Edwin Martinez

About Edwin Martinez

Before I was a teen I planted thousands of coffee trees at my grandfathers small farm in northwest Guatemala and in 1995 I opened an espresso cart in Bellingham, WA serving pretty terrible coffee that I was proud of that my customers enjoyed. While there was much opportunity for improvement at every stage what bothered me most was knowing exactly how much work goes into growing and harvesting coffee and how little this was appreciated by end consumers.Then one day I had a dream of getting coffee from our farm directly to a roaster. After receiving feedback that the quality was excellent something didn\'t seem right that it was lost in an ocean of commodity coffee. So with out a plan I started exporting/importing raw coffee in check on suitcases. It took a year of effort despite being bilingual, multicultural and having studied business to jump through the hoops to get a license to export our own coffee. Prior to this the few who exported had licenses that were all grandfathered in and it was a pretty small circle where everyone knew each other. The process for a small producer to have true market access was not only cumbersome but practically impossible. We finally obtained this license and since then have helped thousands of other small producers become less anonymous in the marketplace. Today there are producers in Guatemala. And while they don\'t all need their stories told they do deserve to have the option if they\'re willing to hustle. To this day we continue to connect producers of the highest quality coffee to quality driven roasters around the world. The challenges don\'t go away, they just change. Our focus remains the same committed to forging long term sustainable relationships adding value to all involved.

Experience

1. CEO

   Onyx Coffee

   Apr 2007 — Present

   Seed to cup consulting in coffee industry. Specializing in Direct Trade Relationship Development. Connecting producers of the highest quality coffee in Guatemala direct to quality driven roasters around the

Skills

• Marketing
• Negotiation
• Sales
• Strategic Planning
• New Business Development
• Product Development
• Marketing Strategy
• Business Strategy