FAQ

Where does your coffee come from?

All our coffee comes from Sri Lanka. We buy directly from small-scale farmers in six different regions, who grow Arabica and Robusta beans at various altitudes.

Sri Lanka is known for tea, not coffee. That's exactly what makes these beans special: there's no large-scale export to Europe, so you'll find Sri Lankan coffee from very few roasters.

The farmers we work with have farms averaging one hectare each. Alongside coffee, they grow pepper, cloves, and cinnamon. Our coffee grows among other crops and shade trees rather than in a bare monoculture. You won't taste cinnamon in your cup, we don't claim that. What you will notice is the profile that comes with these farms and altitudes: full-bodied, with a soft acidity and a spicy finish. For each coffee, we write on the product page what you can expect.
 

We roast our own coffee in our roastery in Amersfoort,  in small batches. This means we never have months of stock sitting around, and your order goes out shortly after roasting.

Want to know exactly how the journey from farmer to cup works? Read the origin story → Or sign up for our newsletter: with each new harvest we tell you what's different.

How do you support the farmers in Sri Lanka?

In short: by cutting out the middlemen, paying more, and paying on time.

In the conventional supply chain, coffee passes through one or more middlemen to the exporter. The farmer not only gets the smallest share of the price, he also doesn't get paid until the middleman has received his money. This can take weeks to months. During this time, a farmer can't pay his bills, and it often affects the children first, for example because there's no money for school supplies. A higher price helps little if it arrives too late.

What we do concretely

• Direct purchasing. We buy directly from farmers, without middlemen. We work together with a cooperative of 5,000 farmers.
• A higher price. We pay 30% above the local market price. This difference reaches the farmer instead of an exporter.
• Price fixed in advance. We set the price in advance in an annual contract, so the farmer isn't dependent on fluctuations in the world market.
• Payment upon delivery. We pay immediately upon delivery, not months later, so no one has to borrow to get through the season.
• Back to the community. We invest 10% of our profits back into the villages where our coffee comes from. The first project: all school supplies for the children of the farming community in Welimada.

What we don't do

• We're not a development organization and we don't call ourselves a charity. We're a coffee company that pays a fair price and wants to change something in the Sri Lankan coffee supply chain. You're buying coffee from us, not a donation.
  
  Every bag of coffee is a step in that chain. Check out our coffees →

How sustainable is Lanka Coffee?

Honest answer: on some points good, on other points we're not yet where we want to be. Below is both, so you can weigh for yourself.

What does check out

• Coffee in the shade (agroforestry). Our coffee grows among other crops and shade trees, not in a monoculture. This means: no deforestation for our coffee, more biodiversity on the farm, and soil that better retains water and organic matter. For the farmer it means diversification: if the coffee price drops, there's still pepper and cinnamon.
• Without synthetic pesticides and artificial fertilizers. The farmers we work with grow naturally.
• Short supply chain. From farmer to our roastery to you. Every link we skip is a link that doesn't need to take a margin.
• Recyclable packaging. Our bags are made from recyclable material.

What doesn't check out yet

• We don't have fair trade certification. Certification costs a lot of money per year and we'd rather put that directly into the purchase price. The disadvantage for you: you don't have a seal of approval to rely on. You have our story, our numbers, and the ability to ask us  and we prefer that to a logo on the bag.

• Our coffee comes by boat. Sea freight is the least burdensome option available for this distance, but it's not zero and we're not pretending it is.

  Do you work in an office, restaurant, or institution where you need to account for this? We're happy to put in writing what we can and can't exactly prove, including our purchasing agreements.
  
  Need documentation for your own story? Email info@lanka-coffee.com