ETHIOPIA. BLOG 6 - EPILOGUE.
I’m currently reading a book titled “Moral ambition” by Rutger Bregman and I thought this quote so sums up what is happening in this part of Ethiopia. “The idealists are not usually realistic and the realists are not usually idealistic, what we need is some realistic idealism”.
I think we can all relate to the idealist. The proper price is paid for the coffee to enable a living wage to be paid. The land is properly looked after and little or no chemicals are employed. Sounds like some very laudable goals but in the world of coffee the reality is that only 30% of production is in this space, and even less in the idealist space. Competition means that the prices that can be achieved in reality would not allow all the coffee grown to be sold, a financially precarious position for the producer.
Personally I’m in the idealist space but know a balance has to be struck. I’ve seen the impact of chemical abuse on coffee growing land in Honduras. A quick win is followed by years of soil recovery. However I also recognise that some land simply isn’t productive enough to deliver sustainable yields. Add world price and global currency volatility and it is hard to remain in the idealist space.
Then there is the realist space that Teddy inhabits. Keeping the costs he can control down and then constantly trying to mitigate the impact of those outside of his control. That means that maybe the picking of the cherries isn’t perfect. The husbandry of the coffee trees isn’t quite as tight as it should be. The coffee may not be sorted as well as it could be. Little things that help the turn-around of the coffee to be quicker whilst using fewer staff. Some might call it cutting corners but sometimes needs must. Better to be able to sell the coffee and make a return rather than staring at a lot of stock you simply can’t sell.
I see it more as a journey in which we all play a part. That’s why visiting countries like Ethiopia is so important. I get to see the whole chain, the realities of the industry from the ground up. If we are to have a sustainable industry we have to educate our customers. Explain what value they are getting for the money we’re asking. We too are in a competitive industry, so we need our customers to buy into the story, be part of the journey so that hopefully when they drink that cup the enjoyment is even greater.
So how do we get to the realistic idealism space? I’ve spoken about a journey and that for me starts with buying coffee from this region whilst recognising we could buy something better elsewhere. We need to walk the talk and be courageous. We need to encourage good habits.
Better husbandry will deliver better yields, encourage bio-diversity and ultimately a better quality of coffee. The challenge for the producer is are there enough customers to journey with him?
I’m speaking about coffee but isn’t the same true of all our food, if we can get higher standards our own health will improve and ultimately will save Governments money in the long term? Well produced food isn’t a nice to have, it makes complete economic sense. Somehow we need to tell the world of the reality of getting to that idealistic space.