About us

Our Auctions

Redefining Coffee Equity Through Transparency

Traditional coffee supply chains routinely fail smallholder farmers producing exceptional micro-lots: tiny volumes, no price discovery, and quality that disappears into blends long before it can command a fair return. At Qima Coffee, we use the open auction format precisely because it inverts that logic. Every lot we bring to auction is traceable to a named farmer or community, sourced directly through our fresh cherry supply chains, and quality-controlled from farm gate to green bag.

In partnership with the Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE), our auctions create a fully transparent, merit-based global marketplace where quality alone determines value. There are no middlemen setting the price, no commodities logic, and no blending away of exceptional work done on a micro-scale. International roasters compete openly, and farmers receive the return their coffee has genuinely earned.

Yemen

The birthplace of coffee

Founded by Faris Sheibani in 2016 during Yemen's civil war, Qima began with 30 farmers in one community. Today we work with almost 3,000 smallholder farmers across 55 communities, operating Yemen's first fresh cherry supply chain and becoming the country's largest specialty coffee exporter. In 2020, our genetic research programme led to the discovery of Yemenia, a previously unknown Arabica genetic group found exclusively in Yemen. The Best of Yemen, co-hosted with the Alliance for Coffee Excellence, has broken the world record for Yemeni coffee prices three years running, reaching $1,878/kg in 2025.

Whilst Yemeni coffee has a rich history, we believe its future holds more fortune than its past.

Ecuador

A WORLD OF DIVERSITY

Active since 2021, our work in Ecuador began with field research and post-harvest development focused on building quality infrastructure for isolated smallholder farms across Loja and Zamora Chinchipe. By managing fresh cherry purchasing and processing directly, we protect and promote rare, low-volume varieties including Sidra and Typica Mejorado that would otherwise never reach international buyers. The first edition of the Ecuador Farmer's Collection, co-hosted with the Alliance for Coffee Excellence in March 2026, set a new record for Ecuadorian coffee at $318.70/kg and drew 1,882 bids from buyers across 24 countries.

Built to give visibility and international buyers access to Ecuador's highly complex micro-lots.

Colombia

THE LAND OF COFFEE DREAMS

In 2020, we established Qima Colombia S.A.S in Quindío, building a local team of experienced farmers and coffee professionals to replicate our direct sourcing model across one of the world's most established coffee origins. We work with hundreds of smallholder farmers and associations on long-term contracts, sourcing community lots as parchment and exotic varieties as fresh cherry, processed by our on-ground team. Our Alchemy Fermentation Project, spanning 50-plus controlled processing trials, reflects our commitment to pushing Colombian coffee's full potential from the ground up.

DRIVEN TO REVOLUTIONIZE AND UNLOCK THE MAXIMUM VALUE OF COLOMBIAN COFFEE.

Cultivating Change at Origin

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Living Income

We don't purchase coffee on commodity market baselines. Our three-tier pricing model covers farm production costs, a baseline living wage for farming households, and a quality premium on top — tied directly to the price the coffee achieves. The farmer's return is determined by the quality they produced, not a margin we needed to protect.

Profit Reinvestment

10% of company profits flow into the Qima Foundation, funding agricultural programmes, processing infrastructure, education, and community resources at origin. The commercial success of every auction is directly connected to long-term investment in the farming communities that made it possible.

Equal Opportunity

Our auction format is built to include every farmer, regardless of how remote their farm or how small their lot. Any smallholder can submit their coffee for evaluation. Every submission receives the same rigorous assessment and an equal opportunity to achieve record-breaking prices on the global market.

“
There is a perception that private auctions concentrate value away from producers. What we have seen, in Yemen and now in Ecuador, is the opposite. When an auction is designed to be lean, transparent, and integrated at origin, more value flows directly back to the farmer. That is not a charitable outcome. It is a commercial one. Qima was built to prove it. We invite you to be part of that proof.
”

Faris Sheibani, Founder & CEO