In June 2024, we invited coffee farmers, producers and exporters from all over the world to little Ryen in Oslo. The goal was simple, but important: To strengthen collaboration through direct trade and create a deeper understanding of the complex path from bean to cup.

For 145 years, Solberg & Hansen has aimed to be the door opener for the world's best coffee cup, and our most important tool in this process is direct trade. It's not just about buying and selling, it's about building strong relationships with farmers and producers around the world.

When World of Coffee, Europe's largest coffee fair, was to be held in Copenhagen in June 2024, our coffee buyers Morten Sletten and Alexander Scheen Jensen saw that it might be possible to achieve a dream they have had for many, many years: To invite all the producers and exporters we have relationships with to Oslo. Many of these producers had already planned to travel to Copenhagen, and once you've traveled from, for example, South America to Scandinavia, the road to Oslo is short.

We invited them to our coffee roastery at Ryen in Oslo a few days ahead of the coffee fair in Copenhagen. The aim of the visit was to open the doors for a deeper conversation about coffee production and the challenges that farmers face today.

For two days, coffee, experiences and flavors were shared between producers who had traveled from all corners of the globe to Norway. Coffee farmers from South America and Asia met face to face - farmers who are usually separated by continents and oceans. They had a unique opportunity to taste each other's coffees and discuss the flavors, techniques and challenges of coffee processing.

The event at Ryen turned out to be more than just a gathering - it became a platform for learning. Farmers discovered their own sacks of green coffee in the raw material warehouse at Ryen, and learned from each other's methods of storing and transporting green coffee. They saw how their green coffee was packaged and handled at the roastery, and how our coffee roasters spend time developing roast profiles for each batch of coffee.

On day two, we also took all the producers on a visit to Solberg & Hansen's concept store in Mathallen in Oslo. The farmers were full of pride when they saw how our baristas brewed their coffee, and they got to taste their own batches of coffee hand-brewed with love.

- It's the best brew I've ever tasted!" exclaimed Hernán Vergara from Colombia when he tasted his decaffeinated coffee from Inza, brewed using barista Martin's very special method for this particular coffee.

Next to Hernán, Leomar Sanchez sat proud as a rooster as he watched the coffee from his organic family farm in Peru being brewed.

Language barriers didn't stop any of them, despite the fact that some only spoke Spanish and others only understood a little English. We had one common language: a passion for coffee.

During the two days at Ryen, it became clear that direct trade is about more than financial transactions. It's about building trust, exchanging experiences and ensuring that coffee farmers around the world have the best conditions for producing quality coffee. Through dialog, cooperation and openness, a community is created across cultures and continents.

- Without direct trade, we would never have had the good relationships that made it possible to invite the farmers here to Norway," says general manager Bengt Ove Bitnes Hagen.

- We are incredibly grateful that they have taken the time to travel the long way, and not least for everything we have learned from each other.

This visit to the Ryen roastery is a symbol of what direct trade can achieve. When farmers, producers and exporters meet in this way, they have the opportunity to grow together and ensure that the world can enjoy an even better cup of coffee.