Coffee with Purpose

Up steep and treacherous hills, Andrés Camargo climbed alongside his hosts at a coffee farm in the Antioquia province of Colombia. Workers, carrying bags that would weigh thirty to thirty-five pounds when full, traversed the rows carefully, picking beans as quickly as they could.

The beans were then hand-inspected and processed to sell to a co-op that pays a fixed market price rather than the farmer’s asking price that covers labor costs. Camargo plans to change that model to benefit the farmer and reward intensive labor.

Camargo and his wife, Rocío Salazar, opened Unlocked Coffee Roasters in the Village of West Greenville’s Poe West development in 2020. As Colombians, they planned to support Colombian coffee farmers. “It was in our business plan,” Camargo says. “Without knowing anybody, we knew we wanted to support the farmers back in Colombia.” 

Camargo finally experienced his first Colombian coffee harvest through a partnership with Unblended Coffee. For two and a half weeks this summer, he worked the harvest and began to build relationships with Colombian farmers. These relationships will allow the shop to support the farmers and workers directly. 

“You don’t have to wait to be big to start helping,” he says. “You can start helping small. We might not be a big grocer who can start buying pounds and pounds. All they need to know is whether one person is interested in their actions. Somebody at the end will be interested in buying the coffee.”

Colombia is unique because coffee can be harvested year-round, rather than only twice a year, Camargo says. However, the region suffers from increasingly extreme dry and rainy seasons that have created a hostile climate for the younger generations continuing their family businesses. Without young farmers, the coffee farms will die. Camargo hopes that partnering directly with farms, cutting out the middlemen, and paying what will equate to a living wage will help keep at least a few farms growing. 

That will likely mean coffee prices in Unlocked may go up a bit, but Camargo plans to create specific marketing in the shop that tells the farmers’ stories to make a connection between farmer and consumer. “No more not knowing where you buy coffee from,” he says.

“Hopefully, our customers are not price-point buyers,” he says. “They can know the farmers and where the coffee is coming from and know their dollars are going to something that will change lives. We can stay in business, but also, we’re sending dollars to farmers.” 

Camargo plans to return to Colombia in the fall to purchase a particular farmer’s entire harvest—a farmer he met who needs to know his work is valued. “You can’t do everything, but you can do something,” Camargo says. “We know they appreciate it very much.”