{"id":36458,"date":"2023-08-30T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-30T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/?p=36458"},"modified":"2023-09-01T20:05:45","modified_gmt":"2023-09-02T01:05:45","slug":"direct-trade-via-direct-message-how-instagram-is-facilitating-a-new-kind-of-coffee-connection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/direct-trade-via-direct-message-how-instagram-is-facilitating-a-new-kind-of-coffee-connection\/","title":{"rendered":"Direct Trade via Direct Message: How Instagram is Facilitating a New Kind of Coffee Connection"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One morning in 2022, I walked into work to find an envelope of green coffee samples from a source I wasn’t familiar with. My boss told me they came from a Costa Rican coffee farmer who contacted her via Instagram. Alejo Castro Kahle runs Volcan Azul<\/a>, a company that includes three farms and a mill, and he found Glen Lyon Coffee<\/a>, the roastery where I work, by scrolling through his feed. Our location in the Scottish Highlands piqued his interest: his great-grandmother was from Scotland, and he had been looking for a Scottish roaster to partner with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We just received our second shipment of coffee from Castro Kahle’s farms, the continuation of what we hope will become a longstanding direct relationship\u2014all because of Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stratospheric rise in global connectivity and social media use has been a boon to coffee companies, allowing them to expand their reach to a worldwide audience. But it has also benefited producers, who can connect with\u2014and sell to\u2014a much wider customer base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Social media has brought us many good clients,” Castro Kahle says, noting that platforms like Instagram allow him to reach out to potential partners in new markets instead of just sending out hundreds of samples and hoping someone gets in touch with him, which can be time-consuming and wasteful. “Because we have a limited quantity [of coffee], we cannot sell to everybody, but we are still growing, so every year, we try to find a new customer in a new market where we don’t have a presence.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Social media allows farmers direct access to potential partners. For Castro Kahle, it helped him connect with Glen Lyon and fulfill one of his longtime ambitions: “I was always interested in having a roaster in Scotland because of our Scottish roots, so thanks to social media, we made a quick and direct connection.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Growing Platform<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Many coffee-producing countries still struggle<\/a> with basic web connectivity<\/a>, an issue that greatly affects coffee farms, often in remote regions. However, internet and social media use continues to grow<\/a> worldwide, and there are many programs<\/a> designed to connect farmers<\/a> to the World Wide Web<\/a>. Instagram, the fourth most-used social media platform in 2021 with 1.21 billion<\/a> monthly users, is especially popular<\/a> in coffee-growing countries such as Brazil, India, Indonesia, and Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A post shared by COSTA RICA SPECIALTY COFFEE (@volcan.azul)<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>