In early May 2024, Producer & Roaster Forum announced it will host the first-ever PRF: Farm Summit on 17 & 18 October in Santander, Colombia. Unlike previous editions, the event will take place entirely on a coffee farm with a specific focus on regenerative agriculture and organic farming practices.

PRF will host two events per year. In addition to the two-day forums in major cities across Latin American producing countries which attract thousands of visitors, the all-new Farm Summit will bring together a maximum of 1,000 attendees in more rural regions.

The goal of the new event format is to improve producers’ success and profitability in the long term by adopting more holistic farming practices. In line with this, PRF has announced a speaker line up that will provide valuable and actionable insight for all attendees, while also creating a more hands-on approach to industry events.

Read on to learn more about who will speak at the inaugural PRF: Farm Summit and how you can attend.

Learn more about PRF here.

What’s happening at PRF: Farm Summit?

The first Farm Summit will take place at Hacienda Cafetera La Pradera in Santander, Colombia – a Cup of Excellence award-winning coffee farm that also operates wet and dry mills.

La Pradera was handpicked to host the event given its strong focus on organic farming. In addition to growing shade-grown coffee, generating its own solar energy, and implementing crop diversification strategies, the coffee farm also produces its own biochar fertiliser.

Similar to the intimacy of the Sourcing Trip Experience at previous PRF events, Farm Summit will allow attendees to share practical hands-on knowledge. Roasters and traders from Germany, Japan, Ireland, the US, Poland, the UK, Hungary, Spain, Nigeria, the UAE, Croatia, Australia, and Indonesia will attend to engage with producers from over ten different origins.

Henry Wilson is the founder of PRF. He explains how the new event format will provide attendees with opportunities to build stronger relationships with prospective clients and industry peers.

“For producers, Farm Summit is a valuable platform to not only sell green coffee, but to establish alliances with farmers from different origin countries and leverage their experience,” he says. “Roasters, meanwhile, can see what other brands have achieved in the organic and regenerative agriculture markets, as well as sourcing coffee from like-minded producers and experiencing farming practices firsthand.”

Why regenerative agriculture and organic farming?

Each Farm Summit will have a focus based on feedback from previous editions. This year, it will be on regenerative agriculture and organic coffee production. 

Achieving and retaining organic certification can be costly, particularly for smallholders, so PRF will welcome producers who are already certified, as well as those who are interested in these practices and want to know more.

The event will explore how holistic farming practices can help producers lower production costs, adapt to the climate crisis, maximise yields, improve profitability in the long term, and differentiate themselves in the market – rather than a simplistic idea that higher prices are the only answer.

“There’s a clear need to discuss alternative models to address some of the biggest challenges that farmers are facing,” Henry says. “But to provide actionable solutions, producers need ownership over their supply chains. Utilising regenerative and organic farming is one of the most valuable ways they can achieve this.

“The common discourse is that these practices are more expensive for producers, but Farm Summit aims to open up the conversation and ensure producers’ voices are front and centre,” he adds.

Simultaneously, the event will address how the growing trend of regenerative agriculture certifications has created vague, catch-all terms that are difficult to define – and, therefore, are at risk of greenwashing. Moreover, with growing concerns about how certifications largely benefit actors on the consuming end of the supply chain, the event will offer solutions for how producers can generate and retain more value.

Announcing the speakers

As part of its overall focus, the event will host a tailored PRF Voices programme.

Hosting the event on a coffee farm allows roasters to more easily engage with producers, and learn more about regenerative agriculture from farmers themselves – thereby placing them at the forefront of Farm Summit. 

Attendees can take part in talks and will then get to see and interact with specific topics and areas covered – such as biochar production, crop diversification, and shade-grown coffee systems.

PRF Voices

The PRF Voices programme will feature a carefully curated line up of lectures and panels from both international and Latin American industry experts – including Brazil, Honduras, France, the UAE, the US, and more:

• The Carbon-Nitrogen Ratio: Climate-Resilient Strategies in Organic Coffee Production (Oscar Zacarias, Technical Manager at Agrosana, Guatemala)
• Coffee for Health: A New Category with Great Potential (Ildi Revi, Chief Learning Officer at Purity Coffee, US)
• Innovative Fermentation: Creating Unique Flavour Profiles Through Experimental Processes (Manuel Diaz, founder of ONA consulting, Mexico)
• Resilience Through Crop Diversification: The Sancocho Method (Nelson Galindo Collazos, founder of Nelson Galindo Consulting, Colombia)
• Certifications: Impact vs Marketing (Martin Mayorga, CEO of Mayorga Coffee, US)
• Building and Implementing High Capacity Biofertiliser Factories (Nery Gonzales Hernández, Coordinator of the Technical Assistance, Projects, and Environment Unit at COMSA, Honduras)
• Chromatography & Soil Quality Assessment (Tulio Esteban Lozano Vesga, founder of Campo Para Todos, Colombia)
• Resilient Systems: Nature as the Coffee Farmer’s Best Ally (Arnaud Causse, Director of Agroecological Transition at Belco, France)
• Cascara: Unlocking the Value of Coffee By-products (Andres Bahamón, researcher at Cesurcafé, Colombia)
• Optimising Costs with Biochar: Technical Applications and Data-Driven Insights (Aristides José Noriega Hernández, CEOof BioSoils Group, Colombia)
• Philosophical Dimensions of Coffee: Beyond Taste to Emotional Experience (Abdulrahman Hayel Saeed, founder of Mokha Not Mocha, UAE)
• Strategies for Adapting to Climate Change in Coffee Farming (Juan Luis Barrios, owner of Finca La Merced, Guatemala)
• Carbon Footprint in Brazilian Coffee: Measurement and Reduction Strategies (Ana Claudia Silva, Head of Impact at Sancoffee, Brasil)
• How Producers Can Capture Value by Roasting Their Own Coffee (Eduardo Choza, Director of Coffee at Mayorga Coffee, US)

You can read more about the speakers at Farm Summit here.

Panels and roundtables

In addition to speakers, the event will include a select number of panels:

• Role & Importance of Biochar in Coffee
  • Oscar Daza, founder of Hacienda La Pradera, Colombia
  • Mildred Muñoz, founder of Santa Maria Project, Colombia
  • Amellia Connell, Agricultural Engineer at Purity Coffee, France
  • Francisco Tamayo, Coffee Adviser at Purity Coffee, Colombia
• Certifications and Controversies: Reviewing Regenerative vs Organic Practices
  • Jeffrey Chean, co-founder of Groundwork Coffee, US
  • Angela Pelaez Martinez, RGC Coffee, Colombia
  • Melina Devoney, independent, US
• Exploring Subproducts and Byproducts of Coffee and Cacao Production
  • Yolima Ramirez Gómez, CEO of Indio Ramirez Café, Colombia
  • Liliana Caballero Rojas, Manager at Cafe Hacienda Casablanca, Colombia
  • Erica Sanchez, CEO of Somos Cacao, Colombia
• Enhancing Soil Through Beneficial Native Microbiology
  • Alieth Cecila Polo, independent consultant, Colombia
  • Ángela Barrero, owner of La Bodega de la Finca, Colombia
• Empowering Youth and Women Coffee Producers
  • María Cecilia Tobar Meneses, Coordinator of the Socio-Organisational Area at Federación Campesina del Cauca, Colombia
  • Tania Cecilia Landaverde, Organic Coffee Certification Technician at CESAL, Honduras
  • Irene Villavicencio, producer at MAV Coffee, El Salvador
• Collaborating for EUDR Compliance: Producers, Traders & NGOs
  • Jaromir Hanzal, founder of International Center for the Advancement of Coffee, Czech Republic
  • Rodolfo Ruffatti, founder of International Center for the Advancement of Coffee, El Salvador

Alongside a specific focus on regenerative and organic agriculture, PRF: Farm Summit will directly address issues related to the European Union Deforestation Regulation. 

With medium and larger-sized companies expected to comply with new legislation by 30 December 2024 (and smaller brands needing to prove due diligence by June 2025), it’s essential that producers, roasters, and traders are aware of how the strict regulations will impact their operations. If not, they risk losing access to a market that accounts for over a third of global coffee consumption.

Bringing the industry to a coffee farm

For attendees to obtain as much value as possible, the event will include collaborative workshops and focus groups, such as Introduction to Regenerative Organic Certification for Coffee Farms hosted by Mayacert and a Bird Friendly coffee certification workshop hosted by Smithsonian.

PRF will then collate findings from these activities to pen an open letter to the coffee industry.

Additionally, there will be a number of cupping sessions run by some of Latin America’s finest coffee producers and traders, showcasing the very best that the region has to offer. Hosts will include Café Linaje, Algrano, Osito Coffee, and more.

There will also be a select number of booths for brands interested in regenerative agriculture and organic farming, as well as producers and roasters who already grow and source these coffees.

Competitions

PRF: Farm Summit will also host three competitions:

• The fifth Cold Brew Coffee Championship sponsored by Toddy – where competitors must prepare two cold brew-based beverages, including a designer drink
• The Cacao Masters Cup for producers to learn more about alternative cash crops, sponsored by Somos Cacao
• The first-ever Soil of Excellence competition to assess soil samples from some of the world’s best producers, which is sponsored by Belco

The inaugural PRF: Farm Summit will be held entirely on a coffee farm on 17 & 18 October 2024. Attendees will be able to learn firsthand about holistic farming approaches to understand how these practices can support long term success for producers.

The Sourcing Trip Experience tickets are now sold out, but international tickets can still be purchased here. The PRF team is happy to recommend producers and farms to visit before or after the event, as well as producers who will be in attendance at Farm Summit.

You can stay up to date with all announcements for PRF here or by subscribing to the newsletter here.

Photo credits: Producer & Roaster Forum

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