The Generals Cup Inc. is the incorporated company serving as an extension of the estate developed with the intent to reach international purchasers of commercial and retail products directly. Establishing operationally in BC Canada, it is now reaching new markets previously thought to be exclusive to brokers and large distributors.
If you would like to read about the estates history and farming practices please see our article titled “The Generals Cup: History, Heritage and Farming Practices” here.
We are a company that is truly one of a kind, being that we are the estate. Operating internationally we sell our own productions in both green and roasted coffee markets. Our estate and milling facility is in Nicaragua, Central America, and our roasting and packaging facility is in BC, Canada, North America.
Historically most coffee farms sell to brokers at around 75 cents to about $1.75 per pound fully dried and milled. It is in the financial benefit of the brokers to get the prices down as low as possible and harvested fast.
This unfortunately leads to low quality, water wasteful, overly industrialized, unethical commercial farms taking over. It leaves the old heritage farms fighting to keep their traditional and natural methods of quality coffee productions alive.
These legacy coffee farmers cannot compete with the rock bottom prices offered for greens. Especially when trying to maintain ethical and environmental methods not economically sustainable when competing with clear cut flat row, machine harvested, pool washed greens.
Once brokers import they sell to smaller distributors who then sell to warehouses or roasters at around $2.50 for low end quality to about $7.50 for high end quality and rare coffee can even reach upwards of $15 per pound green.
The coffee roasters will then sell to cafes or retailers at about $7 to $27 a pound or more, who then sell to coffee consumers either by cup or retail bag adding their own profit margins again.
The farmer takes on the majority of the labor, time, liability and costs barely covering their costs if not at all, but makes by far the least profit in the supply chain. They also remain entirely invisible by the commercial markets perpetuating some of these unfair disadvantages.
Some roastaries are calling themselves 'direct from farm' attempting to develop connections with farmers as it benefits them massively financially and in appearance.
These roasters are acquiring marketing images and titles of 'farm direct' by a quick visit and deals made with farms to boost the ethical and authentic appearance of their brand.
We are not against this, but they are not the farm. They do not participate in the farming, harvesting, milling or processing of the coffee nor is the history, language and culture understood. Finally the massive financial burden of a farmer is not considered nor compensated fairly still.
In our personal journey to becoming a direct to consumer estate, we did attempt to connect directly with roasters, only to find they wanted to inherit the entire history and story of our estate, retain the rock bottom cheap prices for greens and leave our families legacy and our name out of it.
Ultimately they wanted our 139 year history for free. It was a stark reality check for us when we first tried to engage in the market ourselves.
But the positive was that it drove us even more to push through to the market ourselves and do what had never been done before. Every local coffee farmer we knew was rooting us on, praying for us, just to see one of us farmers make it.
Often those in the industry who transform the coffee into a consumable product, from green beans to roasted, will benefit the most financially, that is coffee roasters.
When the common farmer is getting an average of $1.10 a pound, just to barely break even while conducting most all of the work and costs including debt for harvest operations, and a roaster is making on average $19.39 a pound just merely roasting and packaging the coffee, clearly something is off.
Thus explaining the over saturated coffee roaster brand market. There are a variety of reasons for this, some political such as free trade laws as well as language and cultural barriers.
Perhaps we will give a more in depth take on this in the future.
Due to this typical model of trade many traditional coffee farms bankrupted and industrialized farms took over clear cutting jungles, killing wild habitat and producing very cheap fast to market washed coffee types.
Part of this loss of coffee farming heritage is the wisdom of production and transportation because the control over the product is no longer in the farmers hands.
Please read more about why we don't believe in blending high quality coffee types in our article "Parasitic Politics: The Invisible Coffee Estate" here.
Blending specialty beans is one example, but another more unseen example would be the current industry standard of using plastic bags inside of the jute or burlap sacks that most all wholesale green coffee comes in now.
Jute sacks were not a superficial design choice to make coffee sacks look rugged, authentic and natural. They had an actual real purpose. There was a wisdom behind it. Plastic is not good for green coffee in need of breathing as it seals in the moisture.
These jute sacks were originally used because it aided in the drying and breathing of the product while in transport. Using a non-breathable plastic bag inside a jute sack is, to us, nonsensical.
Today 99% of all green coffee comes this way. If you are a huge proponent of using plastic then even choosing one or the other makes more sense than using both the plastic and then jute on top.
Jute had a purpose, farmers still know this. Yet they must pay the extra cost of adding this plastic just to please the current market. It is unfortunate that jute is only used now for mere superficial appearance, rather than as breathable mold and moisture lock prevention. For us, it is a debate worth having.
Mold has become a real issue in the current green market. Thankfully we have full control over our greens, not using this plastic interior. Using jute sacks alone we have never seen mold on our greens after ocean shipments or storage. In fact we've seen reduction in moisture which is what you want.
Yes maybe you have to keep your greens in a clean, smell free, dry environment for storage and shipping, but that responsibility of care by the purchaser is not a reason to jump into plastic packaging and additional burden and cost to the farmer.
Not to mention the massive amount of single use plastic and the absorption of that plastic into highly absorbing green beans adding yet another unnecessary and unethical profiteer to the long list in the coffee supply chain. Also adding more plastic garbage burden to third world countries already having a hard time dealing with plastics.
There were so many reasons why we decided it was time to bypass this entire system and go directly to the markets ourselves as a heritage estate farm. These examples are just a small sampling to give you an idea of our many motivations.
By becoming direct to market we can truly hold on to a fully and totally natural process of production, use the collective wisdom over the 139 years of production and records keeping of our estate and truly bring something of great specialty and value to the overly saturated, but very diluted blended uniformed market.
This bold move made us one of a kind in our industry. We cannot find another company like ours that spans from the production all the way to the roasted consumable product reliably delivered in the mass quantities that we are equipped irregardless of the quality category of which we rank very high.
Establishing full control over every aspect of production, we acquired ownership of major equipment and facilities required for both milling and roasting. In 2020 new clients had seen up to 70% decline in their ability to source coffee from international brokers prior to finding us, while their prices increased significantly.
With major coffee roasting brands making a large fortune while farms go bankrupt, irregardless of the unethical economics, is not sustainable environmentally at all not to mention the quality of coffee making it to market.
Even small farms need basic income to maintain the land or industrialized mass producers will inevitably take completely over.
These industrialized farms, Organic and Fair Trade certified or not, are not good for the struggling or bankrupting farmer nor the consumer wanting a healthier more enjoyable, ethical product.
The great irony is if the farmers could sell direct to consumer both would benefit as one would make better incomes and thus continue producing traditional coffee and the other would pay lower prices for better quality.
Supply challenges to the international market created a perfect time for our entrance independently as direct-to-client producers. With stable prices and measurably reliable coffee production.
Uniquely able to maintain stable farm direct prices during periods of inflation as we are entirely in control of our own production and sales our clients find reliable, consistent product that never runs out and never changes price.
Further, clients are welcome and encouraged to visit the estate and spend time learning the behind the scenes operations and history of our farm.
The independently positioned public entrance of our once private estate into the international market appears to have been very well timed and needed.
We are so pleased to be able to offer our coffee directly to you honestly and transparently.
After all these generations of our family, and the massive collection of wisdom and traditions over decades of trial and error, we can surely say that when you purchase coffee from us, you are getting something very unique, reliable and specialized that has been cherished and cared for every step of the way.
For that support and interest in us, we thank you so much for helping to keep heritage coffee farming alive.
It is because of your support that other farms will be able to start carving their own paths into the direct to consumer market and stabilize their futures for generations to come.
Thank you for your interest in us and God Bless you.
