Enrique Navarro Jr., a longtime friend of Onda and the farmer behind our Costa Rican single-origins, is a success story of specialty coffee. He fell in love with coffee early on through his parents' farm in Costa Rica, and through his tireless work, he helped his family improve their crop's quality and earn recognition on a global stage for producing the best coffee in Costa Rica.
Can you introduce yourself? My name is Tarmani. I'm not even 50 yet. What is coffee to you? For household needs. For us to eat. Sometimes there are events, like parties. We take turns to buy what is needed like five kilos of sugar for regular social gatherings. Just daily necessities. Why did you become a coffee farmer? If I didn't become a farmer, what would I be? I can't work in an office. I only graduated elementary school. I can't possibly be an employee. We just live on, and most importantly hopefully we don't experience problems when farming. The only problem is that the plantation is small. One hectare at the most. Not to mention that a little area...
Michael Wood works with Jhai Cooperative of coffee farmers in Laos, which includes the Setapoung families. We jumped on a call with him to hear more about the history of this coffee community and how they’re improving farmer earnings through radical transparency and more sustainable farm practices.
Francisco "Kiko" Ribeiro is a former futebol talent turned passionate coffee farmer in Brazil. He set out with his collective to not just grow good coffee, but some of the best coffee in the world. Here are three reasons why he might have done it.
