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Torque's Proportional Pricing
Of the $400 Billion in coffee value, less than 10% remains in coffee producing countries & often less than 5% in the hands of coffee producers.
We believe that coffee producers should share in our success. So we created a radical new model where Coffee Producers get equity in the full retail value of their coffee.
Coffee Producers are pre-paid 20% of the retail price of their coffee beans. This more than doubles their equity share of the value of their coffee.
It's ridiculously simple. Farmers get the first cut. Instead of letting the commodity green coffee market set a low floor price, Torque simply pre-pays coffee producers 20% of the retail price of our roasted coffee. The higher the price you pay the more they were paid. The transparent 20% ratio means both you and the farmers know exactly how much of the value they receive.
Proportional Pricing for Farmer Equity
20% of the price of every coffee was pre-paid to Coffee Producers.
Shared Equity
The definition of economic equity is "To share in the increase in value."
By ensuring that coffee producers receive an equitable share of the full retail value of their coffee, Torque Coffees is helping to create a more just and sustainable coffee industry.
You get 100% amazing coffee. Producers get 20% of the Price.
Everyone shares value equity
All of the coffee producers we work with receive the same 20% equity in the full retail price of their coffee. Whether it's in a blend or a single origin we determine the retail price based solely on what the producer was paid.
The more the producer is paid the higher the retail price. The lower the retail price the lower the producers price. it's proportional which is why we call it Proportional Pricing. It's the same fixed 20% equity for every coffee so both you and the producer know exactly howe much of the value they received.
Reverse Engineering Value
All of us in Specialty Coffee agree that coffee producers are valuable, but we haven't agreed on how to assign that value, who assigns it, or how to convey it through the supply chain.
At Torque we believe that the way forward is to reverse engineer the coffee value equation & go from value received to price paid. Proportional Pricing means simply that the value of a coffee is relative to the value it generates for the roaster. Based on that premise, Torque applied a Proportional Pricing equation in which the producers receive 20% of the retail value of every bag of roasted coffee.
We call it Proportional Pricing© because it automatically adjusts to the price the bag of coffee is sold at. Proportional Pricing changes the value equation of the coffee supply chain. Instead of the commodity market deciding what a coffee farmer's coffee is worth, you the customer decide its value. Proportional Pricing means that a preset percentage of that value is due the coffee producer. You know the exact impact your purchase has on the coffee producer. No complex math, no 50 page reports, no long explanations, sob stories or strings attached. It's just the Producer's Portion.
The Torque Coffees Green Coffee Guide
Torque Coffees is pioneering a unique and radically different approach to the coffee value chain. The current coffee value chain starts at the commodity market price of generic green and tries to come up with some amount of add-ons to make that base commodity price deliver value to specialty coffee producers.
Torque Coffees reverse engineered the coffee value chain (GVC) and we start from the value to the consumer for a bag of roasted coffee and assign a preset percentage of that consumer price as due the coffee producer. Its farmer equity.
We use the economic definition of equity which is “The right to share in the appreciation in value.” We believe that is the bare minimum foundation of a balanced, equitable coffee industry. And that is our ultimate goal. To break the chains of inequality and bring coffee into balance.
