Green Silk Coffee Caravan

Coffee has the power to connect consumers with biodiverse agroforestry landscapes like no other crop. So it makes sense for the Green Silk Road to work with coffee value chains that foster direct trade and use income to reinvest into restoration ecology. One such example is the Eastern Ghats coffee project by Raddis (Radical Disruption). After many years of hard work in cotton supply chain development, Raddis has entered the coffee sector, bringing its signature business model of farmer first policies along with it. GSR is keen to explore what this could mean for end consumers, growers and the Eastern Ghats bioregion.

Coffeepreneurship

We hope to use this coffee-connection for some system changing coffeepreneurship both in the green hills where the berries are born, as well as the many places where the beans find themselves.

What becomes possible when coffee growing communities have control over the use of income generated from (inter)national sales to specialty coffee roasters? How can farmers become equal partners in the supply chain, deciding along with roasters how best to bring out the unique flavour of their specific region, and how to position their coffee amidst all the other countless flavours and types in the market? Can the specialty coffee scene become more inclusive and participatory? What about bringing cupping skills directly to rural youth?

And on the other end of the value chain: what if consumers could see direct impact of their purchase on improved ecosystem and community wellbeing? Would they be interested? If we create a tool for real-time tracking would they use it? Would they be willing to shift to a subscription model, creating much needed stability and reducing uncertainty in the rest of the chain?

But before we can re-imagine the entire industry we need to up our quality game. The farmers working with Raddis are just starting to learn about the extra demands of sorting, grading, fermentation and drying that come with making world class coffee. This season we start with a series of small-scale pilots, testing various processing techniques. In early 2026 we will present these to roasters and once we have solid trading partners we can switch gear into campaign mode. By next harvest (winter 2026) we should be ready to launch a real coffee caravan, ending up in a cafe near you!