Menno Simmons

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After finishing his law degree at the University of Amsterdam in 1996, Menno Simmons wanted a profession that would satisfy his passion for quality. He started trading spices, seeds, and nuts at a brokerage firm and later at a trading house, both in Holland.

That led him to Ethiopia, where he traded the first organic certified Ethiopian sesame seeds. This was his first experience overcoming serious challenges while trying to accomplish something meaningful in the trading business.

Menno, who arrived in Ethiopia with little knowledge about coffee, is today an expert on Ethiopian specialty coffee. “I wanted to create, to get my boots dirty, to face the challenges and most of all: to add value in Ethiopia,” he writes. Trabocca, the company he founded in 2003, is now also actively trading coffee in Kenya.

By Josh Doyle

STiR: Africa’s coffee trade has seen a rough couple decades. Its slice of the global export pie has diminished, even as its potential for great coffee remains high as ever. Kenya, in particular, is a specialty coffee paradise, one of the world’s prized origins, yet it slipped from shipping 127,000 metric tons in 1987 to 45,000 tonnes in 2015 — just 0.5% of the world’s total production. There are plenty of reasons for Kenya losing its former place in the sun. Political turmoil, disappearing colonial support, bad farming practices, and outright corruption all take a toll on the industry. Is there hope Kenya can bounce back?

Simmons: Kenya is definitely an issue. That’s why we started the new project in Kenya.

STiR: What can you tell us about the new project?

Simmons: In a nutshell, the farmers in Nyeri, which is considered one of the champagne areas for specialty coffee in the world, are pulling out their coffee trees. And the average FOB price is still the highest in the world. So what’s wrong?  There’s something very wrong.

I was just in Berlin to do a presentation, in Italy, and London before that. We lay out the reality of what’s happening, and it’s a big cry out to specialty roasters and consumers to wake up.

We pay 100 shillings net to the farmer, which is $1 per kilo of red cherries. The average paid by others is 55 shillings in that area, and the 55 shillings is not even met. We are trying to find as many roasters as we can to understand and support this program because this is the only way to save the coffee.

The younger generation is already gone, they’re already fully out of the coffee business. They buy a motorcycle… and they do one ride a day and earn more money than their parents earn with coffee. 

With all my experience and all that we’ve done in Ethiopia, I can’t just do nothing. So we decided three years ago to step in. I want to do everything right and make sure the [Kenyan] farmers are rewarded and start to enjoy coffee-growing again.

STiR: I imagine the response from farmers has been incredible. In Nyeri more than 500 farmers protested, storming the Ndaroini factory when it tried to block a deal with Trabocca. Companies profiting under the old system do not like a new coffee trader coming in, offering better prices to farmers and luring them away to this new model. Aren’t you a threat to their business?

Simmons: We’re all over the news in Kenya. They’re calling it the Kenyan coffee revolution. We have 150 applications through our website from farmers that want to join our revolution, but we have to manage expectations. We need to find more roasters and consumers to buy our coffees and then support the program.

I don’t like the word sustainable, but if we share knowledge and produce more and better coffee, I can pay farmers more, my roasters will be happy, the consumer will be happy. Everybody’s happy.

STiR: It sounds like this could make serious changes in the Kenyan coffee industry. But can you do it alone? Do you need more people like you out there?

Simmons: We need to scale up. We have another 150 similar washing stations that want to join us. I can’t sell all their coffee. We need to get the volume going.

STiR: If the momentum keeps up, and if other positive changes occur, do you think Kenya has a chance to reclaim its former glory?

Simmons: Sure, but we should not wait too long. It takes five years to grow a new tree before it starts to yield again. If they pull them out now, it takes five years to grow them back.

STiR: What about marketing? What challenges do Kenyan farmers face when trying to market their coffee?

Simmons: Spending time on marketing isn’t really the issue. The issue is to make better quality and actually deliver that quality.

STiR: Is there a knowledge gap that you’re helping to fill? Do farmers struggle to set themselves apart from other farmers?

Simmons: We always put a lot of effort into working with our farmers to just make better coffee. And then we help them to scale up.

If it’s not good coffee, people will be disappointed. And when they’re disappointed, they have 20 other countries to buy coffee from at a cheaper price. You have to compete on quality and then the price is less important. Kenya has the potential to make better quality than any other country in the world. That’s a unique selling point, which they should use. Marketers and millers have been unable to fetch high prices at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange and farmers are being urged to diversify and plant fruits and other crops to get away from over-reliance on coffee.

STiR: You’ve helped put together some auctions, including one on July 3rd in Ethiopia, which presented coffee from some of the best micro-lots in that country. The three top buyers — one from Japan, two from South Korea — paid $17.25 a pound for the coffee. Stumptown Coffee Roasters paid $16.10 and Friedhats coffee in the Netherlands paid  $15.25 per pound. Where does that money go? Do these auctions really benefit farmers.

Simmons: We did one auction last year in Ethiopia and a second in July. Last year we sent back $96,000 to the farmers that won, as a bonus. This year the best micro-lots from Gersi scored 88.69, earning $21,675. The jury used Cropster Cup app to score and profile the coffees.

Last year the number one winner got 33 times his annual income as a bonus. There were 350 people there when I handed out the check. The media was there. He took the stage and started preaching that they should work harder and make quality coffee, and that quality does pay. At least with us.

[“We believe this is a great motivation and achievement for all farmers surrounding Adorsi Washing Station. We are happy to know that practicing proper red cherry-picking can result in financial gains for our family, this will show other farmers that quality pays,” said Tilahun Jeggo, a member of the Gersi smallholders who produced the top-earning Yirgacheffe beans.]

This year the premiums are more evenly spread amongst all growers, as opposed to last year’s auction; where a few benefitted more heavily. This gives all participating growers the opportunity to reinvest in their farms and families. A beautiful result.

We didn’t make any money out of the auction. We gave everything back. Our idea was to give the stage to the Ethiopians, so they could shock the world and show they could make really good, unique coffee.