Help us to make the future Robusta

We’re raising funding for a grassroots infrastructure project that will transform the lives of coffee farmers, by building the first professional coffee washing station in all of West Africa. With our plant, we will be able to process the coffee of this region to a very high quality for the first time. This enables us to offer coffee farmers a price that is about 2x as much income as what they usually get for their coffee on the local average market.

What is important to us:

• Long-term empowerment instead of short-term charity
• Environmental protection and biodiversity
• Transparency and inclusive business models
• Traceability, high processing and quality standards
• Authentic single-origin Robusta coffee

Our aim for the coming years is to put in place the infrastructure and systems to enable farmers in Macenta to unlock the full potential of their coffee and bring an innovative unique variety to the global specialty coffee market.

We are convinced that a) opening a state-of-the-art coffee washing station will transform the prospects of the region and empower farming communities to create a world-class coffee, and b) there is a huge opportunity right now for a quality single-origin Robusta coffee to enter the global specialty coffee market.

Our goal right now is to secure the funding to complete an ecological coffee washing station —The Coffee Wash, Macenta— for high quality, export-ready coffee beans.

The Coffee Washing Station is the first of its kind in all of West Africa. It will act as an economic boost for the entire region and break up old structures. Up to now, farmers have been dependent on middlemen who tend to line their own pockets. We want to break up these old structures. Our Coffee Washing Station will finally enable us to process the coffee to a high quality and offer it on the world market for specialty coffee. In the first step, we will be able to offer the farmers twice as much money for their coffee as they currently receive on the local coffee market.

In 2019 we started the project with just 73 farmers. In the meantime, more than 2,500 farmers have joined Macenta Beans and we have already received the first pre-orders from leading coffee roasters in Europe.

With your backing we will be able to create a sustainable and environmentally responsible future for West African coffee farmers and for coffee lovers around the world.

a)You want to empower agricultural communities to build a sustainable future for themselves by unlocking the full potential of their coffee.

By enabling state-of-the-art local processing, this facility will remove dependencies on middlemen, raise standards and increase quality and will reward those who put in the hard work.

In the short-term, we’re already paying coffee farmers around 30% more than the average local rate. More importantly we’re giving local farmers access to global specialty coffee markets for the first time and helping them to produce a product that can share a platform with the very best Arabicas. Going forward, Macenta Beans will continue to invest back into the region and its small-scale farmers, while growing the global market for single-origin specialty Robusta coffee.

Learn more about the social and economic impact this project will deliver.

b)You want to protect the natural biosphere of one of the original birthplaces of coffee.

The rainforests of Guinea still carry wild Robusta varieties that have never been tasted in Europe and are immensely valuable for research.

Every farmer we work with at Macenta Beans practice agroforestry. They use no chemical fertilizers and no irrigation except rain. By supporting Macenta Beans you’re helping to plant trees, prevent deforestation, and engaging communities at a grassroots level. By providing the essential infrastructure we can empower viable sustainable agriculture that preserves and protects this unique ecosystem, creating a benchmark for innovative, responsible coffee farming worldwide.

Find out how we’re supporting biodiversity and Macenta’s natural ecosystem with our coffee.

c)You see the potential of a pioneering specialty Robusta coffee to disrupt the $100billion global coffee industry.

Supporting us will bring an authentic new coffee experience to the world and generate real opportunities in regions currently shut out from quality markets.

Nearly all the specialty coffee on the market is Arabica. Our coffee comes from a different kind of crop: Robusta. Pollinated by bees and insects, Robustas like ours boost biodiversity and offer a natural low acidity (which is great for taste). Indeed, at last year’s World of Coffee exhibition, leading figures from the coffee world praised its natural sweetness, rounded, bold and nutty flavor, with at least one delegate calling it ‘the future of coffee’.

Right now, Robusta farmers produce 40% of the world’s coffee, yet without access to quality (‘specialty’) markets they receive almost no share of the profits. Entire regions are excluded. By supporting us you can show the world that Robusta can be as good or better than and different to any specialty Arabica coffee on the market proudly overcome the prejudice of an industry that’s only now beginning to wake up and recognize the untapped potential of Robusta.

Discover why Robusta might just be the key to a sustainable coffee future.

Once we reach our target of € 40,000, we can complete the Coffee Washing Station in Macenta and become fully operational. This includes the purchase of the necessary equipment, additional modules of the plant, salaries, logistics costs and customs and taxes in Guinea.

If we reach our target of € 120,000, we will be able to buy coffee cherries and process them into green coffee beans with the Coffee Washing Station. Then we will expand our collaboration with currently 73 farmers to 500 farmers in a first step.

With every euro that goes beyond the second financial goal, more farmers will be able to benefit from our plant. We currently have a network of 2,500 farmers in Macenta who are all willing to work with us.