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Audio story #4 - Lars Aaen Thøgersen
82 Plays2 years ago
Lars Aaen Thøgersen is the Chief Innovation and Circular Transformation Officer at Löfbergs, and Head of Communication at Peter Larsen Kaffe. Lars’ primary mission in the coffee industry is to determine what is needed to innovate businesses in a way that gives back value to coffee farmers in a sustainable way.
Read the full coffee story here
https://notabarista.org/lars-aaen-thogersen/
Story by Nathierah Fredericks
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Transcript
Introduction to Lars Un Theorsen's Coffee Journey
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Coffee Story on Lars Un Theorsen by Nadir of Regics. Lars is the Chief Innovation and Circular Transformation Officer at Luftbags and Head of Communication at Peter Larsen Cafe.
Entrepreneurial Beginnings and Italian Influence
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In his young days, Lars was an entrepreneur and he has since started a number of companies.
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His deep dive into the world of coffee began with the charm of the Italian coffee lifestyle. During these years, Lars became so engrossed in the Italian roasting industry that he wanted to physically be a part of the coffee community and its craftsmanship, so he opened his own coffee shop.
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He worked
Career at Peter Lassen Cafe & Sustainability Focus
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for several years as a barista in his little mobile coffee shop, and a short while later, was approached by Peter Lassen Cafe & Loofbags with an interesting opportunity. Lass has been a part of both organisations for the last 10 years. The deeper he dove into the world of coffee, the more interested he became in all the different dimensions of the coffee industry.
00:00:54
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This is when he started working more purposefully and more intensively with sustainable development projects and initiatives within the coffee community.
Challenges in Supporting Coffee Farmers
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He realized that what is so desperately needed is that we innovate our business in a way that gives back value to farmers. With 20 years in the coffee industry in his back pocket, we asked Lars his professional perspective on a topic that's been making its rounds lately. Can we pay more for our coffee to somehow help coffee farmers?
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At first glance this may seem like the most obvious and simple solution, but according to Lars it's really not that simple. It's a complicated and complex system, he says. He also says that there are so many different aspects into this and could probably be different if we didn't see coffee as just coffee.
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A community that last mentions is the era of we-community, who facilitates a transparent way in which you, as a consumer or a café, can have direct access to the farmer and engage in direct dialogue if you're interested in making the effort to learn more about your coffee.
00:01:53
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At
Circular Coffee Community and Farmer Empowerment
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the moment, Lars sees the era of we community as the best available solution to bring farmers to the table and empower them and their brands. Lars also plays a vital role in the circular coffee community, a non-profit network concerned with exploiting the full potential of coffee and giving back value to the farmers. The circular coffee community reports that only 0.4% of what we spend on coffee goes to the coffee farmers.
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Despite coffee being a multi-billion dollar industry, the prices paid to farmers are so low that they're struggling to make a living.
Profit Distribution and Coffee Supply Chain Complexity
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Apart from the farmers, there are several key players in the coffee supply chain. So, how do we make sense of where all the money goes? Lars explains that there are many layers to consider when evaluating the profit distribution in a coffee supply chain and, as a result, there are a lot of costs related to running a successful value chain.
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However, he notes that one of the strong points in the coffee business is that it has pretty good chaseability. The
Innovations in Coffee Plant Utilization
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supply chain at Luftbags and Peter Larson Cafe, for instance, can chase every single coffee all the way back to the farm. The circular coffee community also informs us that we use less than 1% of the many nutrients contained in the coffee plant, leaving more than 99% that goes to waste.
00:03:09
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Lars is confident that as an industry, these resources could be put to better use to secure better livelihood and new income streams for the farmers. Apart from this, he narrates that it's also how you take care of the environment, how you secure that your environment is not just being destroyed while you grow coffee. This is what the circular coffee community is all about, a community aimed at driving innovation for the circular transformation in the world of coffee.
Vision for a Circular Coffee Supply Chain
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As an organisation they invest time, money and effort into understanding how the remaining 99% of coffee resources can be put to better use. The vision of the circular coffee community is to transform the coffee supply chain into a circular supply chain. If you share this vision like us at i'm not a barista then join the community and be part of the solution.