Shop local. It’s always good advice, right? Not only does it support the local community, it also helps reduce transport times and costs. That means fresher produce, lower costs and fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
At The Stray Bean, we work with quite a few local businesses who provide us with all sorts of things, from cookies to the hand made plates they’re served on! But let’s face it, the coffee is coming from the other side of the world. No choice there. And while we love supporting small coffee farmers wherever they are – in part by buying top quality coffees for prices that are well above the fair trade thresholds – we haven’t been able to do much about the transport.
Until now!
This month we will receive our first coffee (but certainly not the last!) transported straight from Colombia by sailboat. This is an exceptional coffee, coming from the Palermo estate in the Huila region. (See our E-shop for our entire range of specialty coffees including Palermo while stocks last!)
The coffee transported by sail is the result of an initiative between two French leaders in their field: the importer of specialty coffees Belco and the carrier by cargo sailboat TOWT (TransOceanic Wind Transport)With TOWT, Belco hopes that by 2030 90% of its coffees will be transported by sail.
But is it really as good as it sounds? And what about the downsides – like higher costs and extended transport times, for example? Here are a couple of interesting bits of information to help you decide.
Transport by yacht is not 100% carbon neutral – greenhouse gasses are produced during the construction of boats and even on yachts there are back up motors that are used from time to time. Nevertheless, the reduction in emissions is impressive – transport by sail is estimated to reduce emissions by around 75% compared to conventional ships.
That depends, though, on what type of yachts are used. TOWT uses sails as their main propulsion method. As for other transporters, sometimes it’s not clear – the term “wind powered” could just mean a hybrid propulsion method where the primary source of power is the motors, with wind being used just to boost things along using, for example, a system of rigid wings instead of huge sails.
As for shipping times, that’s where the real surprise is – they are considerably shorter by yacht! How can that be? Simply because the shipping routes used are more direct. Conventional ships tend to stop at different ports along the way, whereas these yachts are going straight from Brazil and Columbia to Le Havre in France.
In terms of cost, yes, it is more expensive, but not much. It adds about 1€ on to the cost of transporting every kilo of green (unroasted) coffee, which translates to about 0,30€ for a 250g bag of roasted coffee. That’s about 1 cent per cup
At The Stray Bean, we think it’s worth it. In fact, it’s what we call a no-brainer: a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions for a very small price. We hope you’ll be with us on this one, and that you’ll enjoy your next cup of specialty coffee even more if you know that the beans have sailed across the world to get to you!