Kiera is the Sales & Marketing Manager of the Alternative Coffee Company. Her work involves connecting specialty coffee farmers in Rwanda and Uganda, with roasters in Scotland and the rest of the UK. Kiera is also a Development Officer at the Scottish Fair Trade Forum, a membership organisation that campaigns for Trade and Climate Justice. Kiera lives in Glasgow where she spends a huge chunk of her time frequenting the city's fabulous coffee shops!

Talk Title: The Alternative Coffee Company: Our story so far

Our story began, in part, as a legacy of the Scottish Government funded Rwanda Coffee Project, a 5 year development project that sought to support 8 cooperatives to improve their operational effectiveness, to increase access to international markets and to strengthen community resilience. From there, we asked: how can move from this development project to a sustainable social enterprise? As a means to answer this question, in 2022 we set up The Alternative Coffee Company as a social enterprise and green coffee bean wholesaler. Since then, we have been working closely with 3 cooperatives in Rwanda and 3 in Uganda, to find a route to market for their delicious coffees, and to build a community of likeminded businesses and activists who are invested in people and planet. Importantly, and at the heart of The Alternative Coffee Company’s ethos, is a commitment to radical transparency and fairness. We make sure that farmers are paid a fair price for their coffee and that there is a social premium built in. In this talk, I will cover topics such as: what happens between FOB and the farmers we work with, how social premiums can be used to support coffee growing communities, and how we build long term relationships between roasters and farmers.

Attend this talk and loads more at Glasgow Coffee Festival. Last remaining Sunday tickets are available here.