Growing Together 2026: What we signed with 16 coffee producers in Basel
Philipp Schallberger
At the end of June, 16 coffee producers from eight countries spent three days with us in Basel. We talked about opportunities and challenges, about prices and advance payments, and about the stories roasters tell about fincas—most often without asking the fincas. In the end, we formulated our discussion results in five sentences, the Manifesto Creciendo Juntos. It is our compass for a partnership-based collaboration.
This time, the origin came to us
Normally, we travel to our partners in coffee-producing countries two to three times a year. Between harvests, everyday life is less stressful, and we have time to look back together and plan the next projects. Then we go home and tell about our new experiences. From June 29 to July 1, we flipped the script.
To Basel came Flhor and Mario from 18 Conejo from Honduras, Claudia and Lenin from BridAzul from Nicaragua, Melisa and Beni from Rancho San Felipe, and Vera from Kua'nu Raíces from Mexico, Mauricio from Apas Coffee and Luiza from Farmers Coffee from Brazil, Iliana, Diana, and Irene from Finca Puerto Rico from Colombia, Yulma from Finca San Isidro from Guatemala, César from Chacra d'Dago, and Sonia and Yudeli from Gocta Coffee from Peru, as well as Luca from Mt. Sunzu from Zambia.
In spring, we sent out invitations with these goals:
Responses came quickly and were positive. Many of our partners had already traveled to Europe for the World of Coffee in Brussels, so the two could be combined.
"I've always wished for something like this," said Iliana from Finca Puerto Rico when we asked for feedback in the final round. It's so rare for producers to exchange with each other and for a roastery to get direct feedback from different sides. Yulma learned from Iliana about certifications, while Mauricio learned from Luca about irrigation systems. Melisa shared her doubts about growth, while Claudia brought up access to credit. It was an exchange at many levels, where everyone could speak from their own experience.
How five sentences grew from sticky notes
On the first day, we talked openly about price discovery. And we showed what producers rarely get to see: where we buy from and how much, how our roasting volume is distributed across individual coffees, what our customers drink, which flavor profiles resonate, where we see development and where we don't. Instead of consulting a market study, we completely shared our own numbers.
Then came the topics that the producers themselves brought, in an open-space format: composting facilities for small fincas, labor migration on farms, decaf, financing models between production and purchase, dealing with roasteries that buy large quantities, and the new EU regulations EUDR and CSDDD.
A long-discussed agenda item came from Johanna Jacobi, who introduced Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS). PGS are certifications that a group awards to itself instead of getting them from an external body. We discussed whether we as a group should build something like this, but ultimately decided against it. Some are taking the idea to their own region, but in the end, nobody wanted a shared seal.
But this decision led to the form of the Manifesto: we had an intense exchange and found a shared language, but didn't want to squeeze ourselves into a corset. As guiding principles for a compass, however, everyone could find themselves in it.
It wasn't our team that wrote it, but everyone together, guided by Vera Espíndola. She collected everything each side expected from the other and what they themselves offer. This led to a matrix of sticky notes where we sorted out who could tell which stories about a finca and how. We then sharpened the wording and formulated it in German, English, Spanish, and Portuguese.
Five sentences we hold ourselves accountable to
1. We talk with each other, not about each other
Stories make coffee even more vivid. So we check them together before we tell them: Is that right? Does everyone recognize themselves in it?
This speaks directly to us. We sell coffee through stories too, and we've mostly written them alone so far. From now on, any text about a finca goes to the finca before it goes online.
2. Strong partnerships, strong coffee
We strengthen our relationships by being human first. We listen carefully because otherwise we won't know what the other person really needs.
This sentence addresses a level often forgotten in the coffee industry: empathy is the fundamental requirement for a functioning partnership. If you listen, you learn things you can't ignore anymore: that a harvest fails, that someone wants to give up the farm, or that a loan is due.
3. Advance trust is our currency
As partners, we plan early and together because we all need planning certainty. If the finca needs an advance payment, we discuss it and find the best solution. The contract seals at the end what we've already discussed beforehand.
We dropped one word in Basel: pre-financing. We used it ourselves for a long time. In the group, we realized it sounds like a gesture, like a favor the buying side does for the finca. If you're honest, there's something patronizing about it.
In other industries, it's simply called an advance payment. When someone orders a kitchen, they pay in advance, and nobody considers that generous. Why should it be different with coffee? The semantic difference may be small, but language creates reality, and with the new word, the sentence felt more right for everyone.
4. The exchange price is not a coffee price
Every finca is different. That's why it's not the exchange and not the buyer that does the calculation, but the finca: cost of living, production costs, investments, margin. These factors are the non-negotiable starting point for the buying side.
If we only focus on the exchange price, we'll never pay the true cost price. Producers know what they need. And if they don't, we support them in figuring it out.
5. We act with transparency to drive change
Whoever buys is exposed. Whoever sells is too. We talk about our crises and development plans, and we do so early. One-sided transparency isn't transparency.
We process around 140 tons of raw coffee per year. How that is distributed among our supply partners is detailed in our transparency report. [CHECK: Link to transparency report]
Who controls us?
Nobody, at least not any official body with a stamp. That was the decision against a shared PGS, and we still think it's the right one. An agreement without control, however, is cheap to have—we know that too.
That's why we're publishing it. Whoever works with us can hold any of the five sentences up to us, in Spanish, Portuguese, English, or German, with our signature underneath. That's the accountability we can offer.
And: The Manifesto doesn't belong to us. The "we" in it means everyone who was in Basel at the end of June 2026. You roast or produce coffee and want to orient yourself by it? Take it, quote it, translate it. And tell us where it doesn't work for you, because that's exactly where it gets interesting.
When and where the next Creciendo Juntos will take place is still open.
