Where We Stand
By focussing our human and financial resources at the point of origin, we establish partnerships with farmer groups, be they small holder co-operatives or large scale commercial farmers.
We assist in all the post-harvest processes from wet milling to final shipment and delivery to the roaster.
Our concept is to create a viable and stable platform for growers and roasters to trade across, both utilising our market tools of finance, futures and logistics to build open relationships of mutual profitability and interest.
For us, a key component is the empowerment of the farmer through the transfer of skills, knowledge and technology, in order to gain ownership of the dry milling, grading and export of their own coffees.
Our staff include expert cuppers, ex millers and a multilingual logistics team who understand the challenges of origins and the requirements of the importing countries.
This is particular to our increasing trade in third party verified coffees such as Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance, Utz and organic coffees. These demand a high standard of document accuracy and reporting.
The keystone to this business model is transparency. To be partners there must be trust. To build relationships there must be transparency. We believe in our roasters and farmers understanding the entire supply chain and being able to talk freely with each other about the real cost of coffee, from growing to roasting, along with all the cost elements in between, including us!
Who We Are
Falcon Commodities is the commodities trading arm of the Falcon Group of companies. Falcon Foods are food importers and distributors into west and central African markets, making the export of coffee from these countries a natural fit for the group.
These origins form a secure origin base upon which we have built to include those coffee origins where we have experience, have strong ties or see opportunity.
Konrad Brits
Is the origin specialist, responsible for establishing and managing the ties to the producer groups, feeding coffee and information to the trading team based on the Isle of Man. Konrad has 18 years in coffee, starting in South Africa as both importing agent and origin exporter. After establishing a spot import business in South Africa he moved to the UK in 2000. Since then he has established export operations in central America and Africa and is an active member of the Fairtrade Global Advisory Council.
Ash Dougal
Is the Director of Trading and has worked alongside Konrad for the past 10 years. He manages the trading and logistics team on the Isle of Man and is responsible for all physical and futures trading.
Ash is also the senior trade cupper for Falcon, evaluating all offer and approval samples.
Tesby Mejia Saballos
Is responsible for futures and finance, managing our contract book, cashflows and pre-finance to producers. As a Nicaraguan with origin experience, Tesby provides a crucial link to our Central American partners. He is also a cupper, working alongside Ash in quality managment.
Katie East
Manages all our documents and traffic utilising the Eximware, web based platform. Katie’s knowledge and understanding of the certified coffee documentation and reporting is key to our success in this area.
Jeremy Wakeford
Brings over 40 years of coffee experience with him and is pivotal in our origin presence. Having designed, built and managed many wet and dry mills, Jeremy’s 4 decades of cupping combine with a deep understanding of the impact of the mechanics of coffee processing on quality to make him a unique asset. It is through Jeremy that skills and knowledge transfer starts.
Mark Potts
Mark works alongside Katie on documents and logistics. In addition, Mark prepares all coffees for tasting and manages incoming and outgoing samples.
