Semilla Coffee is one of the importers we work with, and Brendan Adams — its founder — is someone we genuinely trust and learn from. Based in Montreal, Semilla works with smallholder farmers who are often shut out of the specialty market, helping them connect directly with roasters and build more stability over time. We’re sharing part of our conversation below, and Brendan talks about what it looks like to build a coffee supply chain that’s fair, transparent, and human — and why keeping value closer to farming communities really matters.
HOLM- Can you take us back to the beginning — how did Semilla come to life?
— Brendan: Once I started roasting coffee, it became this thing that intersected so many of my interests. I had this idea that maybe coffee could bring all of them together. That was when I decided this was where I wanted to focus — finding a way to understand how coffee could be used for change.
Coffee is something people really connect with. People care about their daily ritual. And because I’d been part of advocacy and activism, I realized how hard it was to make people connect with something unless there was a tangible entry point. Coffee could be that. If you could connect something they already love to bigger conversations, maybe they could see beyond the cup.
Around that time, people were becoming very critical of specialty coffee, and for good reason. Ten or fifteen years ago, things still weren’t really working for producers. Many growers needed opportunities to access differentiated markets and prices, but they had no ability to get into them.
That became the central question for me: if producers can’t access the market, nothing else matters. You have to build a market where the buyer engages directly and helps build knowledge so producers can become active players. That way, if we’re not around, or other “benevolent buyers” aren’t around, they can still find their way.
Holm: In those first years when you started traveling and having more autonomy over your work, was there a specific experience that made you feel things needed to be done differently? Or was it more of a culmination over time?
— Brendan: It was a bit of both. We all feel like we can fix things where we are, but once you see the intended and unintended consequences of the system, you realize there’s no perfect way to do this. If you want continued access to high-quality coffee, you have to build trust with growers. Otherwise, growers will sell to a local intermediary who pays cash. Maybe it’s not the best price, but it’s guaranteed.
One experience I think about a lot was on my first trip to Honduras. There’s a very famous specialty exporter there — really well-respected, very good people, and they’ve helped a lot of people in the wider community benefit from specialty coffee.
I remember being in their cupping lab, where all the buyers come. Every day during the harvest, there’s someone from Japan, the U.S., or Europe. What struck me was how easy it was to buy coffee. Knowing how hard it is to operate in Honduras, it was bizarre to see how easy it was to get to that lab.
I watched producers who were part of that cupping lab walk in, drop off samples, chat, connect with the family. And then other people — some who had been there before, some who hadn’t — physically come to the door and not be allowed in.
That was when I realized how quickly I was being gatekept. It was a physical example of access: literally, who gets through the door? Who doesn’t?
And once you see that, you start to understand how much is decided long before the coffee ever reaches a roaster. Fundamentally, it’s about doing a better job of building real access and long-term relationships.
Holm: Can you talk a bit about the impact of climate change on specialty coffee?
— Brendan: Specialty coffee is extremely hard to achieve, especially with climate change. Honduras is a great example.
Many growers we work with there are amazing. They’ve done well in national competitions like Cup of Excellence. But this past year and the year before, climate change brought an obscene amount of rain. They’re not used to this. It’s normally a very dry place. Farmers were losing cherries from the trees. Fermentation and drying were affected because temperatures were inconsistent, humidity was too high.
So we ended up with a lot of defects — coffees that aren’t clean — because the processing methods haven’t adapted to the changing climate yet.
Ultimately, the industry has to understand that arabica stocks are rapidly declining due to climate change, and costs are going up.
“When we commit to buying from 70 growers in one community, that’s a wealth transfer. We pay well above local prices, and we ensure that all of it directly impacts that community. That can look like $750,000 USD directed to 70 growers in one place.”
Holm: How do you see solidarity fitting into Semilla’s story?
— Brendan: One of the most exhilarating things for me in this work is solidarity. When people on the roaster side get engaged, they don’t have to feel guilt — they can feel like there’s something they can actually do.
Semilla should be seen as a symbol. If we’re able to do this, there’s no reason why the industry can’t do it. There’s nothing we did that’s special. We just listened and followed our values
It shouldn’t be a system with more and more layers and hoops. It should be: buy from someone you want to work with, make sure the price makes sense, and buy from that grower over and over again.
In specialty coffee, people love to use the word relationship. But usually they’re talking about a transaction. I don’t think we should use that word unless we’re willing to do the emotional labour and commitment it requires.
Holm: As a closing reflection — what do you hope to see among your roaster customers?
— Brendan: Our hope is always that roasters become deeply engaged in the solidarity process. We don’t want to be viewed as a supplier. We want to be a partner who helps humans connect with other humans in a way that’s deeply real and verifiable.
Every purchase from us is an engagement in solidarity and community-building.
When we commit to buying from 70 growers in one community, that’s a wealth transfer. We pay well above local prices, and we ensure that all of it directly impacts that community.
That can look like $750,000 USD directed to 70 growers in one place. That kind of directed funding makes a big difference, and quickly.
And if more roasters come in with their buying power, those collective commitments go a long way toward ensuring smallholder growers don’t live at the periphery of the global system anymore.
