Selling stories and net-zero transitions through a vertically integrated community based coffee business

  Geography

Laos and Europe

  Sector

Restoration, Agroforestry

Company overview

Slow Forest Coffee is vertically integrated, producing, regenerative forest- and community-based coffee with full transparency, control and value capture of the entire coffee value chain. Far beyond plain coffee, Slow regenerates agroforest plantations with large enterprise clients using long-term contracts to finance the purchasing and conversion of monocultural coffee plantations into biodiverse agroforests. In its work with SMEs, it creates community-based solutions that connect clients with smallholder farmers peer-to-peer, preserving forests and improving livelihoods. Slow has
secured contracts with clients such as the Danish hotel Brøchner and the international trader Volcafe. In July 2021, Slow made an unparalleled breakthrough of a 7-year, multimillion contract with Coor Denmark, allowing the company to convert plantations into biodiverse agroforests. Today, Slow is expanding to Germany, having just closed debt-financing to scale operations, it is conducting a feasibility assessment on the next coffee + carbon product, and has just recently signed a regenerative conversion project with AP Moeller Maersk.

Impact

• Preserve 700+ hectare of agroforest with smallholder partners, putting an end to deforestation and rolling out individual plans for the coffee plots to increase canopy cover and species diversity. For 100 tons of coffee sold, Slow regenerates 100 hectare of biodiverse agroforest that removes, rather than emits, greenhouse gases;
• Create partnerships with smallholder communities based around cooperatives focused on improving, stabilising and diversifying income for all smallholders. Throughout its operations, Slow enforces quotas for gender and ethnicity, offers training, equipment, and healthcare emergency funds. But more importantly, Slow upskills the community by creating value-adding activities, producing stories and client content, etc.
• At 150+ families, many lives are greatly improved. The company’s model is scalable in Laos and other regions.