Find out more about our value chain here
Cultivation
Coffee is grown on our own family's coffee farms or with selected partners. In this way, we can guarantee that no harmful pesticides or environmentally harmful products are used during cultivation. At the same time we live a partnership with our partners (see e.g. Finca Piaya Cayana or Finca El Higueron ). This is also reflected in the purchase price for the coffee. These are well above commercially available values, such as the world market price for coffee or the fair trade price . Our transparency report gives you detailed information on every café that you can order from us.
Harvest & drying
Of course, when harvesting, we make sure that we only harvest ripe fruit. Therefore, the harvest must be done by hand. After harvesting, removing cherries and drying the beans, a selection is made - our partners sell part of the harvest through your local sales channels, while another part is made available for export. Processing for export takes place in processors certified by the Colombian Coffee Federation.
Import
The coffee is imported directly - via sea route and without further intermediaries in cooperation with a Swiss start-up that specializes in supporting the direct coffee trade. The coffee is first collected inland and then transported to a Colombian port (e.g. Barranquilla). The coffee then arrives at a European trading port (e.g. Rotterdam, Hamburg or Bremen) and is then transported to Switzerland by rail or truck.
Roasting & packaging
Once in Switzerland, the green coffee is roasted on site. As a young company, we don't yet have our own roasting facility, which is why we work here with Swiss experts in specialty coffee. The roasting takes place according to a specially developed roasting profile, whereby the profile is created individually for each José Opita Café variety.
The packaging and labeling of the coffee is done directly by José Opita Café. When it comes to procurement, we rely on Swiss SMEs for both packaging and labels.
Distribution
We organize the distribution of our Colombian specialty coffee ourselves through José Opita Café. We sell through our own web shop as well as through selected retail and catering partners . In this way we can guarantee freshness and product quality - no coffee leaves our house with a roast date more than 12 weeks ago *. Should such a case happen to you, please inform us immediately and we will send you a new, fresh coffee free of charge.
* Unless this is explicitly stated otherwise in the description of the goods (e.g. discount campaigns or sale of remaining stocks )