Mount Elgon - Uganda

This coffee is grown in agroforestry

This roughly means that the coffee plants are shaded by other trees and plants. Agroforestry is the opposite of what is called “monoculture”, where you have a field that only consists of one type of plant, for example coffee plants.

In a forest farm, the coffee plants are part of a system with animals and plants that live naturally in the area.

There are many different types of agroforestry. There can be different amounts of shade cover, different degrees of diversity in plants and animals, and one can, for example, talk about having several different layers of shade cover, with trees that have their crowns at different heights and thus several layers.

Why agroforestry?

Since 1990, an estimated 420 million hectares of forest have been cleared and converted to agriculture, including coffee plantations. Although the rate of deforestation has slowed in recent decades, significant deforestation continues. About 10 million hectares of forest are cleared each year - an area the size of Iceland.

Therefore, we need to do something.

Forestry is a really good solution for both having food production and at the same time taking care of our ecosystems and climate.

Here are just some of the benefits of agroforestry:

• Increases biodiversity
• Absorbs much more CO2 from the atmosphere
• Minimizes the need for fertilizer
• Make coffee plants more resilient
• Extends the life of the coffee plant
• Gives the coffee a higher quality and better taste, as the coffee cherries take longer to ripen in the shade
• Better soil conditions
• Creates a microclimate that makes plants more resistant to climate change

Read more:

CleverCoffee: Agroforestry and shade-grown coffee

This coffee is certified organic.

...so it is grown in a way that is particularly gentle on nature and people.

What does that mean?

• No synthetic pesticides
• No artificial fertilizer
• No genetically modified organisms (GMO)

The coffee is certified locally where it is produced and subsequently certified here by the Danish Food Agency as DK-ØKO-100.

Organic is not without costs for coffee farmers, who already have very poor conditions. Read here about the dilemma of organic certification.

Documentation

Our Organic Certification

We paid the coffee farmer 47% more for this coffee

We pay the coffee farmer more for the coffee than the market price.

Research shows time and time again that certifications such as Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance have no demonstrable positive effect on the living conditions of coffee farmers. (Cordes and Sagan, 2021)

Western coffee companies make large sums of money, while coffee farmers around the world live in poverty. This is wrong, and we must change it.

That is why we pay more for the coffee beans we import.

44% of coffee farmers worldwide continue to live in poverty. At least 5.5 million coffee farmers live below the international poverty line of $3.20 a day. Studies show that a third of coffee farmers earn less than $100 annually from coffee production (Enveritas, 2018; Sachs et al., 2019).

When we pay coffee farmers more, we give them the opportunity to invest in themselves and their businesses. This can lead to further growth and the ability to invest in their farming practices and projects such as reducing water consumption and reforestation.

The calculation:

We paid the coffee farmer: $12.13/kg

The market price at the time of the contract was: $8.22/kg

Thus, we paid the farmer 47.5% more than the market price

Documentation

See the complete overview of the payments we have made for our coffee beans in our annual transparency report: CleverCoffee: Transparency Report

Sources

"Responsible Coffee Sourcing: Towards a Living Income for Producers" (Cordes and Sagan, 2021)

"Why do coffee farmers stay poor? : Breaking vicious circles with direct payments from profit sharing" (Ruben, 2023)

"Six Transformations to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)" (Sachs et al., 2019)

Direct Trade – No Middleman

We know our coffee farmers personally because we trade directly with them. This gives us a highly transparent value chain without unnecessary intermediaries.

It provides you with added assurance and brings you closer to the farm.

Direct trade means, among other things:

• More transparency
• More traceability
• Better payment to the coffee farmer

The vast majority of our coffee is purchased directly from the farmers. In 2024, 98% of our coffee was sourced through direct trade.

By cutting out the middleman, we know exactly where the money goes, ensuring that as much as possible ends up with the farmer — who has been underpaid for more than 40 years.

Direct trade allows us to better ensure quality and accountability at the source. At the same time, farmers gain access to valuable insights about the European market, new EU regulations, and more, through our partnership.

With direct trade, we achieve a much higher degree of transparency and traceability — something that’s crucial when it comes to documenting farming methods, working conditions, and whether a particular coffee has contributed to deforestation.