Bitcoin Gains Traction in International Trade. A US-based Coffee Roastery Pays for One and a Half Tons of Quality Coffee from El Salvador with Bitcoin. The Government Was Happy to Assist.

El Salvador’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs itself tweeted the joyous news:

„Coffee from El Salvador arrives in the capital of the United States, thanks to our country’s Bitcoin infrastructure. We support Compass Coffee in purchasing coffee from Jorge Cruz, who uses the cryptocurrency.“

It consists of 15 double hundredweights of high-quality coffee from Cruz’s Biokrop project. The price was two to three times the market price in the USA. Besides the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Salvadoran Embassy in the USA was also involved in facilitating the trade.

For Compass Coffee, this is not the first exchange with El Salvador. The roastery began offering a „Bitcoin Blend“ with coffee from El Salvador in 2022. Even then, the Salvadoran Embassy helped connect with the coffee farmers. The price is $39.59 for the American double pound (just over 900 grams), which is not exactly cheap, but not excessively expensive either. Melitta, for example, offers coffee from El Salvador at a similar price. And if you want to pay for coffee from El Salvador with Bitcoin in Germany, you can do so at LyaCoffee.

Back to Compass Coffee. The company has focused on addressing the Bitcoin community, certainly driven by the personal passion of its founders. At the „Bitcoin Policy Summit“ in Washington in April, Compass Coffee became the official sponsor and offered the Bitcoin Blend for free. Compass was also present at Bitcoin 2024 in Nashville at the end of July, selling coffee. Jorge Cruz spoke there about how his business benefits from fast, direct Bitcoin transactions.

Compass Coffee writes, „We believe in the transformative potential of Bitcoin, destined to revolutionize the coffee industry by allowing coffee companies to deal directly with farmers and eliminate middlemen.“ This will distribute the value more equitably in the coffee supply chain.

It would be nice if this were the case. But this idea is already known from Tealet:

According to their own statement, the quality teas traded through Tealet are significantly cheaper than those that go through the usual trading route. Additionally, farmers receive triple the price. For the Hawaiian company, it is only logical to accept Bitcoin as a currency: „Our mission is to eliminate middlemen in the global tea trade, so it’s no surprise that we’re interested in eliminating financial middlemen. The fees are significantly lower than with other payment services like PayPal,“ said the Hawaiian company.

That was in 2013. By now, Tealet’s revolution seems to have fallen asleep long before halftime.

However, coffee farmers in El Salvador have a bonus: an extremely cooperative government. The Bukele cabinet is always striving to aid the spread of Bitcoin; when this coincides with exporting the country’s coffee under better conditions by eliminating middlemen, so much the better.

State institutions often play a role in foreign trade. They help make contacts and ensure sufficient liquidity for payments through export credits. If the government of El Salvador moves in this direction, it could give a boost to foreign trade through Bitcoin—not just for coffee.