Cropster.org
Cropster C-sar is a web-based solution that covers all production steps in the coffee supply chain.
Traders and roasters have become used to using IT to enhance their business practices, but a new generation of web-based IT 
platforms will provide farmers, rather than roasters or traders, with the opportunity to gain access to much needed market information, and take advantage of growing demand for high quality, specialty coffee.
Founded by three Austrians in 2009, Cropster is a socially-oriented company that has developed an IT system designed to link farmers to markets. The team at Cropster comes from Austria and Colombia, and all of the team have lived and worked in Latin America.
A mix of former researchers in the agricultural sector and software architects, Cropster’s founders believe that the future of agriculture products such as coffee and cocoa lies in a transparent marketplace in which information is freely available that will allow customers to decide whether to buy a product or not, and allow farmers to make informed decisions about what they grow and where to sell it.
“Most of coffee production is carried out by smallholder farmers,” Andreas Idl, one of the company’s three founders told C&CI. “These small coffee growers are often dependent on intermediaries, and because of this, they remain on the outside of market developments and aren’t in a position to negotiate. They don’t have access to market information on essential data such as prices and quality and so forth, and this asymmetry prevents producers from being more successful or finding new markets.”
“The market for niche markets such as high quality specialty coffee is growing and recent research in Colombia and Central America shows that 20-30 per cent of coffee farmers in these countries grow their coffee in conditions that are suitable for the production of high quality coffee. Moreover, producers of specialty grade coffee can earn up to 30 per cent more by selling their coffee in this market. What stops them from doing so is access to information,” Mr Idl told C&CI . “Improved, more efficient communication channels are needed to exchange production and product quality information between growers, processors and roasters, beyond linguistic and geographical barriers.”
Cropster’s solution is to have created a decentralized, web-based information management system, which covers the whole coffee value chain
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. C-sar is available in three basic configurations: C-sar Producer; C-sar Roast, and C-sar Research.
“C-sar Producer manages production and enables farmers to obtain better prices from niche markets,” Mr Idl explained. “C-sar Producer helps farmers to monitor and plan production so it really fits the needs of a target market. C-sar Producer also helps you to sell your products and publish information about your coffee on the web, including contact details, photos and product details. It also enables producers to obtain valuable feedback from clients regarding the quality of their product, and helps them develop
long term relationships.”
For more information about this interesting IT system for farmers see the forthcoming November 2009 issue of Coffee & Cocoa International, or visit www.cropster.org.
