A day without coffee is a day wasted. At least, that’s the case for many of us at the Yamagata Europe headquarters. When it comes to selecting our coffee brand, we are quite picky too. Only the delicious bean juice from our beloved Koffie Quin is good enough. Not only because Koffie Quin delivers the best brew you will find for miles around, but also because the brand and company are partly run by Annelies De Vliegher, one of our valued colleagues.
The Koffie Quin story began in 2013, when Annelies’ husband Rony, born in Honduras, decided to chase his dream. Rony had worked at Honduran coffee plantations for many years and had grown quite knowledgeable of the noble art of coffee making. When settling in Belgium with Annelies in 2003, he started to notice how much us Belgians love a good cup of coffee. This sparked the idea to put his knowledge to use and start his own plantation together with his father, Mardoquin Alba (friends say “Quin”), after whom the coffee was named.
The first harvest from the Finca el Pacayal plantation in Atima, Honduras, became a reality in 2018. That same year, the yield was exported to Belgium for the first time. Yamagata Europe has been enjoying the coffee from their plantation ever since.
Running the Koffie Quin business
Today, Rony and Annelies run the company remotely from Belgium. Rony handles the practical side of Koffie Quin (guarding coffee quality and coordinating the project in Honduras), while Annelies takes care of the things we know she is excellent at: administration, bookkeeping and project management.
In her job as team leader of our project managers at Yamagata Europe, Annelies has a wide variety of tasks. The same is true for her position as co-owner of Koffie Quin. Running the company from Belgium takes a lot of coordination work. Among other things, Annelies focuses her attention on sales, marketing, project management and bookkeeping.
Honest work and income
“The job can be quite challenging, but luckily my experience at Yamagata Europe has proven to be very useful,” says Annelies. “At the same time, Rony and I are very proud and motivated to provide an honest treatment and income for every worker at the plantation in Atima.”
This is not self-evident, because Honduras is one of the most underdeveloped countries of Latin America. More than 50% of the Honduran population are living under the poverty line, and the minimum wage in Honduras is currently no more than 300 euro.
Unfortunately, Rony’s father who was the early driving force behind Finca el Pacayal, passed away in 2015. “Without a doubt, Quin would have been proud of how the company is keeping a strong course today,” says Annelies. “By keeping Koffie Quin alive and kicking today, we can remember and celebrate Quin’s enthusiasm and belief in our project. We still have a lot of ideas and dreams for Koffie Quin that we want to realize in the future.”
Let’s have another cup
In our history of consuming the lovely Koffie Quin, there has been one moment at the Yamagata Europe headquarters where we accidentally ordered another coffee brand. Let’s just say that this nearly led to a company revolt. Trust us, it won’t happen again.
For now, we are going to have another cup of Quin and get back to work!
Want to get a taste of Koffie Quin yourself? Then visit the Koffie Quin website and place your order.
