacity through the pipeline, thoroughly inspects products for consistency and on-time deliveries while keeping an eye on the costs.
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Community – Through fair market pricing, we provide our people with the tools needed to lead healthy, productive lives and help lift them out of poverty, we measure and report that impact on a farmer / vendor level.
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Industrial Hygiene – We facilitate the continuous evaluation of workplace conditions, report on these while systematically eliminating potential hazards that could endanger the lives of those in our supply chain.
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Reporting – provides insight surrounding our impact on our people, the community and the related environmental footprint. We are API and EDI capable.
Case Study
Coffee Pricing and Farmer Compensation
On July 28th, 2020, the Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE) was trading the top AA grade (Arabica) for a high of USD $346.00 for a 50-kilogram bag, while the lowest T grade went as low as USD $17.00 for a 50-kilogram bag.
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The average price as indicated at the NCE was USD $207.91
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If a farmer sold a 50kg bag at $207.91, it means 1 kg went for USD $4.16
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The ratio of cherry (unprocessed berries) needed to produce 1kg of green/clean coffee is roughly 6:1.
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The price of 1kg of cherry delivered by the farmer was $4.16/6 = USD $0.69.
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The farmer gets USD $0.69 for a kilogram of cherry that will pay for the following expenses: milling, warehousing, transportation, security and overland insurance, as well as factory operational costs and co-operative society management board fees.
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When all the associated costs above are deducted from the USD $0.69, the farmer ends up with a measly $0.19 per kilogram of coffee.
Our model is simple:
We pay the farmers $1.00 per kilogram of cherry coffee (31% improvement in revenue).
Results:
Increase in earnings translates directly to better lives. How? - It empowers the poorest, especially women and girls to transform their lives!
Some of the effects of our vision:
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The community invests in girls education and this has the ripple effect on women's health and empowerment.
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Farmers are able to adopt new farming technologies and reduce their impact on the environment.
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Lifts an entire community out of hunger and extreme poverty. The average wage in this part of the globe for a coffee or tea farmer is $3.00 for an 8 hour working day; help us to change this dynamic - one cup at a time!
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