Working Together to Overcome Market Isolation

Market Isolation and How it Contributes to Poverty

Market Isolation is being in a state of disconnect from outside markets, which limits the producer’s ability to sell their products or service to wider markets, due to a lack of quality business connections.In the coffee world, this translates to farmers, regardless of the quality of their crop, having to sell their coffee beans for sustenance level prices.

I saw this first hand in Monte Largo, a subsidiary of Gracias, Lempira. Through conversations with the farmers and community surveys, I learned that they lack access to wider markets. This leads to limited opportunities for empowerment among farmers and little hope of relieving conditions of poverty in the near future. Even though these farmers grow coffee that would qualify as “Specialty Grade," according to the standards of the Specialty Coffee Association of America, the only market that the farmers have been able to sell their coffee to has been local brokers. These brokers are referred to by locals as “Coyotes” because of their low price offering for the coffee and predatory nature.

The Result of Market Isolation

Market isolation always leads to other types of isolation. Market isolation in Monte Largo and other similar communities has led to limited access to education and health care. Low coffee prices result in no money for savings and therefore no income security, which also leads to less food security.

How We’re Working Together

Kingdom Growers is a brand built upon relationships from the producer to the end consumer.The farmers in the Comayagua region of Honduras started in a similar predicament as those in Monte Largo. A group of Christian men with more access to the market and a desire to share the Love of Christ helped form the cooperative, Cultivadores Del Reino. With 175 farmers that have pooled their coffee together, they are able to gain access to wider markets, get better coffee processing prices, supply training to farmers to get the best coffee possible, and to work with the communities that the farmers live in, providing health clinics and planting churches. The Cooperative is working to have a lasting impact on the lives that they are a part of.The best part is that it’s working.The communities where Cultivadores Del Reino has farmers, scored on average, 20% higher in the Community Survey than comparable regions in Honduras, including a score that is over 40% higher in market access. This means, through farming and business relationships, children have better access to education, families have greater access to healthcare and health related items, there is greater food security, and that a portion of what is earned from the sale of their crop goes into savings, instead of having to spend it all on necessities.

Connecting People

As a part of building relationships, Kingdom Growers coffee is working as a market connector – specifically between the farmers in Monte Largo and Cultivadores Del Reino. These groups are starting a working relationship that will help the community of Monte Largo, through their coffee, to climb its way out of poverty and cycles of dependency, into cycles of growth and flourishing relationships.The Kingdom Growers brand provides a Direct Trade relationship, meaning that we serve as the link between you, the consumer, and the farmer. We’ve spent the last few years working with the farmers to better understand their needs and the needs of the communities that they serve. The Brand and the Cooperative are committed to the long-term success as we’ve built a relationship that is based on faith.Through our relationship with the Cooperative we provide you with an excellent cup of coffee, the opportunity to know from whom you are buying, and the knowledge that your purchase has a lasting impact on the lives of the farmers and their families.-Neb