MILAN – Crawford Hawkins, a former hedge-fund manager is launching a app allowing consumers to reward growers producing their favourite coffees. The app is called “Propina”, which is Spanish for tip. It will send money to Colombian coffee growers in the form of donations sent by appreciative coffee drinkers throughout the world.
There are two versions of the app and both are scheduled for a global launch this coming Friday. One version will be available on Apple iPads found inside coffee shops and will send the tips to the specific bean growers that supply each store.
Another version will be made available for smartphones and will allow coffee drinkers at home to tip the supplier of their favourite coffee shop, or put money into a general fund for Colombian bean growers.
“Right now the system is completely warped in the favour of Nespresso and Illy and the large roasters,” Crawford Hawkins, founding father of Propina’s guardian firm Grupo Crawford, informed Reuters. “This is probably the perfect environment for them to be doing business and yet they’re doing the bare minimum to say they care about farmers.”
In response to the Propina app, “the subsequent payment is allocated to the farmer that provided the service for the store, produced the coffee for the consumer and contributed to the production of photos and video from the coffee farm.”
Propina’s rollout features a launch this month at Madrid’s SupraCafé chain, with plans to broaden into the U.S. market by way of partnerships with native espresso outlets. Hawkins hopes to have Propina current at “500 to 1,000 locations” within the subsequent year by bringing it to espresso counters at gyms and co-working areas.
