Tim Heinze
By Sherri Johns
Tim Heinze has sourced and graded coffee in Yunnan and the greater Mekong region (Laos & Thailand) since 2009. He is one of a very few certified Q-grader (CQI) and green bean purchaser who is fluent in Mandarin and local dialects. The Houston, Tex., native graduated from Howard Payne University where he met his wife, Molly. The Heinze family moved to China where he studied language at Yuxi Normal University. In 2010, he was hired by Hani Coffee Co., Ltd. (Kunming) where is c.e.o. He was selected to present at China’s first international coffee exhibition in Pu’er. His insight, experience, and passion provide a glimpse into the growing China coffee opportunities.
STIR: Sourcing specialty grade coffee direct from the farm is common these days. How important is it for you to visit the farms that you buy from? What do you look for on a farm visit? What turns you away?
Tim Heinze: This is a funny question to me because I couldn’t imagine just visiting the farms! For us, working with our partners here on the ground involves spending days, weeks, and even months together working together harvesting coffee, processing coffee, and striving to always improve what we are doing. It’s not just about visiting, but actually working together long-term in a partner-type relationship. The fact that we are so close to the farms [geographically] facilitates this even more.
When we do visit farms and spend time there, what I look for has less to do with the actual fields and more to do with the people working the fields. There aren’t many situations that turn me away.
Call me a glutton for punishment, but I [always]-put in ital love a challenge. What can make these challenges much tougher is when you are working with the wrong people or working with people who aren’t interested in a long-term, partnership — those only seeking to make a quick buck.
Over time, I learned who genuinely cares for the environment around them, cares for the people who work alongside them, and who takes pride in what they do…these are the people with whom we find a common bond and work best with. We never enter situations and begin throwing around our weight, but rather we establish a dialogue where we work together to understand the situation and determine where we can bring value. There is so much I learn from just sitting and talking with local farmers…I couldn’t imagine doing it any other way!
STIR: What is your definition of transparency and what does it mean to your business?
Heinze: Transparency to me is defined as a way of conducting business that as an end goal seeks to bring value into the supply chain. Transparency is willing to share the good, the bad, and the ugly upstream and downstream to ensure healthy and beneficial communication. Transparency is massive in our business, and I couldn’t imagine doing it any other way.
This is an interesting topic because transparency requires vulnerability, but at the same, it also requires that the partnerships and relationships you have with people are committed and long-term. I have seen fickle relationships hamper and create potential for hiding facts and covering things up, whereas when both sides know they are committed to long-term transparency disclosing of all information is done more freely.
STiR: The term “sustainability” is used in many contexts. What does sustainability mean to you?
Heinze: Sustainability covers several areas for me. You have the environmental side which includes a commitment to doing what is best to ensure future generations have a better livelihood so that we leave the earth better than we found it. Some of the ways we pursue this is through waste prevention projects, use of organic fertilizers including coffee pulp, and working to create a more balanced, agroforestry system that incorporates a balanced agronomy.
Sustainability also significantly includes the farmers themselves. We want to ensure a focus on grower centric sustainability that sees the livelihood of farmers and their families increased. While there are times that this [livelihood] can be like nailing Jello to a wall, the fact of the matter is we want to help farmers improve quality, understand their cost of production, while simultaneously developing markets for their coffee. Any approach that doesn’t improve quality and find markets is missing the mark. The ultimate desire is to see coffee as a sustainable venture for coffee farmers and to be a part of creating a better life for them and their families.
STiR: As an exporter, please describe the importance of coffee education to the success of your operation. What is the effect of a good education program on your employees and customers?
Heinze: Education programs across all ends of the supply chain are important. Organizations like the Specialty Coffee Association have done a fantastic job bringing awareness to and equipping the consuming side of the industry on how to honor the hard work done by the producers’ side in showcasing amazing quality. Where I get excited is working with farmers to help them improve quality to hand off a fantastic product to the highly trained/equipped consuming side of our industry. This doesn’t even take into consideration the education programs we have for our employees. All our staff have cupping experience. Not all are licensed but they all know their way around a table and can articulate their sensory perceptions. It’s important for me to continue building this professional skill in them and help them understand more and more. I’ve been amazed at how this has enriched and enhanced their work experience. Overall, I value the fact that as an exporter, I can speak the same language with the farmer, our staff, and our potential buyers when talking about the sensorial aspects of coffee. Having education programs such as Coffee Quality Institute and SCA make this possible.
STiR: In China, what are your biggest challenges in exporting? What are your main markets?
Heinze: We have been exporting coffees from this region for five years now. Every year it gets easier. There were lots of firsts that our company has been a part of, and it has been a blast working with customs/quarantine departments to help write policy for the export of specialty coffee. We have had the pleasure of talking through with these officials the ins and outs of exporting specialty coffee and they have been great to work with. Of course, there is paperwork to do, but China is becoming more and more advanced with online reporting, which has helped immensely.
Our company is now providing export services and consulting to other companies in different industries. I believe this is a huge value our company brings into the supply chain. On the farm side of things. The current opportunities for growth here in China regarding production are focused on post-harvest processing, farm management, and traceability. Though there is extensive access to high-quality machinery and various technology, the historical experience is still quite minimal and so the learning curve is still quite steep. There is a significant benefit that China as it has not been pigeon-holed or defined by generations of “the way things are done”, but at the same time, there is a lot yet to learn and discover when it comes to post-harvest processing. We have been working over the last couple of years to improve harvesting techniques, procedures and quality control at the wet mill, and refining dry milling to lead to production of large volumes of specialty coffee.
Farm management is another opportunity for growth that we have here. Pruning techniques, fertilizer regiments, and multi-crop/agroforestry systems are things farmers hear about and practice, but a lot of work still needs to be done in providing proper training and education for these. We are passionate about helping farmers pursue sustainable agricultural practices and at the same time learning about their costs of production, so they can live in a little bigger space between costs and sale price.
Our main markets right now are Australia, the US, and Western Europe. We continue to receive requests almost weekly and I believe are poised to expand rapidly over the next several years.