Caravela Coffee, the vertically integrated exporter/importer formerly known as Virmax, has been a key CRS partner in our Borderlands project in Colombia, delivering dozens of single-farm and community lots to Counter Culture and Stumptown over the past three years and delivering quality premiums to hundreds of smallholder growers who had never earned them before. This week our partnership took on a new dimension when the company pledged 20 cents per pound of its sales of these Ecuadoran spot coffees to CRS earthquake response efforts here in Ecuador (and invited its customers to contribute to those efforts, too).
In 2015, Caravela launched export operations in Ecuador, the latest opening in the company’s steady expansion, which has taken it to Australia, Europe and Mesoamerica. When Ecuador was rocked earlier this month by a powerful earthquake that left hundreds dead and thousands more injured and homeless on the country’s Pacific Coast, it didn’t directly affect the company’s employees or suppliers in the Andes. But that didn’t stop the company from seeking opportunities to support recovery efforts here.
In this blog post, Caravela modestly calls its 20-cent-per-pound pledge a “small initiative,” but I see it as a big-hearted effort to use the company’s business to help people who may not be tied to its supply chains but who desperately need support.
Thank you, Caravela!