Sourcing Coffee

Our coffees are grown by small farmer cooperatives that are founded and democratically governed by the farmers themselves. Most individual farmers own less than five acres and cannot directly market their crop overseas.

These cooperatives not only provide direct access to foreign buyers (avoiding middlemen who drive up costs but add no value to the crop), but also fund local development projects such as schools, electric distribution, transportation, etc. The result is a higher standard of living for the farmer as compared to the workers on corporate estates where most of the world’s coffee is grown.

The majority of our coffees come to us through Cooperative Coffees – a green coffee importing cooperative made up of 23 community-based coffee roasters in the USA and Canada. As a member of Co-op Coffees, we are committed to building and supporting fair and sustainable trade relationships for the benefit of the farmers, their families and communities. We recently launched a Climate Initiative program to help producers deal with the effect of climate change.  [After buying through the Coop for nearly a dozen years, Laughing Whale Coffee Roasters became a full member of the cooperative in 2019.]