May 2010 Coffee News

-Exporting and Importing
-New Honduran President
-Worth Repeating

Exporting and Importing
We have spent the past few months learning the many steps involved in international commerce. For nine years, we have worked with one of Guillermo's cousins to import our coffee to Minnesota and have been blissfully unaware of exporting and customs requirements. But this year, we are importing enough coffee to fill our own container and so we are diving into this new arena for the first time.

We are excited to have reached this milestone of becoming our own importer. In 2001, the first year we imported coffee (other than in our suitcases), we received 1,950 pounds of coffee. This year, we are planning to import about 15,000 pounds of our family's coffee. This still would not be enough to fill a 20 foot cargo container, apparently, but we have the good fortune of being able to work with Farmer to Farmer, a fair trade coffee group in Wisconsin, that has ordered a similar amount of coffee from the same region. Andy Gaertner, one of their leaders, visited the Velasquez family coffee farm when he was a Peace Corp volunteer in Honduras many years ago and since then has worked with a fledgling cooperative of coffee farmers from the Rio Negro area to bring their coffee to Wisconsin. (Andy has a great article on "thrift, ingenuity and poverty" in Honduras in the winter issue of the Farmer to Farmer newsletter page 3).

Through a connection with another great group, we are now working with CH Robinson to figure out all of the logistical details involved in moving that much coffee from a small village in Honduras, through Honduran and U.S. customs and up to Minnesota. About a year ago, Terry Munoz with Side by Side Ministries contacted us about using Velasquez Family coffee for a fundraiser project called "Sam and Evan's coffee" to support their wonderful work with youth here and in Central America. They connected us with CH Robinson through one of their board members. And now we are filling out "Importer Security Filing" forms, identifying our "Harmonized Tariff number", and waiting to get our "Bill of Lading" number before the ship carrying our container full of coffee leaves Puerto Cortez for its journey to the U.S. (Can you tell we are learning a lot!) Hopefully if all goes as planned, our coffee will arrive safe and sound in Minnesota before the end of the month. (But don't worry, we have plenty of coffee already here to last for many months in case the ship is delayed, by say, a massive oil spill.)

New Honduran President
Our email newsletter the past few months has been so long that we haven't had a chance to give an update on the political situation in Honduras until now. If you'll remember, President Zelaya was kicked out in a coup last June. Already scheduled elections took place in November and a new President "Pepe" Lobo, was inaugerated rather peacefully in January. Several South American countries still refuse to recognize the new government, but the US says it is time for the Organization of American States to readmit Honduras. President Lobo has established a "Truth Commission" to document human rights abuses during the coup, but Human Rights activists complain that it isn't enough and point to the recent killing of several journalists and civic activists. While the President tries to establish a new normal, it is interesting to read Professor Dana Frank's analysis that a new grassroots culture of resistance has emerged in Honduras that may have a lasting impact on the future of this formerly quiet country.

Worth Repeating
Finally a few things that seem worthy of saying again.

-Really Recycled Invoices - Don't be surprised if there is something on the back of your coffee invoice. We plan to keep using scrap paper for our invoices until we run out (which will probably never happen with all the paper our kids bring home and that comes in the mail).

-Alonzo's Heirloom Bourbon Coffee - We have about 400 lbs of this special heirloom coffee left, so it should last for a few months, possibly until the end of the year, depending on how quickly it sells.

-Tear Off Posters - We can print more posters if you are interested in promoting our coffee in your apartment, workplace or house of worship. Just let us know.

It was great to see many of our customers at the Living Green Expo last weekend and to meet many new people!