Innovation

When coffee farmers harvest coffee beans, they pick the beans from cherries and discard the remaining fruit. Meanwhile, the farmer might make an average of a few dollars a day for the exhausting and time-consuming work. Furthermore, the coffee industry is susceptible to volatile price fluctuations, so it is always possible that the farmers will not reach their anticipated levels of income.

Oftentimes the fruit becomes runoff and can pollute the nearby ecosystem. The discarded fruit from the coffee production process is not an isolated event for a specific nation or individual company. Every year, an estimated several billions of pounds of coffee cherries around the world are discarded after the bean is harvested. Coffee Flour is seeking to change the coffee processing industry by eliminating the environmental runoff, attributing more wages directly to coffee farmers, and introducing a healthy food ingredient.

Coffee Flour is made using the discarded fruit. The farmers can collect the coffee cherries that have been picked for coffee and process them into a flour. The flour can be used for all types of baking wherein the flour itself is highly nutritious. The resulting efforts attribute steady revenue streams for the farmers and help to eliminate polluted runoff in nearby ecosystems.

Coffee Flour can be used in all forms of baking and contains a wide variety of health benefits. For example, it has “more iron per gram than fresh spinach, more fiber per gram than whole grain wheat flour, less fat and more fiber per gram than coconut flour, more antioxidants per gram than a pomegranate, more protein per gram than fresh kale, and more potassium per gram than a banana.” To top it off, the flour is gluten free, making it a more versatile food product that fits with current cultural trends, and a potential remedy for individuals living with Celiac disease who are unable to consume most flour-containing products.

Inspiration

Enter Coffee Flour co-founders Dan Belliveau and Andrew Fedak. Belliveau, the former director of technical services at Starbucks, is well versed with coffee production and the flaws inherent to the procedure. He noticed that there is an immense amount of excess material created in coffee production and that the farmers are susceptible to income fluctuation. He realized that the “waste” could also be consumed or utilized in a beneficial manner. Belliveau noted that, "We can now pay the farmer for a product that he was getting nothing for before. It was actually costing money because it was a waste stream." Belliveau started testing potential uses for the discarded fruit, and eventually came up with a suitable, pleasant-tasting flour. The remaining fruit pieces that would usually be thrown away can be rinsed off, the pulp removed, and dried so that they can be processed into flour. The flour does not carry a heavy coffee-like taste, but rather is described as a sweet flavor.

Overall impact

Coffee Flour developed a way to do well by doing good. They have created a healthy and tasty food product with an embedded business model that seeks to address worldly issues. The end user will receive the delectable flour. The coffee farmer supplying the picked coffee cherries obtains more stable and substantial sources of income with a very limited amount of additional work added. Lastly, the environment is protected because the fruit which is normally discarded will not pollute surrounding waterways or rot in a waste heap. Coffee Flour truly exemplifies a full product life-cycle.

Business benefit

The growing demand for Coffee Flour should not come as a surprise. The 2014 yield for the flour was a few hundred thousand pounds. The expected yield from 2015 was a few million pounds. The use of the flour is extremely versatile and can be a major ingredient in “breads, cookies, muffins, squares, brownies, pastas, sauces, beverages, and so much more.” The popularity is growing around the world. The flour can be found in Google Cafes, Chef Dan Barber's WastED pop-up in Blue Hill in New York, the Brooklyn Roasting Company, and L'Abattoir. It's been featured on MasterChef Australia to rave reviews, and it was on the menu at the TED2015 Conference. The enormous worldwide supply of the cherries has Coffee Flour with live operations in Hawaii, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Mexico, and Vietnam, while planning expansion in Latin America and Asia and new operations in Africa. Belliveau said their goal is to "be in about 40 to 42 coffee-growing countries."

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Social and environmental benefit

The derived benefits outside of the flour itself are what make Coffee Flour a complete product across a variety of metrics and qualifications. With regards to the farmers who make the production of coffee beans their livelihood, it creates “sustainable jobs and a new revenue source for some of the poorest areas of the world.” The farmers benefit from the additional source of income due to the uncertainty of their wages, which are already significantly low. Normally it is not uncommon for the farmers to receive a one-time-a-year payment at the end of the harvest. Coffee Flour creates a year-round revenue source that can assist farmers with their income by dozens of percentage points. For instance, their mill at El Carmen in Nicaragua employed 94 workers, where some of the jobs were year-round and 68% were held by women.

The impact on the environment has been substantial as well. The billions of pounds of discarded coffee cherries find their way to rot near waters which become contaminated with caffeine, ochratoxins, and aflatoxins. Coffee Flour eliminates the runoff by using up all parts of the cherry. The processing of the cherries into flour after the beans have been picked utilizes all portions of the natural resources in early-stage coffee production.

The innovation by Coffee Flour has aligned with several of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The goal of No Poverty is evident with the impact on the coffee farmers. The additional job roles for the farmers grant them equal rights to economic resources with the increase of stable wages. Their work in developing the flour helps to supplement their $1-2 of wages per day that the farmers normally make in coffee production. Zero Hunger is combated by Coffee Flour because their efforts lead to sustainable food production that maintains ecosystems and is adaptable to climate change. One of the more pronounced goals achieved in the flour production is that of Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns. The complete usage of the coffee cherries is a very efficient use of natural resources. The flour production leads to significant reduction in waste generation, culls pollution, and creates a new form of consumable goods.

Interview

Dan Belliveau, Co-Founder