The ripple effect of trading directly
Richard Hide, Consultant
At a point where we are becoming more mindful of what comes into our lives, where we buy and how we live, businesses are waking up to a new way of doing business – a way that looks after our communities.
More about Richard
After learning the nuts and bolts of the coffee business as a trader in the City of London in the late 1980s, Richard has gone on to dedicate the last 30 years to connecting coffee farmers to markets.
He led the coffee activities of Twin Trading, one of Cafédirect’s co-founders, between 1992 and 2018.
Richard currently focuses on working with smallholder farmers to develop and market sustainable specialty coffees in East Africa, especially in eastern DR Congo and Ethiopia.
What to expect
Richard Hide is the trailblazer who was in charge of ethically sourcing and roasting Cafédirect’s coffee right back at the start of the company.
This led him to travelling across the globe in search of small coffee cooperatives to directly trade with – which was unheard of in the UK at the time. He tells us how rewarding it was to meet these farmers who were delighted to have their produce recognised and valued.
Richard explains how they worked together to improve their processing, quality and trading and how this impacted whole communities. One such discovery was in Peru, unknown for its coffee at the time, where he discovered Cafédirect’s much loved award winning Macchu Pichu coffee grown at extreme altitudes in the mountains next to the ancient site.
Richard has a talent for finding coffee cooperatives that most make a difference to the communities they come from – and he explains how building these direct supply chains has a remarkable impact.