our story

Stean’s Beans was founded by a son of East Africa who is passionate about the region, its people and its coffee. Since 2015, we work closely with small holder coffee farmers and stakeholders in Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya. While working with the farmers, we feel that we need to take our responsibility to ensure that they can continue doing what they do best; growing coffee with a lot of heart and passion. Therefore, one of our main objectives is to make the coffee supply chain as transparent as possible. Coffee roasters often have little control over their supply chain as it is a complex process involving many links in the chain that are essential to the production of coffee. This consequential lack of transparency causes coffee roasters and buyers to lose track of the exact amount that coffee farmers are paid. At Stean’s Beans we take this control back so that coffee farmers receive what they deserve. In this way we want to build on a relationship that is sustainable and worthwhile for all parties involved.

TRANSPARENTLY SOURCED COFFEE BEANS

A Sustainable approach across all sides of our supply chain.

Direct electronic payments to smallholder coffee farmers.

common Coffee supply chain

Our Coffee supply chain

Corrupt farmer cooperatives make farmers work tirelessly for little earnings. Payments are in cash and there is a lack of transparency in farmer payments.

We have sponsored bank accounts for the smallholder coffee farmers we work with. The farmer payments are now much more transparent and there is room for coffee quality bonus payments and incentives.

Often times the coffee is shipped in large bags that easily contaminate the beans.

Shipping in high quality protective jute bags to protect coffee quality.

Dark roasted coffee that is quickly produced in large quantities. The focus lies on mass production at the lowest cost, instead of quality roasts.

Coffee that is lightly roasted to ensure the most flavors out of the beans. The roasting process is 80% more energy efficient with the use of a clean air roaster and recycled green coffee bags.

An end product wrapped in wasteful packaging. Lack of coffee preparation knowledge resulting in a lower quality cup experience.

Inventive packaging for cafe waste reduction through the use of recyclable coffee containers. Focus on knowledge management through barista training.

a living income is a human right

The Farmers

At Stean’s Beans, we work closely with small-holder coffee farmers in Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda. The families we work with often have a lifelong passion for growing coffee, but despite their strong love for coffee and well-proven experience in the field, they often live a life with many challenges and uncertainties. Coffee prices continue to deflate and on top of this, coffee drinkers around the world are constantly in search for the finest qualities of coffee without knowing where their coffee comes from or how it has been sourced. At this stage, many have spoken about an actual coffee price crisis, with the world market price for coffee now being at its lowest in a very long time.

Over the last two years we have been working on a scalable model to pay our coffee farmers and producers directly. In December 2019 we commenced a pilot project where we opened and sponsored 200 bank accounts for our coffee farmers in Rwanda. By opening and sponsoring these bank accounts, we are able to ensure a fair price for our producers coming from our customers anywhere in the world. Furthermore, the bank accounts enable us to make direct payments to our producers and supervise when bonus payments have to be made for superior quality coffee beans.

In addition to this, the 200 bank accounts we have now opened will give our smallholder producers the opportunity to take loans from the bank for school fees and medical insurance for their families. By continuing to take steps such as these, we hope to uplift the lives of the coffee farmers we work with so that they will be able to keep doing what they love for many more generations to come.