We’re amending our pricing structure.

Our models were getting outdated, and the components did not make sense in the current reality. We are making a step to become more modular, and even more transparent.

Let us walk you through the main changes.

From now on, you can literally choose what services you want, and don’t want to pay for. These are:

You might notice there’s a thing you cannot choose: that is the work the This Side Up team puts in, i.e. our labour and overhead component as we call it. But when you order bigger bulk orders, from 50 bags onwards, it actually is less work per kilogram for us to process this. We haven’t done volume discounts for years, but with this increased transparency we can better see how they can be applied on our labour component. In short, we’re reintroducing discount brackets for bigger origin reservations and buys:

In practice, these price elements will lead to four new configurations or models from 2025 onwards:

MODEL 1

stock price: all in with labour, finance, storage, risk and no commitments 

MODEL 2

origin reservation: labour, finance, storage, risk and farmer commitment

MODEL 3

origin buy: labour, storage, risk, farmer commitment with self finance

MODEL 4

self paid and stored: labour, farmer commitment, self financed and self stored

Model DIY

Do it yourself

It’s on every roaster’s mind: when does it make sense to start importing myself? We tried to be fully transparent about everything it involves to import coffee by summing up all we do, step by step, modularly in the table above. We often see roasters grossly underestimating the work and then returning to us. We estimate, based on a decade of experience, that once you plan to import more than 200 bags, you are ready to import yourself, using your own time and resources. If you have any questions regarding the process, whether you are our (former) customer or not, don’t hesitate to contact us. We wish we had someone advising us when we started out with importing, and now that we grew up we wish to always remain that advisor for those who come after us.

PERCENTAGES ARE MISLEADING

“50% more value to the farmer”. “100% over fair trade price”. We hear these well intended messages often in specialty coffee marketing. The truth is, these statements mean nothing. The only thing that is interesting and worth talking about is how much the farmer got paid in real currency and how you arrived at that price - collectively.

PREDICTABILITY

Our margins represent a fixed cost per kilogram for doing business with This Side Up - regardless of the coffee or its price. We publish this price annually in June so that roasters and farmers know exactly what moving coffee through the TSU value chain costs. This predictability is a service that we hope can become the norm for all trade facilitators.

TO AVOID DISCOUNTS

It’s a human nature to want a discount. It makes you feel you had a bargain, but also implies that you feel you’re normally being overcharged. When you show what every player of the value chain earns and explain why this price is fair, discounts feel uncomfortable - it means you’re asking for a cut in someone’s margin or livelihood. Let’s stop this behaviour and strive to divide the profits and risks equally throughout the chain.

NO GROWTH FOR THE SAKE OF GROWTH

Nothing grows forever. If it would, then an old tree would be several kilometers tall. Every living organism reaches a point of maturation. As This Side Up, we have calculated this point, based on a few simple facts. What is the quantity and therefore impact at which we are satisfied for a year, at all our individual origins? What is a healthy revenue for the company, including decent salaries? We don’t grow for the sake of growth.

CURRENCIES OF TRADE

Almost all our contracts are being agreed on, and paid in, US dollars per American pound. As our shop operates in euros (and kilograms), we need to purchase dollars beforehand, or work with the currency of the day. In the last five years, we’ve had situations where €1,00 would give us $1,07 but in other times, it’s been closer to $1,18. This difference we partly need to “hedge” ourselves, but always calculate the difference - in this case a discount - to the roaster. 

POLITICAL INSTABILITY

Unfortunately local currencies can be extremely volatile in developing countries. In our global ecosystem, we deal with political factors like an army coup in Myanmar or a rebel attack in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo.  In some cases we might need to adjust our prices to be able to provide our farmer partners with what they need to fulfil in their daily livelihoods and make the proper investments in their business. In the end, our value chain is as strong as the weakest link. 

LOGISTICAL CHANGES

Filling full containers instead of half containers obviously makes a big difference on the transport costs per transported kilogram of coffee. With every harvest, we do our outmost best to fill the container as well as we can, and we offer the empty space for “piggy backers” to maximise efficiency. Nevertheless, shortage of containers, overbooked voyages or even a blockage such as in the Suez canal in 2021 can also push the prices of transporting a simple container. 

HISTORY AND LOCATION

Some countries have had a more prosperous past than others. This reflects on the infrastructure of roads, but also basic human needs like safety, access to education or finance. A country like Brazil has seen more investments in the past, than for example Rwanda. It has led to bigger and more mechanised farms in the former, and smaller manual labour intense ones in the latter. Also, exporting from a country with a sea port is easier and cheaper than exporting from a landlocked country.