Blue Horse Coffee evolves to Direct Trade Certified
Fair-Trade Certified coffee is coffee that has been determined to meet the specific requirements set forth by TransFair USA (the non-profit organization responsible for auditing growers and buyers of coffee). The TransFair requirements involve maximum farm size, purchase through a growers’ cooperative association, minimum prices to be paid for the coffee, and licensing fee payments. Please notice that there are no quality requirements. The purpose of certifying products such as coffee, tea, chocolate, and other agricultural products is to guarantee the farmers a pricing mechanism that is not subject to the wild vagaries of the commodities exchanges, and to hopefully provide the farmers at least a minimally sustainable wage.
Counter Culture Direct Trade Certifiedtm (DTC). DTC seeks to address some of the deficiencies of Fair-Trade Certified, and has quality, transparency and wider sustainability requirements. This is a much needed and big step forward in the coffee world.
The guiding principles of this program are:
Personal and Direct Communication –Visits to growers on at least a biennual basis;
Fair and Sustainable Prices – Pay at least $1.60 per pound of green coffee, plus quality-based incentives to growers;
Exceptional Quality – Each coffee must score at least 85 points (out of 100-points) on a cupping scale;
100% Transparency – Maintain direct communication with buyers, sellers and all intermediaries in the supply chain, and all financial information will be available to all parties.
The DTC components are verifiable, and an independent 3rd party, Quality Certification Services (QCS), will audit compliance with the components annually. QCS is a Florida-based firm, which, for more than 10 years, has been providing organic certification services in compliance with U.S.D.A. rules; QCS is accredited by the U.S.D.A. to provide these services.
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