Relationships

Covoya’s five-day trip through Honduras focused on strengthening relationships with coffee partners Boncafe and San Vicente, visiting farms, mills, and cupping labs to better understand the people behind the coffee. The experience highlighted the importance of collaboration, community, and long-term partnerships, showing how innovation, transparency, and strong producer relationships continue to shape the future of Honduran coffee.

Learn how Covoya’s chicken project for women coffee farmers improves household nutrition and creates extra income for women in Huehuetenango through the Cafe Delas program.

Once again the survey results seem to confirm that coffee is an inelastic product as individual consumption among daily coffee drinkers has remained in the neighborhood of three cups per day. While coffee drinkers might change the coffee they purchase, they do not, generally speaking, drink less coffee.

In this episode Todd Mackey and Mike Ferguson sit down with Covoya's Controller, Dave Zachary to talk about what he does and how he got here.

“The great thing about coffee is the relationships, meeting producers and then connecting roasters you know in the U.S. to them and then seeing how that relationship can take off."

"You get to really understand someone’s business, but you also get to know people personally and ultimately it’s those relationships that keep me in coffee."

Covoya has been part of the Papua New Guinea coffee story for many years, beginning with relationships established by our Senior Trader and Sourcing Director, Ian Kluse, over 16 years. 

Above all else, a coffee trader’s job is to know stuff, a lot of stuff, while keeping both sellers and buyers happy. 

The notion that a coffee farmer produces coffee the same way their great great grandfather did may seem romantic, but the reality of climate change makes it unsustainable.