Any adventure involves a gamble. The gamble taken by TERRA KAHWA^® is to offer consumers a top of the range coffee at a price lower than the current market price, all the while guaranteeing that its Ethiopian growers have an income higher than what is offered by the so called fair trade.

The new model of Alter-Responsible^® trade proposed by TERRA KAHWA^® guarantees:

• An income equivalent to at least 40% of the sales price including VAT to Ethiopian growers.
• An excellent coffee (Sidamo, Yirgacheffe, Limu, Lekempti and Harar protected designations) roasted by consumers with a simple home roaster.

Why are we proposing a new business model? What is the meaning of the term "Alter-Responsible^®"?

A new business model is necessary to:

• Break monopolies: 70% of the global coffee market is in the hands of five multinationals. Promote a better distribution of financial flows.
• Promote high-quality coffee vintages all the while enjoying protection as designations of origin Sidamo, Yirgacheffe, Limu, Lekempti or Harar.
• Promote the consumption of freshly roasted coffee: 40% of aromas disappear four days after roasting.
• Promote coffee where the consumer chooses the roasting level.
• Promote a trade where the grower knows the final destination of the product and where the consumer knows its origin (region), quality and production methods.

What is the meaning of the term Alter-Responsible^®?

The prefix "Alter" conveys the notion of movement, change and balance between one point and another. The term Alter-Responsible^® describes a trade where the grower bears the responsibility of producing coffee of very high quality and where the consumer bears the responsibility of the grower's well-being.

Furthermore, in this new Alter-Responsible^® business model, the clients form an active community that identifies strongly with the project. They take part in the project by making it known and inviting other people to take the same gamble of loyalty to a community of growers that brings them a unique product. In this way, since it is not part of the advertising race, "Alter-Responsible®" trade proposes an authentic and sustainable creation of value.

The term Alter-Responsible^® sets out the principles of a new type of trade that is being implemented for the first time by TERRA KAHWA^® as part of a commercial, environmental and humanist progress approach to:

• Offer growers a sales price that is considerably higher than that proposed by fair trade.
• To free the system from the New York Board of Trade (NYBoT) which sets Arabica prices without bringing them in line with the work put in by the grower.
• Replace payments in dollars with payments in euros.
• Be free of market speculation (see diagram - source NYBoT).
• Be free of middlemen and advertising.
• Avoid the superimposition of labels ("Organic", Fair trade, etc.) to eliminate the costs related to these labels, representing 2 to 5% of the sales price including VAT. The private foundations and associations that issue and manage fair trade labels receive several tens of millions of euros each year.
• Promote sustainable farming by paying more attention to local resources and know-how rather than to external ones.
• Protect the health of growers and consumers with the choice of farming methods that give priority to the use of natural products instead of chemical products (fertilisers, pesticides).
• Take the growers well-being into account by encouraging the independence of their farms instead of making them a part of the commercial world.
• Preserve human (know-how, cultures) and natural (soil, water) resources.