How Farmers and Roasters Can Build Coffee Businesses Together (Felipe Croce & David Bray) | EP1712 Part 2 of 5 (Map It Forward)
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Episode Description
This is part 2 of a new 5-part series on The Daily Coffee Pro Podcast by Map It Forward, hosted by Lee Safar. Our guests on the podcast for this series are Felipe Croce from FAF Coffees in Brazil and David Bray from Blue Butterfly Coffee Roasters in Ireland, co-founders of The Common Ground Collective.
The theme of this series is A New Way of Building Coffee Supply Chains.
What happens when a coffee roaster becomes a partner in growing the coffee rather than simply buying it?
In this episode, Felipe and David explain how The Common Ground Collective is being developed as a 15-year partnership built around shared investment, shared production risk, regenerative agriculture, and the potential to share returns from both green and roasted coffee.
They take us inside their initial 2.5-hectare agroforestry project in Brazil, where approximately 4,000 coffee trees per hectare are being grown alongside more than 1,500 trees representing 20 different species.
Felipe explains the importance of building healthy soil, restoring biological systems, and creating productive agroforestry systems that can also be managed efficiently.
The conversation also introduces a significant aspect of their model: from the first productive harvest, the farm team is expected to receive 40% of the crop, while Felipe and David share the remaining 60%.
They discuss the financial realities of a long-term farming partnership, their intended sales channels in Brazil and Ireland, and why creating alternative approaches to production and pricing could help coffee businesses manage future supply and market volatility.
The project remains a working experiment, but its founders believe it could provide valuable lessons for the wider coffee industry.
Connect with Felipe Croce, David Bray, and The Common Ground Collective:
The Common Ground Collective: https://www.instagram.com/thecommongroundcollectivecgc/
FAF Coffees: https://www.instagram.com/fafcoffees/
Blue Butterfly Coffee Roasters: https://www.instagram.com/bluebutterflyireland/
Felipe Croce: https://www.linkedin.com/in/felipe-croce-42180829b
David Bray: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-bray-53731b6b/