Swiss-based ‘sustainable farm to roaster’ coffee company – Sucafina announced it has established a China-based company Sucafina (Yunnan) Co. Ltd in partnership with Depond, part of Desheng Group.
Sucafina brings decades of quality and trade expertise from East Africa and South America to the producers and processors in Yunnan.
Bartalks asked Sucafina’s Coffee Marketing Manager, Elisa Kelly about the company’s approach to sustainability.
Our sustainability activities currently include working with producers who are acting as good stewards for the environment, such as the mother/daughter team behind Yirong Farm. For Sucafina, sustainability is very much built into our business model. – Elisa Kelly.
While coffees from Yunnan may be relatively new to the specialty coffee scene, the new company announced they will work directly with farmers, wet mills, and dry mills to deliver Yunnan-grown coffee to the world.
Mark Respinger, Chairman of Sucafina (Yunnan) Co. Ltd. looks forward to sharing thier passion with China’s coffee community and told BarTalks,
The China domestic coffee market is developing at an amazing pace. When I first started visiting China 20 years ago, I used to ask ‘where can I get a coffee?’
These days’ coffee is everywhere and the challenge is deciding between the plethora of amazing specialty options. With this growth in competition comes an increasing requirement for better quality coffees and more reliable supply chains.
Utilising Sucafina’s unparalleled global coffee origin resources, we plan to be a supporting force for coffee quality, traceability and innovation in the Middle Kingdom. As we do in all of our global markets, we aim to facilitate the creativity and passion of roasters by sustainably delivering the farm direct coffees their customers desire.
Sucafina’s producing partners primarily grow Catimor, a variety of Arabica coffee.
They use the cup score and profile to determine buying practices and is using those specifications to create better, more consistent blends.
Sucafina has a full quality control lab, as China does not currently have a national standard for coffee quality.
Their goals are geared towards export of Yunnan coffees and to grow global awareness about the great value and quality available and the people behind the coffee.
They have also just started importing for the internal market, where they think there are some great opportunities to expand.
Sucafina, which had already established an Asia Pacific trading division prior to the new company formation, said it will also offer a Shanghai inventory featuring coffees sourced and imported from around the world.
