Producer Relationship Management - Doi Canopy

What This Service Provides

You'll have consistent local representation maintaining your partnerships with Thai coffee farmers when you can't be there yourself. We serve as your eyes and ears in Northern Thailand, conducting regular farm visits, communicating your feedback, and handling the ongoing dialogue that keeps relationships productive.

Rather than letting partnerships go quiet between buying seasons, your producers receive regular contact and support. They understand your quality priorities, hear your feedback on previous lots, and receive guidance that helps them improve their work. You stay informed about crop development, processing plans, and any concerns that need attention.

This means your direct trade relationships remain active investments rather than becoming transactional purchasing arrangements. The connection you've built with specific farmers continues developing over time, supported by someone who understands both their situation and your business needs.

The Distance Challenge in Direct Trade

You've invested in developing relationships with specific Thai producers, perhaps visiting their farms and building personal connections. But maintaining those partnerships from thousands of miles away presents real difficulties. Communication becomes sporadic, limited to the weeks when you're actively purchasing coffee.

Between buying seasons, your producers may wonder if you'll return, whether you were satisfied with the last harvest, or how they might improve for next year. Without regular contact, small problems can grow into larger issues. Processing decisions that could benefit from your input happen without consultation. Opportunities to strengthen the relationship slip past.

You recognize that meaningful direct trade requires ongoing engagement, not just annual transactions. Yet traveling to Thailand multiple times per year isn't practical for most roasters. You need someone locally who can maintain the relationship momentum you've established, keeping the connection alive and growing when you can't be present yourself.

How We Support Your Producer Relationships

Our service functions as your local presence in Northern Thailand's coffee communities. We maintain regular contact with your producer partners, conducting farm visits throughout the growing season and serving as the communication bridge between your roastery and their operations.

Regular Farm Visits

We visit your partner farms throughout the year, observing crop development, discussing upcoming harvest plans, and maintaining the personal connection that makes direct trade meaningful. Farmers know they have consistent contact with someone representing your interests.

Quality Feedback Communication

Your cupping notes and feedback reach producers in ways they can understand and act on. We translate technical quality observations into practical guidance about processing adjustments or harvest timing that can improve future lots.

Monthly Reporting

You receive regular updates covering crop development, processing preparations, any concerns requiring attention, and general farm conditions. This keeps you informed without requiring constant personal follow-up.

Logistics Coordination

We handle the ground-level coordination of sample collection, lot preparation, and export arrangements. This removes the burden of managing international logistics details while ensuring nothing falls through communication gaps.

What Working Together Looks Like

This service operates as an ongoing partnership where we become an extension of your team in Thailand. The relationship develops over months as we learn your priorities and build stronger connections with your producers.

1

Initial Setup

We discuss your existing producer relationships, your quality priorities, and what you hope to accomplish through ongoing local support. This establishes how we'll represent your interests.

2

Ongoing Visits

Throughout the growing season, we conduct regular farm visits with your producers. These maintain personal connection while gathering information about crop conditions and processing plans.

3

Regular Updates

Monthly reports keep you informed about developments with your partner farms. We communicate any situations requiring your attention and share observations about quality trends.

Seasonal Intensity

During harvest and processing seasons, contact becomes more frequent as we monitor quality decisions and coordinate logistics. Off-season, visits focus on relationship maintenance and planning for upcoming crops. You stay connected to your producers through all phases of the coffee year, not just purchasing periods.

Service Investment and What's Included

$650 USD per month

Monthly retainer for ongoing producer relationship management

What You Receive Each Month

Regular farm visits with your producer partners

Quality feedback communication to farmers

Detailed monthly reports on crop development

Processing season monitoring and updates

Coordination of sample collection and shipping

Local logistics management for your purchases

Alerts about concerns requiring attention

Direct communication channel for questions

Service Scope

The monthly retainer covers ongoing relationship management with your established producer partners in Northern Thailand. For roasters working with multiple producers across different regions, we can discuss appropriate service levels based on the complexity of your partnerships.

This service works alongside your direct purchasing arrangements. We handle the relationship maintenance and local coordination while you continue managing commercial terms and contracts directly with your producers. The service requires a minimum three-month commitment to allow relationships to develop properly.

How This Service Creates Value

The effectiveness of relationship management comes from consistent presence and genuine cultural understanding. We've maintained producer partnerships across Northern Thailand since establishing operations in Chiang Mai in 2017.

Relationship Continuity

Farmers appreciate consistent contact throughout the year rather than communication limited to buying seasons. This ongoing dialogue builds trust and makes them more receptive to quality feedback and improvement suggestions.

Cultural Navigation

Communication in Thai coffee communities involves cultural nuances that affect relationship development. We understand how to convey quality concerns constructively and maintain relationships even when discussing difficult topics.

Quality Development

When producers receive timely feedback and understand what you value, they can make processing adjustments that improve future lots. This iterative improvement happens more effectively with consistent local support.

Issue Prevention

Regular farm visits help identify potential problems early, whether processing equipment issues, harvest timing concerns, or communication misunderstandings that could affect coffee quality or availability.

Several roasters we support have maintained the same producer partnerships for five or more years, with coffee quality and relationship depth both improving over time. This consistency comes from treating direct trade as an ongoing commitment rather than seasonal transactions. The monthly investment in relationship management pays returns through more reliable sourcing, better quality alignment, and the deeper satisfaction that comes from genuine partnership.

Our Service Commitment

We understand that entrusting us to represent your relationships with producers requires confidence in our approach and capabilities. Our commitment centers on transparent communication and genuine care for the partnerships we help maintain.

Regular Reporting

Monthly updates arrive consistently, covering all farm visits and significant developments. You'll always know what's happening with your producer partnerships without needing to ask.

Responsive Communication

Questions about farm conditions, processing plans, or relationship concerns receive prompt responses. We maintain contact channels that work across time zones.

Honest Assessment

We provide candid feedback about producer performance, relationship challenges, and realistic expectations for quality development. Sugarcoating problems helps no one.

Flexible Arrangement

After the initial three-month commitment, service continues month-to-month. If our representation doesn't meet your needs, you can conclude the arrangement.

The success of this service depends on alignment between your priorities and our approach. If we don't seem like the right fit for representing your producer relationships during initial discussions, we'll let you know honestly rather than encouraging an arrangement unlikely to work well.

Beginning Producer Relationship Support

Starting this service involves understanding your existing producer relationships and determining how we can best support them through local presence.

Step 1

Relationship Review

We discuss your current producer partnerships, what you hope to achieve through ongoing support, and any specific concerns or priorities you have about these relationships.

Step 2

Service Planning

We develop a clear plan for farm visit frequency, reporting content, and how we'll communicate your priorities to producers. This establishes expectations on all sides.

Step 3

Initial Visits

We begin farm visits with your producers, introducing ourselves as your local representatives and establishing the communication patterns that will continue throughout our work together.

Service typically begins within two weeks of finalizing arrangements. The first month focuses on establishing relationships with your producers and understanding their operations. By month two, regular patterns of communication and reporting are in place.

This service works alongside your existing purchasing arrangements. We coordinate with however you currently manage commercial terms with producers, adding the layer of ongoing local presence and communication support.

Strengthen Your Producer Partnerships

If you've built relationships with Thai coffee farmers but struggle to maintain them from a distance, let's discuss how ongoing local representation might support your direct trade program.

Discuss Your Needs

Contact us at +66 53 894 217 or [email protected]

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