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ACB Business Model (MOT-Model):

Africa Coffee Bureau (ACB), is a social-entrepreneurial hybrid model, founded on January 07, 2017, out of Silver Spring city to ensure more African coffees get to the United States retail chain structure for a price that means most.

Our Mission

Profitable niche markets responsive to specific African coffees in the North American retail chain structure.

Our Vision

Excellence in promotion and sustainable competitive market-oriented linkages that ensure premium incentives and profitability for the African coffees.

3-point Strategic Plan

ACB outlines 3-point strategic plan to heighten promotion and niche market traceability, envisaged to translate into increased absorbance of African coffees in the United States retail structure that warrants farmers boom incentives and profitability by;

  • Enfranchise African Robustas in the enormously Arabica saturated-stalwart consuming United States.
  • Hasten promotion and creation of niche markets for both African Robustas and Arabicas.
  • Broker trade negotiations between African farmers and American Roasters.

Purpose

  • I. Negotiate for at least US$2.0/lb. of green up from US$70 cents/lb. regardless of the commercial grade (Robustas or Arabicas), while increasing the African coffee volume share on the United States market.
  • II. Par-take necessary due diligence in commodity promotion and cup profiling vigor, strategic retail chain entry-point mapping, niche traceability, and creation of novel niche markets with premium incentive rewards and responsiveness to specific origin African coffee collections in the United States market.
  • III. Discover novel niche markets responsive to African Robustas in the enormously Arabica saturated-stalwart consuming United States in addition, to expanding on the narrow African Arabica market-base.
  • IV. Design and start-up value addition investment lines leading to reasonably cheaper, affordable yet profitable retail consumer brands for AFRICA and United States markets, science innovations and technologies generation inclusive.
  • V. The 4-point purpose pathway above, is envisioned to translate into increased incomes in general terms, and on per pound of green bean micro-lot derived from the 150 – 400 coffee tree plot-farm model peasantry structural economy for sustainable rural livelihoods improvement in AFRICA.

Introduction

ACB implements business leveraging it’s MOT-Model innovation built on a primary pillar of revolutionizing the 150 – 400 coffee tree plot-farm model structural economy. The 150-400 coffee tree plot-farm model is the most predominant agricultural stakeholder economic activity regardless of the choice of value chain, in Africa, and perhaps elsewhere. For Africa, the scheme is extensively land fragmentation proliferated mainly through customary land ownership influences, ever increasing population pressure, and sporadic government interferences. Land fragmentation is now regular in African, and we have got to deal with it, entrepreneurial re-orientation, and enfranchisement of the 150 – 400 coffee tree plot-farm model structural economy, inclusive.

Due to the model configuration and subsistence nature implications, it bears on the livelihoods of the micro-growers in-terms of primary source of food, medical care, and child education, the 150 – 400 coffee tree plot-farm economic structure in AFRICA cannot be underestimated.

The MOT-Model design is seldom, and very likely the first ever entrepreneurial covenant between AFRICA and the United States to drum-up the highly silently masked resumptive economic significant retail, and too neglected 150 coffee tree stem count smallholder harvest undertaking, urgently due for sole reputational niche market mapping needs and other related sustainability entrenching aspects, science innovations and technologies inclusive.

The 150 – 400 coffee tree plot-farm model smallholder economy is the most disempowered, disenfranchised and disproportionately impacted in terms of commodity trade and markets (exploitative coffee dealings), inadequate agricultural practice and farm in-puts (fertilizers, science innovations and technologies, foundation seed inclusive) dissemination to consumer farmer-grassroots, the ruin of climate change, land fragmentation (government land grabbing, population pressure and traditional rituals- customary related interferences), inadequate coffee policies and lack of leadership.
Therefore, the MOT model is here, highly innovated, inclusive and hypothesized to fundamentally help coffee micro-growers especially, the 150 – 400 coffee tree plot-farm model configuration to access more enfranchising and incentivizing requirement in-puts for value chain sustainability, green bean micro-lots niche market mapping and traceability in the United States retail inclusive; to ensure elevation of household incomes and rural livelihoods improvement among smallholder farming families. The model design is strategic and inclusive to fully allow for policy implementation and governance in achieving the shared vision of “Profitable niche markets responsive to specific African coffees in the North American retail chain structure”.

The MOT Model integrates the niche sustainability component one of it’s 4 development element anchors, that aspires to hasten core inter-institutional collaborative scientific research systems that governs novel science generation output much needed to solve critical farm production constraints, and efficient decentralization of technologies to consumer farmer-grassroots for sustainable household incomes and livelihoods improvement in AFRICA. The niche sustainability development element is exploiting the CoFET-Retreat (ACB science exchange subsidiary) infrastructure, in nurturing a joint collaborative research agenda between AFRICA and Hawai’i, USA with expected outcomes due for sustainable grower-household incomes and livelihoods improvement in AFRICA and Hawai’i.

Background and Rationale of ACB Business Model (MOT-Model):

Economic Significance of Coffee:

Coffee is the most important tropical agricultural commodity traded worldwide and, only second to oil. The industry employs about 26 million people in 52 producing countries (International Coffee Organization, 2010), with 11 million hectares estimated as world’s farmland dedicated to coffee cultivation (National Coffee Association, 2011). The world coffee supply chain, the United States $88Bn (SCA report 2018: US Coffee Market Overview) retail inclusive, is dependent on smallholders who bulk together as least as 15lbs to consolidate the much-needed global demand volumes of green bean, usually between 153 – 167 million 60kg bags per annum. In the fiscal year 2015 alone, coffee contributed to the United States GDP an estimated $225.2Bn ( www.ncausa.org/Research- Trends/Economic-Impact ). The impact of coffee in the United States commodity retail structure is really a high stake, the roasting segment alone accounts for $48Bn, coffeehouses retail controls $26.3Bn and, the At-home brewing stands at $14Bn (SCA report 2018: US Coffee Market Overview). In Hawai’i, coffee year 2020/2021, the cultivated acreage was 6900, producing 5.24 million pounds of green bean that translated into $97.988M (USDA-NASS Report 2020/2021). In Africa, the agricultural sector remains significant, and accounting for 23 per cent of the continent’s GDP with food and agricultural exports averaging at US$35Bn – US$40Bn annually, coffee inclusive ( https://www.cabi.org/news-article/building-the-post-covid-19-resilience-for-africas-coffee- sector/ ). In regional East Africa, coffee is the predominant source of income for most smallholder farmers (Robusta Quality Markers in Africa: ICRAF-USDA/ARS Annual Report 2006). Majority of smallholder farms however, are women led, ranging from 150 – 400 coffee trees and, depend on it for social security; implying they harvest the coffee, store it and, only sell to obtain food, medical care and child education (https://africacoffeebureau.us/founder/ ). And, nationally, producer nations’ GDP growth and foreign exchange earnings are extensively reliant on coffee. For Kenya, in the coffee year 2021, it fetched $229M from just 36,163MT (586,050 60kg bags) of Arabica grade, (Kenya Bureau of Statistics Report, 2021); and Uganda’s 6.55 million 60kg bags of both Robustas and Arabicas export, translated into $657.23M (UCDA Report, 2021). The sample trade figures cited in a few coffee-national scenarios above, reaffirm the economic significance of the commodity value chain. The trade statistics also reveals the need and serves as a caution to sector development agencies to safeguard the integrity of the value chain by developing policies that embrace all players if the commodity derived GDP growth is to spur exponentially.

Why the MOT-Model Innovation and what is the Underlying Rationale:

The coffee supply chain, the United States $88Bn (SCA report 2018: US Coffee Market Overview) retail inclusive, is dependent on smallholders who bulk together as least as 15lbs to consolidate the much-needed global demand volumes of green bean, usually between 153 – 167 million 60kg bags per annum. Majority of smallholder farms however, are women led, ranging from 150 – 400 coffee tree plot-farms and, depend on it for social security; implying they have to harvest the coffee, store it and, only sell to obtain food, medical care and child education ( https://africacoffeebureau.us/founder/ ). But often lack reliable and incentive rewarding niche markets. Available market options pay only US$70 Cents per pound of green bean which translates into $60 for roaster’s whole bean on the shelves of major retail stores such as Walmart or Costco or, $240 from serving espressos and cappuccinos in retail structures such as Starbucks in industrial consumer nations, United States inclusive.

Farmers are so desperate, some abandoning or even cutting down coffee shambas, and this threatens the sustainability of the commodity industry, and ultimately the supply chain. Is it conceivable to wake one morning with-out a cup of coffee? Roasters and multinational corporations, however, may not be blamed entirely for the state of the poor compensation for the farmers coffee. The problem lies with the farmer leadership. The lack of functional promotional vigor by African farmer co-operative leaders to trigger attractive responsiveness for their coffees from industrial consumer market players comparative to trade efforts by their peers, the Latina grower in Colombia or Brazil for example, is one of the key compelling reasons for the founding of ACB thus, the activity execution model, the MOT-Model innovation.
ACB positioning in Washington DC, and residence headquarters; places it well for uninterrupted routine cup profiling vigor, a necessary step in the urgent call for niche traceability and the creation of novel niche markets enfranchised with premium incentive rewards, Africa badly needs for the ample proportional compensation for farmer coffees.
ACB undertakes promotion, niche market traceability, trade negotiations, and market linkages between farmers and roasters; to see more African coffee volumes get to the United States market for a price that means most; and this is dependent on the MOT-Model.

ACB Business Model Designation:

Designation of the MOT Model.

M is niche market:
O is niche origin:
T is niche traceability facility:

The model is hinged on four (04) development elements:

  1. Niche origin.
  2. Niche traceability facility.
  3. Niche sustainability.
  4. Niche market.

Niche Origin

Niche origin galvanizes the grower community ecosystem; coffee acreage, coffee ecology and coffee economic diversification ventures such as, livestock, agro-forestry, and value addition. It bounds the 150 – 400 coffee tree plot-farm smallholders, single estate farms, associations, co-operative societies, and unions. Majority of mother co-operative unions are integrative of climate-smart stewardship and social justice in their niche communities.

Niche traceability facility.

This is the central linkage facility galvanizing the other 3 development elements in the MOT-model and houses the ACB entrepreneurship bureau and CoFET-Retreat.

Justification for niche traceability facility:

Coffee price remains one of the key bottlenecks in the progress of smallholders in grower communities, Africa inclusive, and is meddled by the middleman. Middlemen continue to set the price and, farmers remain price takers without concessional agreements. The second important problem; although African coffee collections are exceptionally flavorful and aromatic, remain unknown to the United States retail market. The lack of promotional vigor by African farmer co-operatives to trigger responsiveness from industrial consumer markets like the United States comparative to other producer nations like Colombia or Brazil, is a deadlock. The third important problem hampering prosperity in smallholders across grower communities and continents, is the need for sustainable science innovations and technology exchange transfer mechanisms to defeat urgent and recurring production constraints like pests, diseases, and the ruin of climate change.

Thus, the requirement for sustainable science innovations and technologies dissemination, and decentralization to consumer farmer-grassroots is assumed on the role of CoFET-Retreat and is conceptualized in the ACB business model (MOT Model). CoFET-Retreat accredited as CoFET-Retreat (Oahu iSLAND) Hawai’i, USA in the State of Maryland, USA; is an entrepreneurial coffee science innovations and technologies exchange infrastructure, subsidiary to the Africa Coffee Bureau (Parent company). The science exchange enterprise was launched during the first coffee colloquium hosted at the Hawai’i Agricultural Research Center (HARC) in Oahu Island on June 13, 2022, under the banner “CoFET-Retreat a Launch Tower for Coffee Research Collaboration.

Between Hawai’i and AFRICA”. The endgame of CoFET-Retreat is to propel farm production, productivity, and profitability to realize uplifting of standards of living conditions of the farming families especially those entangled in the 150 – 400 coffee tree plot-farm model configuration. The postulation above informs the underlying rationale for CoFET-Retreat installation. Besides, the niche traceability facility mandate in the MOT model, it is crucially conceptualized to spur profiling vigor of the different African origin coffee collections in the United States, a key revolutionary process in the creation and traceability of novel niche markets with incentive rewards.

Niche sustainability:

This development element in the MOT-Model is hypothesized to galvanize and leverage global driver entities that influence possibilities. Niche sustainability is the partnerships outsource center. The purpose of ACB entrepreneurship bureau and CoFET-Retreat as highlighted in the niche traceability facility segment, is facilitative and hypothesized to be achieved through leveraging the enormous virtues of cooperation, collaboration, partnerships, and synergies that exist at different levels of stakeholder-ship; academia, scientific research, diplomatic mission, diaspora, international development agencies, financial institutions and investor-private equity firms inclusive, among others. Niche sustainability is framed to spur cooperations and synergies with economic stimulus entities elsewhere to guarantee sustainable coffee production, incentive rewarding niche marketing for farmer profitability, technical capacity development and training exchange programs in the global coffee arena.

Niche Market:

Inevitably, profitable niche markets and premium incentive rewarding certification retail trade structural aspects are imperative for rural farmer prosperity and livelihoods improvement. The MOT-Model is benchmarked on a 3-Layer key retail actor cloud including batch (micro-lot) roaster buyers, green buyers and facilitating agents. In addition, the partnerships outsource center (niche sustainability development element) associated entities such as universities, embassies, and economic development corporations, among others; are essential in eliciting the needed promotional vigor to hasten creation and traceability of incentive rewarding novel niche markets responsiveness to specific African coffees.

  • Micro-lot roasters: The United States coffee retail structure in terms of roasting segment, stands at $48Bn (SCA report 2018: US Coffee Market Overview), and majority of micro-lot roasters are contributors here. The micro-roasting segment is synonymous with micro-lot procurements; normally ranging in 300 – 900lbs. of green bean per month. ACB is priming the roasting segment for micro auctions of the 150 – 400 tree plot-farm micro-lot model producers in AFRICA. Batch roasters are reputational cup quality liquor and ethics driven coffee businesses.
  • Green buyers: These are bulky warehouse operating entities and facilities. They are reputational cup quality liquor and ethics driven coffee businesses. Buy in bulk and pay premium prices and incentives.
  • Facilitating agents: Commission based trade entities. Combine traits of both micro-lot roasters and green buyers.

The minimum viable problem being addressed under MOT-Model:

a) Social security reserve: Majority of the 150 – 400 coffee tree plot-farm model stakeholders are women and depend on this micro-enterprise for their social security. The implication is, they harvest this coffee, store it and only sell to obtain food, medical care and child education (https://africacoffeebureau.us/founder/ ). But, they often lack reliable and incentive rewarding markets, and available options pay only US$70 cents per pound of green bean which translates into $60 for roaster’s whole bean on shelves of major retail stores such as Walmart and Costco or, $240 from serving espressos and cappuccinos in retail structures such as Starbucks in industrial consumer nations, United States inclusive. The 150 – 400 coffee tree plot-farm economic structure cannot be neglected, they require services which elevate the sale value to the proportionality worthiness of their coffees; and, this can remarkably make a difference, can contribute to their livelihoods improvement.
While speaking at the presentation of the FAO report “The Status of Women in Agrifood Systems” April 2023; , the USAID administrator Samantha Power made a case “There are hundreds of millions of women who are ready, willing, and able to help us end hunger if only we dismantle the barriers standing in the way” ( https://twitter.com/LM_Phillips/status/1648290701497466880?t=05Iv7m_DYtCaPrS5tU 5s5A&s=19%20%20%20 ). Similar efforts at WTO working for betterment of women, those in the 150 – 400 coffee tree plot-farm micro-economic enterprise, inclusive. While speaking at the World Trade Congress on Gender: Building Recovery Through Inclusive Trade; December 2022, WTO Director General reported quoting the World Bank “2.4 billion working age women do not have equal opportunities compared to men” ( https://twitter.com/wto/status/1601564267110612992 cxt=HHwWgICyoeWN87ksAAAA ). The MOT-Model is a safety net and fundamentally built to help women secure more opportunities in micro-lot coffee trade as good as their male counterparts.
The model seeks to secure sustainability of the 150 – 400 coffee tree plot-farm value chain which is predominantly women led through lucrative incentivizing novel niche markets that shall guarantee rural livelihoods improvement in AFRICA.

b) Favourable trade negotiations and novel niche markets traceability: The purpose of ACB entrepreneurship bureau is to spur cup quality profiling vigor of 150 – 400 coffee tree plot-farm coffee collections in the United States retail structure especially, the roasting segment which rallies US$48Bn (SCA report 2018: US Coffee Market Overview) to trace and create generous incentive rewarding novel niche markets that respond to their specific African coffees. Negotiate for at least US$2.0/lb. of green up from US$70 cents per pound, regardless of the commercial grade (Robustas or Arabicas), while increasing the African coffee volume share on the United States market.


c) Climate change adaptation: Africa is the most vulnerable and disproportionately affected global community and paying the ultimate price for the climate crisis it never caused. In a personal communication at COP27 climate summit held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, 2022; the African Development Bank (AfDB) president downcast “Africa today loses between US$7.0Bn and US$15Bn a year to climate change and if things don’t change, it will be US$50Bn a year by 2030” ( https://twitter.com/UNGeneva/status/1583820971865169921?t=9koVNZgmusHxwkiMA aQo7g&s=19 ); COP27 is Africa’s COP. It must address Africa’s Climate challenges.” During the United States virtual Leaders’ Summit on Climate, April 2021; AfDB president, reiterated the same “The continent loses $7 billion to $15 billion a year to climate change, and this will rise to $50 billion per year by 2040, according to the IMF. Africa is not at net zero. Africa is at ground zero. We must therefore give Africa a lift to get a chance of adapting to what it did not cause” ( https://www.afdb.org/en/news-and-events/press-releases/leaders-summit-climate-african-development-bank-president-says-continent-ground-zero-crisis-major-economies-boost-climate-targets-43272 ). Africa hosts the world’s largest green lungs or the gigantic atmospheric vacuum cleans in form of untouched natural tropical forests especially in the Congo Basin, the 150 – 400 coffee tree plot-farm model configuration inclusive. These are estimated to 1,605 billion acres of untouched forest seizing 1.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, about half of carbon emission from homes in the US ( https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/dec/04/africa-global-warming-paris-climate-talks ). Africa seeks to evaluate it natural capital for cash to inject more in climate adaptation. Africa needs about US$1.3 trillion – US$1.6 trillion between 2020-2030 to implement the continent’s climate action commitment. It received an average of US$73Bn in climate finance for 2016 -2019, leaving a whopping climate financing gap of US$99.9Bn to US$127Bn per year through 2030 ( https://www.dfa.ie/media/dfa/aief/2022/Dr-Akinwumi-Adesina—Speech-at-the-7th-Africa-Ireland-Economic-Forum-Final.pdf .). With gaps in funding, we do not need to risk even that last drop of water. Farmers including the 150 – 400 coffee tree plot-farm model stakeholders, are desperate, some abandoning or even cutting down coffee shambas. This threatens sustainability in terms of the contribution to carbon sequestration a service coming from coffee agro-forestry, and ultimately the commodity supply chain to roasters. Creation of novel, reliable and incentivizing niche markets, not only guarantees social security to smallholders but, will propagate sustained conservation of the 150 –400 coffee tree plot-farm model for enhanced decarbonization to avert the climate change ruin.


d) Technology transfer: In the 1980s, a concept of Farmer Field School (FFS) was first developed in Asia as a platform for farmers to strengthen their knowledge and field management decision skills through a process of hands-on field-based learning (Marjon Fredrix, 2014. Farmer Field Schools and Farmer Empowerment. Int. J. Agr. Ext. Vol. 2[1]. 67-73). The FFS is suggested as an enhancement of group collaboration and exchange of experience, building on local knowledge systems as well as on knowledge generated outside rural communities (Marjon Fredrix, 2014. Farmer Field Schools and Farmer Empowerment. Int. J. Agr. Ext. Vol. 2[1]. 67-73). CoFET-Retreat (Oahu Island) Hawai’i, USA; is a restoration of FFS. In the context of CoFET (Coffee Farm Experience Tour), the activity is essential for African stakeholders to learn from their peers in Hawai’i, thus, the founding of CoFET-Retreat (Oahu Island) Hawai’i, USA a subsidiary of ACB (Parent company), is to undertake knowledge and skills learning right on-farm. The process will hasten core inter-institutional collaborative scientific research systems novel science generation output that solves critical farm production constraints, and efficiently decentralize technologies to consumer farmer-grassroots for sustainable household incomes and livelihoods improvement in AFRICA and Hawai’i.


e) Cooperation and joint research collaborative agenda (JCRA) between Hawai’i – AFRICA: To hasten core inter-institutional collaborative scientific research systems, University of Hawai’i inclusive, for novel science generation output that solves critical farm production constraints, and efficiently decentralize technologies to consumer farmer-grassroots for sustainable household incomes and livelihoods improvement in AFRICA and Hawai’i. In his podcast, Prof. Chris Field, Director of the Woods Institute at Stanford, spoke to the need for universities to restructure in ways that would contribute to managing climate crises, “for sustainability, we gonna need whole different range of kinds of ventures, solutions in future, again require universities to think, and act very differently”( https://twitter.com/stanforddoerr/status/1582835660724916224?t=IviDV92_AYSHcWi_LvCSSQ&s=19 ).

Proposition:

a. Disruptive:

  • wai’i – AFRICA cooperation is justifiable “If we want to solve the global challenges of our time, we need global solidarity and, a partnership-based cooperation between industrialized and developing countries” ( https://www.unido.org/news/19th-session-unido-general-conference-new-leader- organization-primed-build-better-future ), personal communication of Gerd Müller, Director General of UNIDO. Global coffee is at stake with enormous recurring production constraints. Thus, CoFET-Retreat is nurturing a collaborative scientific research agender between Hawai’i – AFRICA to hasten generation of technologies for global coffee production sustainability.
  • There is need for Hawai’i and Africa to work together to enhance joint technical backstopping, to end CLR together, to pursue exchange programs and technology transfer together for the benefit of the farming families in both geographical societies.


b. Discontinuous:

  • Unknown scientific information and data on coffee research progress between Hawai’i and AFRICA.
  • Heightened corporate, diplomatic, and business relations between Hawai’i and AFRICA.

c. Defensible:

  • CoFET-Retreat concept is unique, innovative and IP. Enshrined in the MOT-model.
  • Scientific information and data on coffee.
  • Scientific corporation, diplomat, and business relations between Hawai’i and Africa.