Equipo monKaaba
monKaaba — Colombia
Although San Agustín is one of the oldest and most valuable coffee growing regions in Colombia, generational smallholder farmers still do not have access to markets that would offer them a sustainable price. monKaaba seeks to change this.
The six smallholder families who founded the project were driven by a shared vision of a different system in which coffee farmers are treated with respect and dignity. Esnaider Ortega Gomez and Didier Ortega run the day-to-day operations of monKaaba. The central hub is a quality assurance laboratory, where any producer can drop by to taste their own coffee and receive immediate feedback on what can be improved. Producers can then decide to join the monKaaba, receive guidance from more experienced producers, and distribute their coffee through the collective.
monKaaba
From an initial group of six founding families, monKaaba now includes more than 60 families and is beginning to extend its support to smallholder farmers in neighboring regions who have limited or no access to specialty coffee market prices. The impact of monKaaba's approach is already visible. Esnaider has noticed that the quality of production has increased among all producers involved in monKaaba and is now of a more consistent quality. In addition, many of the young growers who started by contributing to collective blends, such as La Colmena, have now started selling microlots under their own name for solid prices. This creates sustainable wealth for smallholder families and keeps younger generations interested in growing coffee.
monKaaba works closely with Semilla Coffee, a coffee importer based in Canada. The partnership grew out of many conversations and a close friendship between Esnaider Ortega Gomez and Brendan Adams from Semilla.
Esnaider worked for a coffee exporter for ten years. During that time, he often saw producers’ coffees being rejected based on a cupping score without any clear feedback on either the score or what could be done to improve it. This experience deeply shaped his perspective.
With monKaaba, he set out to remove barriers to access and knowledge. The goal is to help smallholder producers better understand the quality of their coffee, gain insight into the coffee supply chain, and take more control over their own production.
monKaaba provides educational support and prepares coffees for export. Semilla acts as the buyer and importer. In addition, Semilla financially supports the project by covering the costs of a free and open quality-control lab, as well as the salaries of monKaaba team members working in roasting, accounting, and warehouse management.