IN RESPONSE TO THE NEW REALITIES, WE’RE RECONFIGURING OUR OPERATIONAL SYSTEMS
We’re excited for the wonderful possibilities were facing and at the same time having a ‘feeling of suspense’ because of inherent uncertainties. Before, our journey can be described as trekking through a vast landscape with plenty of landmarks. Now, it’s like navigating through an ocean. No landmarks. We’re charting a new map. But we know our True North. We have our Reliable Compass. We are being moved by the Holy Wind. Uncertain and yet so assured!
Our Current Situation
PeaceBuilders Community and Coffee for Peace (PBCI-CFP Tribe) works with farming communities to help them develop businesses that are environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable. Coffee for Peace enterprise employs 15 people and affects 4 direct farming communities in Regions 11 and 12. These communities rely on selling coffee and other products using traditional brick and mortar markets. Coffee for Peace plays a major role in this value chain, acting as the buyer/processor/roaster/seller—depending on the level and needs of a specific community.
Coffee for Peace and the coffee industry as a whole, is very much “hands-on”—farmers, cafe owners, roasters, buyers, customers—we love to meet and greet, see and feel, touch and taste the coffee products. These actions help our industry reward high quality coffee, share new skills and knowledge, and build communities around the people and brands that produce them.
But as we come out of lockdown, it’s clear that the new “normality” we’re facing is very much “hands-off”:
- People are reluctant to visit our café to buy coffee, and even more reluctant to sit in a café and talk to our baristas
- Buyers are reluctant to buy coffee because café’s are either closed or selling at a very low volume
- Travel restrictions make it more difficult and expensive for our partner communities to bring their coffee and other products to market
Our Response
In response to the current situation, PBCI-CFP Tribe will continue to act as the bridge from farm to consumer. But instead of using traditional brick and mortar markets, we will use eCommerce.
To implement this, we will:
- Create an eCommerce solution on our existing domain—CoffeeForPeace.Com—that will handle payments, logistics, and payouts.
- Create an eCommerce team focused on growing our businesses online
- Onboard our community partners to our solution
Uncertain and Yet So Assured
This is the first time we’ve ventured this deep into eCommerce. But from what we’ve learned so far, we will be constantly evaluating the performance of our web app, social media shops, social media posts, campaigns, sales, paid ads.
On top of this we will be evaluating the overall progress of this project, from the development of our web app, to the processing of our FDA/IPO Licenses, to the product development and marketing of our products and the products of our community.
We’re charting a new map. But we know our True North. We have our Reliable Compass. We are being moved by the Holy Wind. Uncertain and yet so assured!