Speech: Coffee Standardization Bias — Not Farmer Centric
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Distinguished guests,
Our coffee farmers, youth, partners and friends,
Today, I want us to confront a truth that has been quietly shaping the global coffee economy for decades—a truth that affects every farmer, every cooperative, and every young person dreaming of a future in coffee.
Coffee standardization, as we know it today, is not farmer-centric.
It was never designed with the farmer at the center.
It has been built around the needs of the buyer, the expectations of the roaster, and the comfort of international agencies far away from our farms.
And this must change.
1. Standards Designed Without the Farmer’s Voice
Most of the standards guiding our coffee—from grading to sustainability certifications—were created without farmers at the decision-making table.
The people who grow the coffee, who wake up at 5 a.m. to tend to the soil, who carry the weight of climate risk and market volatility… were not part of the conversation.
Yet they carry the heaviest burden of compliance.
2. Quality Systems That Punish Farmers Instead of Empowering Them
Our global scoring systems—cupping sheets, defect counts, moisture benchmarks—tell buyers whether a coffee is good.
But they don’t tell us whether a farmer is empowered.
Farmers are judged on uniformity, flavor notes, and perfection, even when they lack the equipment, the training, or the tools needed to meet these expectations.
Climate shocks, outdated factories, lack of water, lack of drying beds—factors beyond their control—become the reason they are penalized.
This is not fairness.
This is not sustainability.
This is a silent inequity embedded in the system.
3. Farmers Pay the Cost, Others Take the Value
Let us speak plainly:
Farmers pay for certification audits.
Farmers pay for traceability systems.
Farmers pay for compliance.
But the highest premiums rarely reach the farmer.
The exporter, the brand, and the retailer walk away with the glory—while the farmer remains trapped in poverty cycles.
How can we talk about a “fair” system when the people who feed the world get the least from the value chain?
4. Export-Obsessed Standards Ignore Africa’s Growing Coffee Culture
We are in a new era.
Kenya’s coffee shops are rising in Nairobi, Kisumu, Nakuru, Eldoret, and even small towns.
Young people are becoming baristas, roasters, brewers, and café owners.
Local consumption is growing faster than before.
But our standards still look only outward—to Europe, to America, to importers—forgetting that a strong local market can transform farmer income more sustainably than any premium label.
5. Innovation, Youth, and Technology Are Not Rewarded
Young people in coffee are experimenting with new fermentations, new drying methods, digital farm tools, and creative processing techniques.
But the current standards do not recognize creativity.
They reward conformity.
They reward tradition.
The world has changed, but the rulebook has not.
A Call to Action: Build a Farmer-Centered Standard
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We must rewrite the system.
A truly farmer-centered standard must be built on:
- Farmer-led governance
- Youth and women inclusion
- Digital tools that return value to the farmer
- Recognition of innovation, not punishment of limitation
- Linkages to local and global markets
- Real income transformation—not symbolic certification
This is why we are building the GOOD Trade Certification.
Not as another label on a bag of coffee,
but as a new philosophy—
a new social contract—
a new promise to the farmer.
A standard that starts at the farm, not ends there.
A system where farmers are not subjects of the certification, but owners of the process.
A future where coffee is not just traded—but traded fairly, transparently, and sustainably.
Conclusion
To every farmer here:
Your voice matters.
Your labor matters.
Your future matters.
To every policymaker, investor, and partner:
The time to transform our standards is now.
Let us build a system where the farmer is not a footnote,
not an afterthought,
but the center of the global coffee story.
Thank you.