In-Country Partners (ICP) are ambassadors for CQI and our programs, as they host courses and support various networks of specialty coffee producers. ICPs reinforce coffee standards and aim to increase access to the Q coffee system since they serve as the hubs to evaluate coffee quality using industry standards for both arabica (specialty) and Robusta (fine). In the coming weeks, we'll get the chance to get to know a little more about them.
I believe an ICP is an interface between the importers/exporters on one hand and Q Grader on the other hand. It manages to bring together the main actors in the coffee value chain with independent assessors, helping to identify the commercial value of the goods being traded in a fair, non-questionable way.
The fact that we get to work with so many coffee professionals from all over the world. We get to work with independent farmers, with cooperatives or with very large importing companies from Europe and also with Q Graders from UK and Ireland. We would like to take the opportunity and thank all of them for working with us.
In some cases, we work "pro bono" to ensure that our services can be accessed by small farmers or exporters that are at the beginning of their business. It is a pleasure to get their feedback, finding out that it was really helpful to get their Q certificates and by listing their coffees on the CQI website they could eventually sell their stock. It is nothing more rewarding than knowing that we had a positive impact on some people's lives and that we had a very minor role to play in making the coffee industry more transparent and sustainable.
