Dublin-based coffee innovators, Moyee Coffee, have partnered with bext360 to begin the world’s first coffee blockchain project to bring radical transparency to the coffee industry.
Moyee is the first European coffee company to benefit from the collaboration between Amsterdam’s FairChain Foundation and bext360, a US pioneering developer of technologies that streamlining critical supply chains in emerging economies.
“Blockchain has the potential to turn the global coffee industry on its head,” says Killian Stokes, co-founder of Moyee Coffee in Ireland. “Our partnership with bext360 makes Moyee the first European coffee maker to introduce fully blockchain-traceable coffee.”
Revolution in Transparency
The bext360 platform gives all stakeholders – farmers, roasters, and consumers – access to data across the entirety of the supply chain. For consumers, bext360 provides unprecedented levels of transparency around origin and quality; and allowing, for the first time, a coffee drinker in Europe to pull up this data and verify exactly where her coffee was sourced.
At the point of collection, the bext360 platform instantly creates crypto tokens, which represent the value of the commodity. As the commodity flows through the entire supply chain, new tokens are automatically created to represent the commodity as its form changes and its value increases.
“Using bext360’s hardware and data, we will be able to pay our farmers the moment they bring their beans to the washing station and customers can follow real-time payments on fairchain.org,” says Moyee, Netherlands founder Guido van Staveren.
The Problem with Coffee
“Coffee production is notoriously complex and involves countless middlemen, each taking a piece of the pie along the way. Coffee farmers and producing economies are always at the short end of the stick,” says Shane Reilly, Moyee Coffee’s other co-founder in Ireland. “Currently, only 2% of the added value of every cup of coffee ends up in the pockets of coffee producers,” he added.
The FairChain Foundation-bext360 collaboration began in early November in Ethiopia. According to the Foundation, blockchain’s transparency will radically reinforce its own value-added activities and FairChain premiums.
From early next year on all Moyee’s coffee will be fully blockchain-traceable from the washing station in Ethiopia to its retail and office customers in Europe. “Roasting in the country of origin enables us to share the added value across the entire chain. This is what sets FairChain apart from every business model in the coffee industry today,” says Reilly. “Blockchain introduces a whole new layer of transparency to this process, making it easier than ever to make sure farmers are paid living wages.”
“This partnership signifies a significant step towards fulfilling our vision of using the most cutting-edge technology to bring consumer and farming communities together to improve product quality, community livelihoods, as well as the consumer coffee experience,” says Daniel Jones, bext360 founder and CEO.
About bext360
bext360 develops technologies that strengthen local businesses and communities in emerging economies by increasing access to capital and streamlining critical supply chains. bext360’s “bext-to-brew” platform revolutionizes the coffee supply chain with IoT, blockchain, machine vision and artificial intelligence while bringing consumers and farming communities together to improve product quality, community livelihoods and the consumer coffee experience. The bext360 technology builds upon the fundamental shift in mobile access, microfinance, and mobile/digital payments in developing countries. A guiding principle of bext360 is to build community by enabling buyers and other organizations with direct paths to improve the quality of both the product and the communities that provide the coffee. For more, please visit www.bext360.com
About FairChain Foundation
Since 2012, the FairChain Foundation has been an outspoken supporter of businesses whose aim is both entrepreneurial competitiveness and social impact. Using its knowledge of raw commodity markets and smallholder communities, the Foundation supports its partners’ ambitions to create living incomes, urban employment, industrialization, investments, and pure, net profits in developing countries that produce the most valuable commodities, be it coffee or cocao, hazlenuts or tea. By creating more added value and paying fair prices to producers in the countries of origin, social enterprises can shift the balance in value chains. In addition to Moyee Coffee, the FairChain Foundation supports Sauce with a Cause, Frank about Tea, Soul Rebels and many more. For more information, see www.fairchain.org
About Moyee Coffee
Moyee is the world’s first FairChain coffee brand. Based in Amsterdam, Addis Ababa and now Dublin, the provocative coffee company is on a mission to transforming global coffee into a radically fairer and more transparent industry. Unprecedented in the coffee industry, all of the value-added aspects of Moyee’s coffee production take place in Ethiopia, including roasting. And because Moyee pays coffee farmers 20% above the market price, they have access to the country’s best coffee. The unique combination of uncompromised coffee and a progressive social and economic agenda is behind the company’s tagline: “Radically good coffee with radical impact”. A cult coffee brand in The Netherlands, Moyee recently introduced its FairChain coffee to Ireland. Further expansion in Europe awaits.
