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Welcome to Recap, a brief overview of recent coffee developments every two weeks from the Specialty Coffee Association.
More than 700 coffee growers in the Kona district of Hawaii are eligible to receive the first settlement payments of a 2019 class action lawsuit. Filed against 22 big-name retailers and suppliers, the lawsuit addresses the false labeling of commodity coffee a s coffee grown in the Kona district. The coffee growers named in the lawsuit argued that falsely advertising commodity coffee as Kona coffee has damaged the coffee’s reputation and depressed prices for growers. The Kona growers’ claim is similar to a successful 2006 effort by French vintners to limit the use of the word “Champagne” for wines grown outside of the region. Within Hawaii, Kona coffee may only be labeled as such if it was both grown within the district and meets quality standards, but the state has had difficulty enforcing the labeling restrictions beyond its borders. As a result of the settlement, retailers selling Kona coffee on a nationwide basis will be subject to Hawaii’s more stringent labeling laws. Though none of the defendants have acknowledged mislabeling, more than a quarter of the large retail defendants have settled to avoid further litigation.
Digital Coffee Future will host three webinars on the intersection of climate change and coffee digitalization, starting today, March 25th. Supported by Expressing Origin and The Chain Collaborative, the series will discuss the viability of integrating digital solutions in the coffee sector in order to respond to climate change. The second webinar of the series, scheduled for April 8th, will share case studies of current tools and projects in the space. This includes the recently released Cool Farm Tool, a collaborative effort between five coffee-buying companies and six coffee-producing cooperatives that helps farmers track and understand the environmental impact of their production. The tool is completely free to use and provides immediate feedback. The third and final webinar in the series, scheduled April 22nd, will explore what’s needed to scale these solutions while taking regional differences into account.
Tim Hortons, a Canadian coffee and doughnut chain, announced a significant corporate investment in its digital guest experience. As guests increasingly interact with the company through its digital channels, the Tim Hortons mobile app reports a five-fold growth in monthly active users since 2018. It also estimates nearly one third of all Canadian adults have used the Tims Rewards loyalty program in the last 18 months. The 80 Million Canadian dollar investment will support the company’s strategic digital initiatives and the building of a “best-in-class” digital experience for guests.
According to the BBC, small start-up coffee businesses have done well in the United Kingdom last year despite challenging conditions. Both mobile coffee vans and subscription services have seen an increase in business across the last year, with some new businesses likely to seek brick-and-mortar locations once the pandemic ends. While chains located in the UK’s busy city centers saw sales drop significantly, only 2% of chain stores have actually closed, bolstered by click-and-collect sales as well as government support. The Guardian reports that a survey conducted by Barclaycard, a UK debit and credit card operator, indicates that local and online retailers are likely to continue to benefit from pandemic-induced changes to shopping patterns. Nearly two thirds of UK consumers have chosen to buy closer to home in the past year, and more than nine in ten who have shopped locally say they will continue to do so even once restrictions are lifted.
If you want to dive deeper into anything you heard today, check out the links in the description of this episode. Recap will be back in two weeks’ time. Thanks for listening.
Further Reading:
Hawaiian Kona Farmers Soon Eligible for Settlements in 2019 Class Action LawsuitKona Coffee Labeling Settlements Top US$13 Million (West Hawaii Today)Hawaii Coffee Farmers Hope Lawsuit Settlement Guarantees Kona in Your Cup Is Real (Los Angeles Times)The Kona Coffee You Buy From Costco and Walmart? It May Be Fake (Los Angeles Times, 2019)Kona Coffee Farmers Settlement A New Free Tool to Help Track (And Reduce) One Part of Coffee’s Carbon Footprint (Sprudge)The Cool Farm Tool The Intersection Between Climate Change and Coffee Digitalization (Digital Coffee Future) Tim Hortons Announces C$80 Million Investment to Support Its Back to Basics Plan that is Delivering Results in Product Quality and Digital Experience (PR Newswire) UK Consumption Trends Shifting Amid Lockdown The Coffee Start-Ups Brewing Up a Storm in Lockdown (BBC)UK Shift to Local Shopping Could Last Beyond Pandemic - Poll (The Guardian)
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Welcome to Recap, a brief overview of recent coffee developments every two weeks from the Specialty Coffee Association.
Reuters reports that US coffee roasters have seen significant cost increases in their operations and expect to raise retail prices soon. Mid-size and smaller roasters are the most affected, but even larger companies confirm they are experiencing higher costs, particularly in shipping and transportation. As consumers continue to shop online, a higher demand for shipping services account for some of the increased costs to roasters. Imbalances in the flow of containers around the world’s shipping ports are also to blame, increasing the costs of transoceanic shipping. While larger companies have the ability to hold substantial amounts of green coffee stock to mitigate recent supply chain challenges and increased costs, small and medium roasters have also reported delays in the receipt of contracted coffee.
Demetria, an Israeli-Colombian food-tech startup, closed a seed funding round of US$3 million in the first week of March. The company is developing artificial intelligence technology that will use portable near infra-red sensors to analyze the fingerprint of green coffee beans for biochemical markers. Citing the inaccessibility of cupping to the majority of coffee’s smallholder farmers, Demetria hopes the digitization of coffee aroma and taste will demystify coffee quality assessments and readdress the economics of the coffee value chain. The company is working with Federación Nacional de Cafeteros, or FNC, the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation, to develop a series of smartphone apps to help farmers track coffee quality throughout the supply chain and price it accordingly. Demetria successfully completed a pilot with Carcafe, the Colombian division of Volcafe/ED&F Man, and will use its seed funding to continue to develop its technology.
Hurricanes Eta and Iota are estimated to have devastated more than 200,000 hectares of food and other crops in Central America last year. According to a recent report from the Instituto Hondureno del Cafe, or Honduran Coffee Institute, Honduras--the region’s highest-volume exporter--reported that shipments were down 18% in comparison to the previous year. The Nicaraguan Association of Producers and Exporters also registered a 40% decrease in coffee exports from October 2020 to January 2021 when compared with the same period a year before. Soppexcca, a Nicaraguan cooperative that works with more than 600 small-scale coffee farmers, is recommending crop diversification to avoid future vulnerability. Nicaragua’s central government has also announced a plan to support small coffee producers through workshops aimed at increasing harvest.
A new TikTok trend, “Proffee,” where consumers mix coffee with protein, is receiving increasing media coverage. Where previous coffee trends sweeping TikTok have been focused on the enjoyment of coffee, “Proffee” seems to be focused predominantly on coffee’s chemical properties as a way of minimizing cravings and boosting weight loss. It remains to be seen whether this trend will boost home consumption of coffee the way that last year’s Dalgona coffee trend was linked to increased sales of instant coffee. The focus on coffee as caffeine delivery isn’t a new one, but a wide range of beverage categories have seen an increase in offerings with added caffeine, from sports drinks to fizzy waters. This is leading market analysts to ask: is there more room to explicitly talk about caffeine as a core driver of coffee consumption?
If you want to dive deeper into anything you heard today, check out the links in the description of this episode. Recap will be back in two weeks’ time. Thanks for listening.
Further Reading:
US Coffee Roasters Weigh Price Increase, Cite Shipping Inflation (Reuters) ‘I’ve Never Seen Anything Like This’: Chaos Strikes Global Shipping (The New York Times) Demetria Emergences from “Stealth,” Completes Seed FundingAg and Foodtech Startup Demetria Emerges from Stealth to Spearhead the Transformation of the Coffee Industry (PR Newswire) Replicating Coffee “Cupping” with AI: Start-Up Tracks Coffee Quality from Crop to Cup (Food Navigator) Israeli-Colombian Food-Tech Startup Demetria Helps Industry Wake Up & Smell Coffee (The Jerusalem Post) Coffee Exports Fall in the Wake of Hurricanes Eta and Iota Nicaraguan Coffee Farmers Brew Fresh Plans After Hurricanes Wreck Harvests (Reuters) Honduran Coffee Exports Fall 18% in January 2021 as Pandemic Hits Demand (Reuters) The “Proffee” TikTok Trend The “Proffee TikTok Trend Promises Weight Loss and Fewer Cravings. Here’s Why We’re Not Adding It To Our Routines (Insider) After Dalgona, Viral Coffee Trend of “Proffee” is Taking Over The Internet! (India Times) -
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Welcome to Recap, a brief overview of recent coffee developments every two weeks from the Specialty Coffee Association.
World Coffee Research, or WCR, announced a new five-year strategy in mid-February, beginning 2021. Bound by coffee tree growth timelines, the organization typically plans its research agenda in five-year increments. The new five year strategy, titled “Enhancing Country Competitiveness to Bolster Origin Diversity,” will foster increases in productivity, profitability, and climate resilience while enhancing quality and mitigating supply risk. As a part of the strategy, WCR will focus on 11 countries in total, which represent over half of the world’s farmers and 31% of global coffee exports. By prioritizing origin diversity, WCR hopes to ensure the coffee industry can continue to access coffee’s unique flavors while distributing the economic benefits of coffee to farmers in key origins.
Researchers are studying the similarities of the coffee and coca trade in Bolivia and Peru in order to learn more about the costs and benefits of development in relation to current security-oriented policies. The team consists of researchers across three institutions: the University of Reading, the Andean Information Network, and Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru. In a recent feature for The Conversation, Thomas Grisaffi and Linda Farthing explore some of the reasons why farmers in Peru have ripped out coffee trees to plant coca. A plant with a rich social, cultural, and medicinal significance in indigenous Andean cultures, coca has largely been grown to produce cocaine since the mid-nineteenth century. Compared to coffee, coca offers many benefits to farmers: the fast-growing plant is ready to harvest in a year, rather than three, and is much lighter to carry when harvesting. It also offers farmers more financial security than any other crop, as demand is constant. 25 kg sacks of coca, which can be harvested three-to-four times a year, fluctuate in price between US$30-US$70 per sack, where coffee--which can only be harvested once a year--offers US$37 on average per sack. Recent efforts by the Peruvian government to crack down on coca-growing have resulted in violence, rather than assistance in finding realistic economic alternatives. The researchers have made recommendations that place sustainable development, poverty alleviation, equal opportunity, shared responsibility, and participation in the decision-making process at their core.
The Alliance for Coffee Excellence, or ACE, and Hawaiian green coffee company Isla Custom Coffees announced 16 winning lots in a recent competition, with 12 of the winning lots all featuring controlled yeast fermentation in processing. The top scoring coffee was a washed-process SL34 produced by Kraig and Leslie Lee of Kona Farm Direct Coffee, fermented with a wine yeast strain. The strain was chosen to enhance the coffee’s acidity and fruity flavor. The competition is a part of ACE’s Private Collection series, which features partnerships with origin-specific green coffee companies, and is separate from ACE’s Cup of Excellence competition and auction series. The Private Collection auction with Isla Custom Coffees will take place on March 25.
If you want to dive deeper into anything you heard today, check out the links in the description of this episode. Recap will be back in two weeks’ time. Thanks for listening.
Further Reading:
Strategy 2021-2025: Enhancing Country Competitiveness to Bolster Origin Diversity (World Coffee Research)World Coffee Research Unveils Five-Year Strategy (Global Coffee Report)Cocaine: Falling Coffee Prices Force Peru’s Farmers to Cultivate Coca (The Conversation) Wine Yeasts Abound Among Hawaiian-Grown ACE/Isla Auction Coffees (Daily Coffee News) -
Welcome to Recap, a brief overview of recent coffee developments every two weeks from the Specialty Coffee Association.
The Alliance for Coffee Excellence, or ACE, recently announced a partnership with scientific-traceability company Oritain. ACE’s Cup of Excellence competition will provide samples to Oritain, who will then use them to build a database of coffee from all over the world that can be used to prove a coffee’s origin. Oritain uses forensic science to analyse the unique ratio of elements and nutrients coffee absorbs from its environment, allowing the company to create a so-called “fingerprint.” The partnership hopes to provide greater supply chain verification and provide additional commercial opportunities for coffee farmers and traders. While it remains to be seen whether this tool will benefit farmers to the same degree it stands to benefit buyers, value chain research suggests that geographical identities can help producers retain value where they have ownership or control over how the denomination is defined and applied.A new study suggests that another fungus may have the capacity to suppress coffee leaf rust, offering a natural solution to pesticide treatments. Coffee leaf rust is caused by a parasitic fungus that attacks the leaves of coffee trees. While scientists were aware of a “hyperparasite” fungus that grows on top of the coffee leaf rust, very little is known about its biology. The study is the first to explore the interaction between coffee leaf rust and its hyperparasite in Ethiopia. Results suggest the hyperparasite co-evolved with coffee leaf rust and has the potential to thrive in more humid conditions, like those created by shade trees. More detailed experimental studies are needed to explore the relationship between leaf rust and its hyperparasite: the authors of the study did not investigate whether or not the presence of the hyperparasite could lead to better coffee yields. It’s also important to note that the effect of both could change as the global climate shifts. But there is hope that the hyperparasite might reduce leaf drop associated with severe rust infections, enabling coffee growers to use it as a biological control.
Following its exit from the European Union, the United Kingdom completed the process of joining the International Coffee Organization, or ICO, as an individual importing member. The tenth largest importer of coffee by volume, the UK has been the home of the ICO since its establishment in 1963. At a virtual ceremony celebrating the UK government’s swift confirmation of its membership, the ICO also presented the findings of its most recent flagship report, the Coffee Development Report 2020. Titled “The Value of Coffee,” the report analyses coffee’s global value chain through the lens of other global value chains. Finding that the value of annual coffee exports has more than quadrupled from 1991 to 2018, the report recommends a mix of initiatives, regulatory options, public-private collaborations, and information sharing to maximize the economic benefits of coffee farmers while ensuring social and environmental sustainability.
If you want to dive deeper into anything you heard today, check out the links in the description of this episode. Recap will be back in two weeks’ time. Thanks for listening.
Further Reading:
New Partnership with Scientific Traceability Company, Oritain (Alliance for Coffee Excellence)Alliance for Coffee Excellence Partners with Oritain (Oritain)New Partnership Enables COE to Trace the Origin of Coffee (Global Coffee Report)Temporal Dynamics and Biocontrol Potential of a Hyperparasite on Coffee Leaf Rust Across a Landscape in Arabica Coffee’s Native Range (Agriculture, Ecosystems, and Environment)Fungus that Eats Fungus Could Help Coffee Farmers (Stockholm University)Fungus that Eats Fungus Could Help Coffee Farmers (Science Daily)The UK Joins the International Coffee Organization (UK Government)After Brexit, UK Joins the International Coffee Organization (Daily Coffee News)ICO 2020 Coffee Development Report ICO Welcomes UK as Newest Member, and Releases Coffee Development Report 2020 (Global Coffee Report)ICO Releases Flagship Annual Report: “The Value of Coffee” (Daily Coffee News) -
Welcome to Recap, a brief overview of recent coffee developments every two weeks from the Specialty Coffee Association.
Rabobank Group, a Dutch lender known for financing agricultural traders, joined other commodity lenders in reducing its activity following a difficult year. Usually an area of specialization, commodity financing is perceived to be riskier than other types of lending. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, commodity lenders experienced a high volume of frauds and defaults as shipping delays and bankruptcies impacted contracted deliveries. Other commodity lenders, like ABN Amro NV and BNP Paribas, have closed their commodity lending operations all together. Many coffee producers and producer organisations rely on these lenders for the pre-harvest financing that makes it possible to pay workers for their labor and farmers for their coffee before the product is exported and contract payments kick in. Although it is shuttering offices in London, Shanghai, and Sydney, Rabobank will continue to offer trade and commodity finance operations from Utrecht, Singapore, Hong Kong, New York, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, and Nairobi.
The Hivos 2020 Coffee Barometer, released at the end of last year, suggests there is little evidence that coffee companies’ voluntary sustainability efforts have made an impact on the sector. Written by global non-governmental organizations, the Coffee Barometer has been released regularly since 2009. While the 2018 Coffee Barometer brought attention to the impact of global mergers and acquisitions on the coffee supply chain, the 2020 Coffee Barometer focuses on the impact of “voluntary sustainability standards.” Although more certified coffee is available, it’s uptake is stagnating. As a result, these standards alone will not be enough to address the wide scope of sustainability issues facing the coffee industry. The report closes by calling for a renewed sense of shared financial sustainability across collaborative initiatives with clearly articulated commitments and measurable impacts.
Sucafina, a Swiss green coffee trading company, acquired the UK’s Complete Coffee Limited, or CCL, in early January. CCL is a known supplier of UK-based Coca-Cola-owned Costa Coffee. The acquisition is expected to expand Sucafina’s trading capacity across both conventional and specialty green coffee. CCL’s acquisition is one of many growth initiatives Sucafina has recently announced, including the creation of a new company in the Yunnan province of China, the Sucafina Specialty brand, and the opening of a new, Indonesian-based company, Sucafina Indonesia, as recently as Monday this week.
Australian-based Seven Miles Coffee Roasters has launched a new telemetry system called “Perfect Pour” across its café network. An internet connected device, called “the Flow device,” collects data from the espresso machine, comparing each shot to the programmed recipe and scoring it accordingly. A web-based dashboard then displays the scores, allowing both the baristas and Seven Miles’ trainers to identify areas for improvement and focused training. Created in partnership with Flow Technologies and Barista Technology Australia, who produce the Flow device, Seven Miles has a goal of installing the Perfect Pour in 200 cafés by the end of the year.
If you want to dive deeper into anything you heard today, check out the links in the description of this episode. Recap will be back in two weeks’ time. Thanks for listening.
Further Reading:
Rabobank Closing Commodity Lending Offices in Cost-Cutting Bid (Bloomberg)What is Commodity Finance? (Trade Finance Global)Little Evidence Coffee Companies’ Sustainability Efforts Have Impact: Report (Reuters)Hivos 2020 Coffee BarometerSucafina Acquires UK Green Coffee Trader Complete Coffee Ltd. (Daily Coffee News)Swiss Coffee Trader Sucafina Formalizes PT Sucafina Indonesia (Daily Coffee News)Swiss Trader Sucafina Bets on China’s Growing Taste for Coffee (Bloomberg)Seven Miles Coffee Roasters launches telemetry system across café network (Bean Scene Mag)Using Data to Help Cafés Deliver Consistently Better Coffee -
Welcome to Recap, a brief overview of recent coffee developments every two weeks from the Specialty Coffee Association.
It may have only taken Hurricane Eta 36 hours to grow from a tropical depression to a strong category four storm, but it will take those who fell in the storm’s path months, if not years, to recover. Traveling through Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Panama, Hurricane Eta caused an initial US$5 billion in damage. Compared to 1998’s Hurricane Mitch, the most destructive storm to hit Central America, Hurricane Eta is expected to cause more damage due to the speed at which the water rose. Sustained winds, flash floods, and mudslides affected millions of people and destroyed thousands of hectares of crops. Estimates of damage to coffee-growing regions have been slow to arrive, because the damage to roads and other infrastructure has kept coffee institutions and producer organizations from reaching those areas hardest hit. However, coffee smallholders are likely particularly affected, as the storm’s arrival coincided with the beginning of what was expected to be a very fruitful harvest. This comes at a time when most of the communities affected were already struggling with labor shortages and a drop in production due to COVID-19. “We fear that families will struggle with immediate food insecurity, severe harvest loss, loss of income, and might need to rebuild houses,” said Pablo Ruiz of Hanns R. Neumann Stiftung, an NGO working in the region.
A number of donation drives have been launched to try and address the immediate needs of the coffee smallholders by actors in the sector. These include, but are not limited to: Operation Eta, Ally Coffee, Funcafé, Anacafé, Habitat for Humanity Guatemala, Acción Joven Foundation, New Destiny Foundation, Lafise Bank, and Onyx Coffee. Devastatingly, at the time of recording, a second hurricane, a category two storm named Iota, is projected to make landfall in the same location on Monday, November 16, two weeks after Eta. The frequency, strength, rapid intensification, and total rainfall of this year’s storms are further evidence of the ongoing climate crisis. The effects of the climate crisis on subsistence farmers, compounded with low coffee prices, has historically led to an increase in emigration from the region. According to the Guardian, Central American governments were already struggling with the economic downturn of the pandemic. Where international governments have stepped in to fill gaps during natural disasters affecting the region before, they are unlikely to be as forthcoming with aid due to their own pandemic-related problems now.
The Inter-African Coffee Organization is currently holding its 60th general meeting in Ghana. Dr. Emmanuel Dwomoh, the Deputy Chief Executive of Ghana’s Cocoa Board, has called for cocoa farmers, producers, roasters, and distributors to grow and process coffee. Noting that coffee can grow in some areas where cocoa can’t, Dr. Dwomoh cited the growing culture of coffee consumption in Ghana and across Africa as an opportunity for the young generation to expand and develop the coffee sector. The President of the Coffee Federation of Ghana also suggested that coffee could help regain land previously lost to illegal mining activity. He noted that, although the coffee industry had struggled for a long time, coffee plants mature more quickly than cocoa and are easier to process, and are therefore more profitable. A previously competitive coffee producer, Ghana largely abandoned the crop in the 1980s due to the global collapse in the price of coffee.
If you want to dive deeper into anything you heard today or make a donation to Eta relief efforts, check out the links in the description of this episode. Recap will return in January 2021. Thanks for listening.
Further Reading:
Hurricane Eta’s Impact and Relief Efforts Destruction and Uncertainty Hit Smallholder Communities in Honduras and Guatemala after Hurricane Eta (Hanns R. Neumann Stiftung) Hurricane Eta Devastates Central American Coffee Lands (Sprudge)Hurricane Eta: How Can the Coffee Community Help Central America? (Perfect Daily Grind) Operación Eta (GoFund Me)Hurricane Eta Relief in Guatemala (GoFundMe)Scientists Link Record-Breaking Hurricane Season to Climate Crisis (The Guardian)Iota Grows to Category 2 Hurricane as it Nears Central America (Reuters) COCBOD Pushes for Increase in Coffee Production (GhanaWeb) -
Welcome to Recap, a brief overview of recent coffee developments every two weeks from the Specialty Coffee Association, made possible with the support of BRITA.
Special Thanks to Our Sponsor, BRITA
This episode of Recap was made possible with support from BRITA. Inventor of the household water filtration jug in 1966, BRITA produces and distributes a wide range of innovative drinking water optimization solutions for private and commercial use. To learn how BRITA’s technology supports coffee professionals by providing control over one of brewed coffee’s main ingredients, visit www.brita.net. BRITA: Water is our element.On October 28, the International Coffee Organization, or “ICO,” held its 128th council session. The council is the governing body of the ICO, and council sessions bring governments of exporting and importing countries together twice a year to discuss coffee sector issues. At this most recent session, the ICO confirmed and endorsed a ten-year road map to action the so-called “London Declaration.” Signed in September 2019, the London Declaration is an international pledge to address the growing economic unsustainability of global coffee production as outlined in the ICO’s Resolution 465 on coffee price in 2018. Signatories of the 2019 declaration included both public and private companies, including producer organizations, some of the world’s largest coffee roasters and retailers, and sector organizations. It was widely reported as the first time that major private sector actors across the value chain came together to agree to jointly implement solutions in a spirit of shared responsibility.
A Coffee Public-Private Task Force made up of equal numbers of representatives from the private signatory companies and ICO member countries identified priority issues and suggested actions. These actions are introduced in Communiqué 2020, which was published shortly after the ICO’s council session last week. The joint commitments are built upon similar visions and actions articulated by signatories and task force members, Global Coffee Platform and the Sustainable Coffee Challenge, who engaged smaller groups of private stakeholders. Other efforts to understand and address the crisis, including the SCA’s Price Crisis Initiative, have come to similar conclusions around the role of price volatility and low producer income in perpetuating the cycle.
The actions have all been designed to facilitate a broad long-term vision, also agreed by the International Coffee Council and the Coffee Public-Private Task Force. Spread across four key areas of action, the vision is highly ambitious. It includes economic resilience and social sustainability; environmental sustainability through sustainable production; balanced demand and supply and responsible consumption; and effective enabling conditions. Although this is the broadest group of public and private organizations to address the economic unsustainability of coffee production so far, the vision will be further developed through public consultation.
Specific actions for 2020-2021, most focused on exploring and identifying the work to come, are outlined through seven “technical workstreams.” Some of the key activities outlined for this year include establishing Living Income as a foundation to reach the vision’s “Prosperous Income” for coffee producers and the exploration of multi-stakeholder and green price stabilization funds. When successfully executed, the activities will contribute substantially to reducing uncertainty and economic hardship borne by producers. However, unlike the recommendations laid out in the Price Crisis Initiative’s Summary of Work, they do not suggest that a reassessment of value creation and reward will be required to achieve long-term sustainability.
This episode of Recap was made possible with the support of BRITA. If you want to dive deeper into anything you heard today, check out the links in the description of this episode. Recap will be back in two weeks’ time. Thanks for listening.
Further Reading:
ICO’s Public and Private Task Force Shifts the Future of the Coffee Sector Towards a Prosperous Income for Coffee Farmers (International Coffee Organization Press Release) Communiqué 2020: Pursuing Economic Sustainability for an Inclusive and Resilient Global Coffee Sector (International Coffee Organization) ANNEX to the Communiqué: Vision, Roadmap, Technical Workstreams Planning and Proposed Commitments (International Coffee Organization) Establishment of the Coffee Public-Private Task Force (International Coffee Organization) About the Task Force Draft London Declaration on Price Levels, Price Volatility, and the Long-term Sustainability of the Coffee Sector (Submitted to the ICO by the CEO & Global Leaders Forum of the Coffee Sector) -
Welcome to Recap, a brief overview of recent coffee developments every two weeks from the Specialty Coffee Association, made possible with the support of BRITA.
Special Thanks to Our Sponsor, BRITA
This episode of Recap was made possible with support from BRITA. Inventor of the household water filtration jug in 1966, BRITA produces and distributes a wide range of innovative drinking water optimization solutions for private and commercial use. To learn how BRITA’s technology supports coffee professionals by providing control over one of brewed coffee’s main ingredients, visit www.brita.net. BRITA: Water is our element.A recent Euromonitor International report suggests that the number of American coffee and tea shops will decline for the first time since 2011. The report estimates that the US will have just over 25,000 outlets specializing in coffee or tea by the end of this year, a reduction of 7.3% from last year. It also estimates that annual sales will drop 12% to approximately US$24.7 billion. In a feature exploring the effects of COVID-19 on the coffee shop landscape, Bloomberg reports that Canada is also seeing a similar contraction. According to Allegra World Coffee Portal, annual sales in Canadian coffee shops are expected to drop 22% from 2019 to CA$9.5 billion. Allegra also suggests that local independents will take a greater share of Canadian suburban trade. In the Bloomberg feature, Rabobank analyst Jim Watson noted that the most challenging situations for independent cafés are based on their location. According to Watson, residential coffee shops are outperforming those based in office or city center locations. And while independents have shown to be nimble in adapting their businesses to their community’s needs, they’re generally more at risk due to highly-variable factors beyond their control, like rent negotiations and government assistance.
Last week, the National Coffee Association of the United States of America released the results of a major new national poll. Highlights from Coffee, Consumers, and COVID-19: Road Map to Recovery indicates that the pandemic has not changed how much coffee Americans drink, although it has changed where they drink it. According to the poll, 6 in 10 Americans drink nearly 3 cups of coffee every day. While home consumption has always been strong in the US, the results of the poll indicate that pandemic closures of coffee shops have grown the volume of coffee consumed at home significantly. But the desire to return to coffee shops is strong: more than half of typical coffee shop visitors indicated that they had already begun to return to coffee shops, or planned to do so in the next month. Avenues like app-based ordering, delivery, and drive-through ordering all saw an increase among people who reported drinking coffee regularly. The poll also reflects current tensions around mask-wearing, which is an effective barrier to COVID-19 transmission. Of those polled, 44% said they were comfortable visiting coffee shops when face coverings are required for all staff and guests, but 48% said they felt comfortable when workers alone wore protective items.
This episode of Recap was made possible with the support of BRITA. If you want to dive deeper into anything you heard today, check out the links in the description of this episode. Recap will be back in two weeks’ time. Thanks for listening.
Further Reading:
Number of Coffee Shops Set to Decline for the First Time Since 2011 Say Goodbye to Your Local Coffee Shop in America’s Cafe Shakeup (Bloomberg)Number of Coffee Shops Set to Decline for the First Time in a Decade, Says Report (Food & Wine)US National Coffee Association Releases Highlights from Coffee, Consumers, and COVID-19: Road Map to RecoveryUS Coffee Drinkers Consume as Much at Home During Pandemic - Poll (Reuters) Americans Drinking as Much Coffee Now as Pre-Pandemic (Global Coffee Report) Americans Still Drinking Three Cups of Per Day, But More At Home, NCA Report Shows (Daily Coffee News) -
Welcome to Recap, a brief overview of recent coffee developments every two weeks from the Specialty Coffee Association, made possible with the support of BRITA.
Special Thanks to Our Sponsor, BRITA
This episode of Recap was made possible with support from BRITA. Inventor of the household water filtration jug in 1966, BRITA produces and distributes a wide range of innovative drinking water optimization solutions for private and commercial use. To learn how BRITA’s technology supports coffee professionals by providing control over one of brewed coffee’s main ingredients, visit www.brita.net. BRITA: Water is our element.International Coffee Day may have come and gone, but many of the initiatives launched on October 1 are long term projects. The International Coffee Organization, who first organized the holiday in 2014, focused this year’s activity on a project titled, “Coffee’s Next Generation.” While details are yet to be announced, the ICO said the program will involve financial support and training for young entrepreneurs in the coffee sector. The International Women's Coffee Alliance, or IWCA, launched a fundraising campaign called, “Empowered Voices.” The campaign will run until October 15, the International Day of Rural Women, and aims to recognize 100 women while raising US$10,000 to continue the work of the organization. The holiday also marked the launch of the Coffee Coalition for Racial Equity, founded by Phyllis Johnson of BD Imports. The coalition is described as “a robust, global community of coffee advocates driven to bring about more equity and diversity into the coffee community.” In its first webinar, the group introduced its first board members and set out a one-year timeline of activities that includes a range of educational and outreach initiatives.
Indonesia’s coffee producers are asking for help with financing as the pandemic continues to impact the demand for coffee. The Jakarta Post reports that tons of coffee are being held under what is known as a warehouse receipt, a system that allows smallholders to deposit their harvest in a warehouse as collateral for a loan. Both smallholders are exporters face difficulty under this system, particularly when prices are low and there are few buyers. And this is before most of the coffee has been harvested: almost 70% of Aceh’s harvest, currently projected at 52,000 tons, will take place between October and January. Indonesia’s Ministry of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises is preparing multiple financing schemes. Other financing organizations, like the state-owned bank, are also offering support through warehouse receipt subsidies.
Australian-based Breville Group has acquired the US-based grinder maker, Baratza, for US$60 million according to a report in Finance News Network. Breville produces a range of small kitchen appliances with an emphasis on the home coffee segment. Baratza, established in 1999, is known for its production of commercial-level quality burr grinders for home use. Breville Group says the acquisition brings together two of the world’s leading companies in the design and global distribution of coffee products.
A recent feature in Asia Times explores how women entrepreneurs in the Gulf are working to overcome the additional hurdle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Amid the backdrop of recent economic and social reforms aimed to increase women’s participation in the workforce, the feature explores how gender biases have made it more difficult for female entrepreneurs to access to stimulus packages, lending, or private investors. Nooran Al Bannay, the founder of Coffee Architecture in Abu Dhabi, is among those interviewed. The first female Q Grader in the region, Nooran opened her shop in 2018 after convincing her family members of her dream to open a coffee shop.
This episode of Recap was made possible with the support of BRITA. If you want to dive deeper into anything you heard today, check out the links in the description of this episode. Recap will be back in two weeks’ time. Thanks for listening.
Further Reading:
International Coffee Day AnnouncementsInternational Coffee Day 2020: Supporting the Next Generation (International Coffee Organization) ICO Seeks Support for Coffee’s Next Generation on International Coffee Day (Daily Coffee News) Celebrate Empowered Voices: 2020 International Coffee Day and the International Day of Rural Women (International Women’s Coffee Alliance)Coffee Coalition for Racial Equity Notes from the Coffee Coalition for Racial Equity Launch Event (Sprudge) Brewing Tension: Coffee Producers Call for Help as Virus Saps Demand (The Jakarta Post)Baratza Acquired by Breville GroupBaratza Acquired by the Breville Group (Sprudge Wire)Breville Acquires US Grinder Maker Baratza for US$60 Million (Daily Coffee News)Breville Group Acquires Baratza for US$60 Million (Global Coffee Report)Breville (ASX:BRG) acquires Baratza (Finance News Network)Gulf Women Entrepreneurs Overcoming Challenge (Asia Times) Sarah Al-Ali Visits Abu Dhabi (25) -
Welcome to Recap, a brief overview of recent coffee developments every two weeks from the Specialty Coffee Association, made possible with the support of DaVinci.
Special Thanks to Our Sponsor, DaVinci
This episode of Recap is made possible with support from DaVinci. With its heritage in specialty coffee and expertise in trends and menu innovation, DaVinci is the beverage brand of choice for the foodservice professional. Their product range is designed to provide end-to-end solutions and support specialty coffee professionals in their mission to create inspirational beverages. Follow us at DaVinci Europe, DaVinci North America, or using #WeAreDaVinciGourmet.Two economists from the International Coffee Organization suggest that a rise in protectionist economic policies has not yet resulted in trade barriers significantly impacting the coffee sector. In a feature for Global Coffee News, Dr. Christoph Saenger and Carmen Steinmetz shared a quantitative analysis of trade interventions implemented between 2009 and 2019. The analysis compares the number of “harmful” or “protectionist” interventions, like tariffs and state loans, against “liberalizing” interventions across member countries, but does not track the impact of individual interventions on the coffee sector. The feature also notes that interventions are reported with a time-lag, with the figures for 2019 and 2020 understating the true number of policies implemented in those years, which reflect a period of increased stress on the international trade system, including the ongoing Sino-American trade war.
Coffee berry borer has been discovered on the Hawaiian Island of Kaua’i for the first time. The pest, whose larvae feed on coffee beans, has devastated coffee production throughout parts of Africa and the Americas for decades. Despite strict green coffee quarantining measures in effect for Hawaii’s islands, the borers have been previously found on the island of Hawai’i in 2010, the island of O’ahu in 2014, and on Maui in 2016. The island of Kaua’i is home to the largest coffee farm in the United States, Kauai Coffee, which maintains 4 million coffee trees on more than 3,000 acres. A coordinated effort to contain and manage the pest has begun as harvest season on the island—also home to several smaller commercial coffee farming and roasting operations—is already underway.
Readers of the UK’s popular press have been inundated with stories of the London arrival of Neguse Gemeda Mude’s top-scoring lot from the inaugural Ethiopian Cup of Excellence competition, covered in Recap Episodes 10 and 12. Harrods, a luxury department store, and Difference Coffee, who specialize in producing specialty microlot capsules from rare and expensive lots, successfully bid for the top lot with a buying group featuring Japan’s Maruyama Coffee and Saza Coffee, the US’ Comeeter and Goodboybob Coffee, and Taiwan’s Orsir Coffee. Most of the coverage from the UK’s popular press is unfortunately focused solely on the price of the winning coffee as sold by Queens of Mayfair, who were granted exclusive access to some of Difference Coffee’s share. Offering only 15 total servings, two of which have been purchased by media outlets reviewing the coffee, Queens of Mayfair has priced its tableside service of Neguse Gemeda Mude’s coffee in a crystal wine glass at GB£50 per cup.
Conversely, two long-form accounts of challenges facing coffee’s complex value-generating ecosystem and the impacts they’ll have on coffee farmers were also recently released. In the Atlantic, Maryn McKenna traced the history and impact of coffee leaf rust in a story spotlighting Guatemalan farmers. Acknowledging the role of colonialism in coffee’s history, the feature critically covers the historic and present role of the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture at Texas A&M University, who are a part of the global research infrastructure working to find solutions to coffee leaf rust. Similarly, a video by VOX Atlas explores the impact of climate change on the future of coffee production with a particular focus on Colombia, featuring interviews with coffee farmers alongside historic footage of previous coffee crises. These popular media features mark a step forward in socializing the myriad impacts of the climate crisis on the complex coffee system.
This episode of Recap was made possible with the support of DaVinci. If you want to dive deeper into anything you heard today, check out the links in the description of this episode. Recap will be back in two weeks’ time. Thanks for listening.
Further Reading:
ICO Economic Report: The Ultimate Disrupter (Global Coffee Review) Coffee Borer Discovered on Kaua'i Coffee Borer Found for First Time on Hawaiian Island of Kauai (Daily Coffee News) First Coffee Berry Borer Beetle Detected on Kauai (Honolulu Star-Bulletin) The First Kaua’i Coffee Borer Beetle Has Now Been Confirmed (Sprudge) Coffee Berry Borer Confirmed on Kauai (Hawaii Tribune Herald) Queens of Mayfair Promotes Arrival of Ethiopian Cup of Excellence Coffee ‘Reminds Me of Vegetable Soup’: How Does a GB£50 Cup of Coffee Taste? (The Guardian) London Coffee Shop Sells “Most Expensive Cup of Coffee in UK” for GB£50 (The Independent) Wake Up and Smell the GB£50-a-cup-coffee… and a Whiff of Money to Burn (The National) A Latte Dosh: The Most Expensive Coffee Served in the UK Costs a Staggering GB£50 a Cup (The Sun) Other recent coverage of specialty coffee has taken a more nuanced approachCoffee Rust is Going to Ruin Your Morning (The Atlantic) The Global Coffee Crisis is Coming (Vox Atlas) -
Welcome to Recap, a brief overview of recent coffee developments every two weeks from the Specialty Coffee Association, made possible with the support of DaVinci.
Special Thanks to Our Sponsor, DaVinci
This episode of Recap is made possible with support from DaVinci. With its heritage in specialty coffee and expertise in trends and menu innovation, DaVinci is the beverage brand of choice for the foodservice professional. Their product range is designed to provide end-to-end solutions and support specialty coffee professionals in their mission to create inspirational beverages. Follow us at DaVinci Europe, DaVinci North America, or using #WeAreDaVinciGourmet.In Episode #15, we covered the rise of the C market price for coffee, largely attributed to the shifting relationship between the US dollar and the Brazilian real. An increase in price was further bolstered across August by concerns over low levels of coffee outputs and exports. But supplies may not be tight for long: Brazil has managed a bumper crop this year despite difficult weather and COVID-19 restrictions. Combined with a weak currency, this has made Brazilian coffee more competitive than washed Arabica from Central America. Bloomberg reports that major traders are preparing to ship Brazilian coffee to warehouses for approval to replenish dwindling coffee stockpiles, at their lowest level since 2000. On Tuesday, September 7, Reuters reported that 855 60 kg bags of Brazilian Arabica were accepted by exchange warehouses in Antwerp, more than doubling the amount of Brazilian coffee in the warehouse in one day. Accepted deliveries of Brazilian coffee to the exchange are rare: Arabica futures are backed by washed coffees, while Brazil produces mostly natural and pulped natural, or “semi-washed,” coffees. However, this season’s record crop is of high quality and expected to contain a fair amount of semi-washed coffees, which are more likely to be certified as deliverable. If further shipments are accepted as meeting the requirements of the commodity market, the increase in warehouse supply could destabilize the steady growth of the C market price over the past two months.
Qima Coffee, a Yemeni coffee specialist, announced it has discovered a new genetic group of Arabica. In partnership with coffee geneticist Christophe Montagnon, Qima Coffee undertook a multi-year research project that conducted genetic fingerprinting of over 130 Arabica samples across 25,000 sq. km. The new genetic group has been named Yemenia, which can be translated to “the Yemeni mother,” and has been touted as the most significant finding in Arabica coffee since the centuries-old discoveries of the other major Arabica groups Typica, Bourbon, and the SLs. The results of the research project have been submitted for publication to the Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution Journal. Qima Coffee will partner with the Alliance of Coffee Excellence to host a public auction focused entirely on Qima’s coffees, with 15 of the 20 lots on offer made up of the newly discovered, high-scoring Yemenia genetic group.
The International Coffee Organization, Inter African Coffee Organization, and the Center for Agriculture and Biosciences International have proposed a plan to alleviate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the African coffee sector. The US$14 million dollar plan is designed to improve food security for smallholders suffering from a prolonged period of low coffee prices exacerbated by the effects of the pandemic on infrastructure and markets. Scheduled to take place over three years and across 11 countries, the plan seeks to both boost coffee exports and encourage the addition of other crops for cash and consumption. Supported by the African Union Commission, the proposal has now been submitted to the European Commission for consideration.
Flash Coffee, an Indonesian coffee chain that recently made the jump to Thailand, appears to be thriving despite the difficult operating conditions of the pandemic. Seeking to blend a specialty coffee menu with affordable prices and tech, Flash Coffee worked with Thai World Latte Art Champion Arnon Thitiprasert, to build their offering. The company’s Managing Director, Pan Leenutaphong, remarked, “if anything, COVID-19 has facilitated our launches, and landlords have been more welcoming to our new concept.” Flash Coffee Thailand launched their first store in May of this year with funding from Rocket International, a Berlin tech incubator. The company plans to use technology to enhance operational performance and to facilitate other core parts of its business.
This episode of Recap was made possible with the support of DaVinci. If you want to dive deeper into anything you heard today, check out the links in the description of this episode. Recap will be back in two weeks’ time. Thanks for listening.
Further Reading:
Coffee Struggles for Direction as ICE Prepares Brazil Supply Dump (FXDaily Report) August Marks the Second Consecutive Monthly Rise in Coffee Prices (Global Coffee Report) Brazil is Preparing to Flood the NY Coffee Market with Beans (Bloomberg) Rare Batch of Brazilian Coffee Certified by ICE Exchange (Reuters) Yemenia: The Coffee Discovery of the Century (Qima Coffee) Making Coffee History: Yemenia (Fresh Cup) Qima Auction Brings World’s First Offering of Yemenia Coffee Genetic Group (Global Coffee Report) ICO, IACO, and CABI Launch US$14 Million Plan to Improve Food Security for Coffee Farmers in Africa (Daily Coffee News) Building the post-COVID-19 Resilience for Africa’s Coffee Sector (Global Coffee Report) This Startup Coffee Chain is Everywhere and Pan Leenutaphong Tells Us All About It (Prestige) -
Welcome to Recap, a brief overview of recent coffee developments every two weeks from the Specialty Coffee Association, made possible with the support of DaVinci.
Special Thanks to Our Sponsor, DaVinci
This episode of Recap is made possible with support from DaVinci. With its heritage in specialty coffee and expertise in trends and menu innovation, DaVinci is the beverage brand of choice for the foodservice professional. Their product range is designed to provide end-to-end solutions and support specialty coffee professionals in their mission to create inspirational beverages. Follow us at DaVinci Europe, DaVinci North America, or using #WeAreDaVinciGourmet.Welcome to Recap, a brief overview of recent coffee developments every two weeks from the Specialty Coffee Association, made possible with the support of DaVinci.
As communities endure lockdown around the world, market researchers are tracking a strong increase in at-home consumption. In the UK, the Guardian reports that consumers spent an additional GB£24 million in tea and coffee sales across July. Across the Atlantic, Keurig and Breville both reported increases in sales of their respective home brewing devices. Searches for coffee subscription services—whether for whole bean, ground, or specialty instant offerings—yield numerous features across popular media outlets touting lists of “the best coffee subscriptions for every kind of coffee lover.” Less anecdotally, the SCA’s own research with Square showed a 109% increase in subscription coffee sales for coffee shops. A separate SCA COVID-19 community impact survey confirmed this trend, reporting that 42% of the responding businesses saw a significant increase in online coffee revenues. As specialty coffee roasters around the world worked to grow their online sales, an explosion of brew guides and other home-consumption content appeared across our feeds.
This trend for increased at-home coffee consumption is reflected across investment news outlets. JDE Peet’s, which encompasses several coffee brands including Peet’s Coffee, L’OR, Douwe Egberts, Tassimo, and Kenco, reported growth across the first half of 2020 despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company attributed this to the variety of companies in its portfolio, remarking that it allowed them to “quickly adapt to rapidly changing consumer habits, following the dynamic shift of cups from the away-from-home to the in-home environment.” Nestlé and Nespresso reported similar growth across the first half of 2020, particularly across their coffee at-home product category. But the trend isn’t limited to large, multinational brands: At this year’s Re:co event, James Watson, a beverage analyst with Rabobank, reported strong growth in US grocery sales of whole bean coffee since March. This metric is often used as a proxy for specialty coffee sales.
As the pandemic continues to push consumers into this segment of the market, some specialty coffee companies have begun to focus on making coffee easier for consumers to access and enjoy. In Australia, Market Lane set up a vending machine full of roasted coffee and brewing equipment outside of their shop for customers’ 24-hour access. Online retail is one way to reach customers through fluctuating lockdowns, so some roasting companies are exploring more “ready to drink” options, like white-label specialty instant coffee services or growlers of cold coffee. Notably, Cometeer, a company offering frozen specialty-grade coffee has participated in group purchases of the 2020 Cup of Excellence winning lots across Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Costa Rica. Cometeer’s coffee capsules were the recipient of a 2019 Specialty Coffee Expo Best New Product Award in the Open Class category.Despite more people brewing at home, coffee companies are still struggling with the current climate of work closures and social distancing measures. In the second iteration of our COVID-19 community impact survey, 48% of respondents said the impact on their business was significantly or existentially negative. However, there was a significant shift in optimism between the surveys, opened in March and June, as specialty coffee companies are learning to adapt and survive in the current pandemic.
This episode of Recap was made possible with the support of DaVinci. If you want to dive deeper into anything you heard today, check out the links in the description of this episode. Recap will be back in two weeks’ time. Thanks for listening.
Further Reading:
Market researchers are tracking a strong increase in at-home consumption.COVID-19 and Specialty Coffee Survey Response: Survey Results and Key Learnings (SCA News)Second Community Survey: Continued Impact of COVID-19 (SCA News; results forthcoming!) Specialty Coffee Consumption and COVID-19: The 2020 Square x SCA Coffee Report (SCA News) JDE Peet’s In-Home Sales Leads to Strong Growth in First Half of 2020 (Global Coffee Report)Nestle and Nespresso Report Growth Despite COVID-19 in Half-Year Results (Global Coffee Report)Caffeine Consumption ‘Spiking’ As People Swap Cafés for Coffee at Home (Rolling Stone)12 Best Coffee Subscriptions for Every Kind of Coffee Lover (Good Housekeeping)JDE Peet’s, Nestle, and Nespresso report growth in the first half of 2020. JDE Peet’s In-Home Sales Leads to Strong Growth in First Half of 2020 (Global Coffee Report)Nestle and Nespresso Report Growth Despite COVID-19 in Half-Year Results (Global Coffee Report)Specialty coffee companies have focused on new ways to make coffee easier for consumers to access and enjoy. Market Lane set up a roasted coffee and equipment vending machine (Instagram) Independent coffee hosp reported a 129% increase in sales of “growlers,” large glass jugs filled with ready-to-drink cold coffee (2020 SCaure x SCA Coffee Report) Cometeer has participated in the winning bids for the top lots of all 2020 Cup of Excellence Auctions so far (Alliance for Coffee Excellence)Ethiopia 2020Nicaragua 2020 Guatemala 2020 El Salvador 2020 Costa Rica 2020 Despite more people brewing at home, coffee companies are still struggling with the current climate of work closures and social distancing measures.The World is Drinking Less Coffee While Office Workers Stay at Home (Bloomberg) Somehow We’re All Getting By on Less Coffee Than Usual This Year (Food and Wine Magazine)Coffee Drinkers Stay Home, Hitting Some Beans Harder than Others (Wall Street Journal) -
Welcome to Recap, a brief overview of recent coffee developments every two weeks from the Specialty Coffee Association, made possible with the support of DaVinci.
Special Thanks to Our Sponsor, DaVinci
This episode of Recap is made possible with support from DaVinci. With its heritage in specialty coffee and expertise in trends and menu innovation, DaVinci is the beverage brand of choice for the foodservice professional. Their product range is designed to provide end-to-end solutions and support specialty coffee professionals in their mission to create inspirational beverages. Follow us at DaVinci Europe, DaVinci North America, or using #WeAreDaVinciGourmet.Last week, Arabica coffee futures rose to US$1.27 per pound, up from this year’s low of US$0.92 per pound in June. But there’s little cause for celebration: the rise in price can be attributed to a shifting relationship between currencies. Although coffee is traded in US dollars on the Intercontinental Exchange, local production costs of the biggest coffee producer are measured in Brazilian reales. As a result, coffee prices tend to rise when the real strengthens against the dollar, as it has been doing for the past few weeks. The interplay of exchange rates adds a layer of complexity to C market price, especially when other currencies don’t have a similar relationship with the US dollar. A drop in the real against the dollar usually means the dollar goes further in covering Brazilian farmers’ costs. However, if another coffee producing country’s currency remains stable, the dollar will be worth the same in worker wages and fertilizer as it's always been—but the producer will receive less.
One of Beirut’s first specialty coffee shops is seeking support to rebuild following a devastating explosion at the Port of Beirut last Tuesday, August 4. Located within 2km of the blast site, Kalei Coffee Co.’s Mar Mikhael coffee shop first opened in 2015, preserving a 1950s house abandoned in 1984 during Lebanon’s civil war. Kalei Coffee, like many businesses in Beirut, had just survived a two-month closure during Lebanon’s COVID-19 lockdown. Across social media, the Kalei team confirmed that they all survived the explosion but acknowledged that the damage to the shop is considerable. The message continues: “The thought of rebuilding is definitely not our first instinct, because we reject the idea that our people should continue to accept to be called ‘resilient’ at the price of starting over and over again this way.” However, messages of support have encouraged the team to start a fund to rebuild Kalei Mar Mikahel, with any donations beyond what’s required sent to a trusted, local NGO.
Despite opening at a lowered base price to account for pandemic-related financial hardship, the 17th El Salvador Cup of Excellence Auction set a new price per pound record of US$23.53, nearly US$10 higher than the previous record set in 2017. The winning lot, a natural anaerobic process Pacamara from Roberto Samuel Ulloa Vilanova of Finca Divinia Providencia, received US$80.10 per pound, the second-highest price paid in the Salvadoran competition’s history. As with previous years, nearly 65 percent of this year’s top-scoring coffees were Pacamaras, a cross between the Pacas and Marigogipe varieties, grown primarily in El Salvador. While capable of producing exceptional cup quality, Pacamara is highly susceptible to coffee leaf rust, coffee berry disease, and nematodes.
A recent survey by the nonprofit Hanns R. Neumann Stifung, or “HRNS,” suggests that COVID-19 will have a long term impact on the livelihood of smallholder families. The survey solicited responses from smallholder farmers across Indonesia, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Brazil, Guatemala, and Honduras. Echoing other recent surveys by the International Coffee Organization and Caravela Coffee, the HRNS survey results suggest that the effects of climate change might be more difficult to manage for smallholders. The ongoing pandemic makes it difficult to access farm labor and resources used in coffee production like equipment and fertilizers, both of which are often used to mitigate the effects of climate change like drought and increased pest activity. According to the survey report, “farmer families face higher production costs at a prospect of lower revenues.” Given the C market’s continued volatility and the impact that currency exchange rates have on how far revenues might—or might not—stretch to cover farm costs, this is a grim prospect for smallholder coffee farmers everywhere.
This episode of Recap was made possible with the support of DaVinci. If you want to dive deeper into anything you heard today, check out the links in the description of this episode. Recap will be back in two weeks’ time. Thanks for listening.
Further Reading:
With USD Slump, Sugar Becomes Sweeter and Coffee Percolates to the Upside (Investing.com)Help Us Fix Kalei Mar Mikhael #Beirut Explosion (GoFundMe)Message to Kalei Friends (Facebook) / Message to Kalei Friends (Instagram)Beirut: Kalei Coffee’s Beautiful Vision for Cafe Culture in Lebanon (Sprudge)Beirut Baristas Try to Revive City’s Once Vibrant Cafe Culture (The Guardian) Beirut Residents Mourn Destruction Amid Transformed Cityscape (Reuters) Lebanon Restaurants on the Brink: Corona Intensifies Economic Crisis (Saudi Gazette)Kalei Coffee Co. El Salvador Cup of Excellence 2020 Results Alliance for Coffee Excellence El Salvador 2020 - Cup of Excellence Pacamara - Variety Catalog, World Coffee Research Impact of COVID-19 on Smallholder Families’ Livelihoods (Hanns R. Neumann Stifung) -
Welcome to Recap, a brief overview of recent coffee developments every two weeks from the Specialty Coffee Association, made possible with the support of DaVinci.
Special Thanks to Our Sponsor, DaVinci
This episode of Recap is made possible with support from DaVinci. With its heritage in specialty coffee and expertise in trends and menu innovation, DaVinci is the beverage brand of choice for the foodservice professional. Their product range is designed to provide end-to-end solutions and support specialty coffee professionals in their mission to create inspirational beverages. Follow us at DaVinci Europe, DaVinci North America, or using #WeAreDaVinciGourmet.World Coffee Events and the Specialty Coffee Association have announced the cancellation of the 2020 World Coffee Championship events due to the impact of pandemic-related international visa and travel restrictions. The 2020 World Barista Championships and World Brewers Cup were scheduled to take place November 3-6 at the Melbourne International Coffee Expo (MICE) trade show, which has now been canceled. The World Coffee In Good Spirits, World Latte Art, World Cup Tasters, World Coffee Roasting, and Cezve/Ibrik Championships were scheduled to take place during World of Coffee Warsaw October 15-17. The SCA is currently working with partners at the Warsaw PTAK venue to cancel the 2020 World of Coffee trade show and postpone the contract to a future year; more information on this will be available in the coming weeks. The World Barista Championship, World Cup Tasters Championship, and Cezve/Ibrik Championship will next be held at the World of Coffee Athens trade show in June of 2021.
More than 100 scientists published a signed statement to reassure the public that reusable containers are still safe to use amid the ongoing pandemic. Some cafés have stopped accepting reusable containers over fears of virus contamination. While studies show that the virus can remain infectious on surfaces, the scientists’ statement advises that reusable containers can be used safely once thoroughly washed with hot water and detergent or soap. Some coverage of the statement suggests that reusable containers could actually be safer if regularly and properly washed rather than single-use items that have been exposed to the environment before use. Others note that a washed reusable container could still become contaminated with and transmit the virus as it’s passed between a customer and server. As the environmental battle to reduce single-use plastic waste clashes with the measures taken to mitigate risk during the pandemic, there are fears that the push for sustainable and reusable packaging is being set back. While some packaging companies are attempting to leverage the pandemic against government initiatives to reduce waste, a ban on single-use plastics is still scheduled to come into force in Europe next year.
Xinhua reports that a Ugandan start-up, Volcano Coffee, is using coffee kiosks to drive domestic consumption. Focused on specialty Arabica grown on the volcanic Mount Elgon ranges in eastern Uganda, Volcano Coffee is hoping to shift the perception that coffee is only for export. Uganda’s population only consumes 4-5% of the coffee produced in the country, despite it being the second-largest producer of coffee in Africa after Ethiopia. In addition to growing domestic consumption, Volcano Coffee also aims to tackle Uganda’s significant youth unemployment by reintroducing them to agriculture through its youth academy, which focuses on the coffee value chain. According to Volcano Coffee’s founder, Gerald Katabazi, a developed domestic market is less likely to suffer global upsets like the COVID-19 pandemic. The company’s efforts come at a time when Uganda is also looking to expand exports beyond the traditional market in Europe: last year, the country had signed an agreement with China’s Yunnan Coffee Exchange and was due to feature as the China International Specialty Coffee Expo’s portrait country this year.
This episode of Recap was made possible with the support of DaVinci. If you want to dive deeper into anything you heard today, check out the links in the description of this episode. Recap will be back in two weeks’ time. Thanks for listening.Further Reading:
World Coffee Events and the Specialty Coffee Association have announced the cancellation of the 2020 World Coffee Championship events. More than 100 scientists published a signed statement to reassure the public that reusable containers are still safe to use amid the ongoing pandemic.Reusable Containers Safe During COVID-19 Pandemic Say Experts (The Guardian)Coronavirus: Why We Should End the Pandemic Ban on Reusable Cups (The Conversation)Ugandan Startup Drives Domestic Consumption in Tea-Drinking Nation (Xinhua) -
Welcome to Recap, a brief overview of recent coffee developments every two weeks from the Specialty Coffee Association, made possible with the support of DaVinci.
Special Thanks to Our Sponsor, DaVinci
This episode of Recap is made possible with support from DaVinci. With its heritage in specialty coffee and expertise in trends and menu innovation, DaVinci is the beverage brand of choice for the foodservice professional. Their product range is designed to provide end-to-end solutions and support specialty coffee professionals in their mission to create inspirational beverages. Follow us at DaVinci Europe, DaVinci North America, or using #WeAreDaVinciGourmet.Three years after they announced plans to merge under the Rainforest Alliance name, Rainforest Alliance and UTZ have announced a new Sustainable Agriculture Standard that will replace both programs in July 2021. Over 1,000 people across more than 50 countries have contributed to the new standard’s development over the past two years. Expected to be adopted by an existing network of at least two million farmers around the world, the new certification program has separate requirements for farms and supply chains, as well as new compliance procedures and documents. According to Rainforest Alliance, the new seal that accompanies the program promises more “shared responsibility,” including a mandatory sustainability differential above the market price, a required sustainability investment component, and greater support for climate-adaptive agriculture. A training program for current certificate holders, Rainforest Alliance staff, and Certification Bodies will be available from September 2020.
The International Coffee Organization has released the third report in its series on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the global coffee sector. Focused on exporting country members that represent more than 80% of global coffee production, the survey results provide a snapshot of current perceptions of trends, including expectations that employment, revenues, domestic consumption, and export will all be negatively affected by the pandemic over the next year. The report highlights a concern expressed by over half the respondents that sales contracts were canceled or changed, mirroring a recent prediction by the US Department of Agriculture that global coffee consumption is set to fall this year for the first time since 2011.
Guatemala has officially begun its exit from the International Coffee Agreement of 2007, the driver of all the ICO’s activities. Following its departure on September 30, Guatemala will be the only major coffee-producing country that is not a part of the agreement. The 2007 agreement made headlines in 2018 when the US, a founding member of the original 1963 agreement, unexpectedly withdrew. These departures have a significant impact on the organization's budget, which is funded through contributions from its importing and exporting partners based on annual coffee trade volumes. Ricardo Arenas, head of Anacafe’s Board of Directors, said the Guatemalan coffee association had urged the government to cut ties with the organization as it did not do enough to protect producers’ interests.
This episode of Recap was made possible with the support of DaVinci. If you want to dive deeper into anything you heard today, check out the links in the description of this episode. Recap will be back in two weeks’ time. Thanks for listening.
Further Reading:
The Rainforest Alliance 2020 Certification Program Is Here Rainforest Alliance Unveils Sweeping New Certification Program (Daily Coffee News) Impact of COVID-19 on the Global Coffee Sector: Survey of ICO Exporting Members ICO Surveys Exporting Members on Impact of COVID-19 (Global Coffee Report) The World is Drinking Less Coffee While Office Workers Stay Home (Bloomberg) Guatemala to Exit the International Coffee Agreement Guatemala to Exit the International Coffee Agreement (Daily Coffee News) Update 2: Guatemala to Leave International Coffee Organization, Sources Say (Reuters) -
Welcome to Recap, a brief overview of recent coffee developments every two weeks from the Specialty Coffee Association, made possible with the support of DaVinci.
Special Thanks to Our Sponsor, DaVinciThis episode of Recap is made possible with support from DaVinci. With its heritage in specialty coffee and expertise in trends and menu innovation, DaVinci is the beverage brand of choice for the foodservice professional. Their product range is designed to provide end-to-end solutions and support specialty coffee professionals in their mission to create inspirational beverages. Follow us at DaVinci Europe, DaVinci North America, or using #WeAreDaVinciGourmet.
Back in Episode 10, we noted that the inaugural Ethiopian Cup of Excellence competition was undeterred by the global pandemic, achieving a record number of both entries to the competition and buyers to the auction. The auction, which took place on June 25, also broke the record for total auction sales, raising US$1,248,690 across 28 lots. The previous record, US$830,245, was achieved during a 2011 El Salvador auction of 42 lots. The top-scoring coffee, a naturally processed coffee variety released by the Jimma Research Center in 1978, was grown by Niguse Gemeda Mude from Hayisa in Sidama. It achieved the highest price ever recorded for Ethiopian coffee, US$185.10 per pound or US$407 per kilo. While these prices appear to validate the investments and associated risks of quality, the ongoing climate crisis and global pandemic are a dual-threat to Ethiopia’s coffee production. For example, Central and South American farmers are experiencing disruption directly to this year’s harvest, particularly due to COVID-19 restrictions on the movement of skilled farm labor, but the Ethiopian harvest typically peaks in November-December. The Ethiopian Coffee & Tea Authority reports that COVID-19 is currently disrupting farmers’ ability to apply inputs like fertilizers to their farms, the impact of which will probably be felt in future production across both quantity and quality.Meanwhile in Kenya, The Standard reports that coffee farmers in Kiambu, Githunguru, and Komothai have uprooted their coffee trees in protest of poor earnings. According to those interviewed, the farmers recently received US$0.13 per kilo for coffee that cost US$0.33 per kilo to produce. Citing a lack of support from cooperatives and county officials, the farmers highlighted that where they would have once received support in the form of fertilizers and tools, they now must look for access to loans to improve their farms--but even these, too, are now unavailable. They also pointed to significant delays in payments both to farmers and to mill workers as a source of concern. Those who have uprooted their trees have planted vegetables and avocados instead, while others are simply burning their trees for charcoal or leaving them unattended.
A new study published in Global Change Biology suggests that Robusta is far more sensitive to temperature than previously thought. Built on 10 years of yield observations on almost 800 farms across Southeast Asia, the study suggests that the optimal temperature for Robusta is 20.5C, considerably lower than previously suggested optimal temperatures. The current estimates, which indicate a higher temperature tolerance, are based on historical botanical explorations in Central Africa. Worryingly, the study also reported that for every one-degree increase over this optimal temperature, yields decrease by 14 percent. One of the study’s lead authors, Jarrod Kath, says the results call for a reassessment of how we can adapt coffee production to climate change.
World Coffee Research has conducted a global consultation, encompassing nearly 140 interviews and 896 survey responses, to direct a five-year strategy for the organization. The summary of the consultation identifies four common global priorities: farmer profitability, origin diversity, quality, and climate adaptation. It also identifies research and development interests of coffee stakeholders by region, which include better access to improved varieties in Latin America, improved pest and disease control in Africa, and Robusta production in Asia. “Climate change is the defining issue of our time,” wrote World Coffee Research CEO Vern Long in a press release announcing the results of the consultation. “Everything agricultural R&D does must be oriented to address it and build resilience and diversity into coffee production systems.”
This episode of Recap was made possible with the support of DaVinci. If you want to dive deeper into anything you heard today, check out the links in the description of this episode. Recap will be back in two weeks’ time. Thanks for listening.
Further Reading:
Cup of Excellence hosts record-breaking inaugural Ethiopian auction on June 25, 2020 amid concern for future crops as COVID-19 impacts farm maintenance around the worldResults: Ethiopia 2020 Cup of Excellence (Alliance for Coffee Excellence)Ethiopia Cup of Excellence Auction Raises More Than US$1 Million for Coffee Producers (Global Coffee Report) First Ethiopia Cup of Excellence Auction Generates Record High US$1.34 Million (Daily Coffee News) Ethiopia Cup of Excellence Breaks Records, Raises US$1.3m for Coffee Farmers (Comunicaffe) Recap #10 | How Cup of Excellence Held Its Competition in the Time of COVID-19 (Barista Magazine) There’s No Money in Posh Coffee for Growers Slammed by Pandemic (Bloomberg) Coffee Farmers in Kenya have uprooted their trees in protest of poor earnings (The Standard) A new study published in Global Change Biology suggests that Robusta is far more sensitive to temperature than previously thought Not So Robust: Robusta Coffee Production is Highly Sensitive to Temperature (Global Change Biology) Not So Robust: Robusta Coffee More Sensitive to Warming than Previously Thought (Phys Org / Science X)Robusta Coffee Beans May Not Be as Robust Against Climate Change as We Thought (Food & Wine) Robusta Not As Heat Resilient As Once Believed, New Study Finds (Sprudge) World Coffee Research announces four research priorities following a global consultation World Coffee Research Global Consultation 2020 (World Coffee Research PDF Download) WCR Listens to Industry Feedback with New Global Consultation (WCR News) -
Welcome to Recap, a brief overview of recent coffee developments every two weeks from the Specialty Coffee Association, made possible with the support of DaVinci.
Special Thanks to Our Sponsor, DaVinci
This episode of Recap is made possible with support from DaVinci. With its heritage in specialty coffee and expertise in trends and menu innovation, DaVinci is the beverage brand of choice for the foodservice professional. Their product range is designed to provide end-to-end solutions and support specialty coffee professionals in their mission to create inspirational beverages. Follow us at DaVinci Europe, DaVinci North America, or using #WeAreDaVinciGourmet.
Over the past few weeks, amid a historic, global Black civil rights movement, publicly-shared personal experiences of systemic racism have opened an industry-wide conversation about structural inequity in specialty coffee. As current and former employees of various companies have come forward to share painful experiences, calls for meaningful and actionable apologies have intensified alongside calls to build a more equitable specialty coffee industry for Black coffee professionals. Phyllis Johnson, founder and president of BD Imports, published an open letter to US coffee professionals, calling for industry leaders to come together to provide resources, tools, and funding to fight systemic racism in the specialty coffee industry. “Our credibility is at stake,” writes Phyllis, “when asking coffee producers to create greater social and equitable programs when we in the US are silent on blatant injustices at home.”But this is not just an American problem: There is a direct relationship between the current civil rights movement and the structural inequity of today’s coffee industry. Today’s models of coffee production and consumption were shaped by government-backed merchants like the British and Dutch East India Companies in the mid-1600s. As the consumption of coffee became more popular in Europe, other colonial powers, particularly France, followed suit. In all cases, forced labor or slavery was critical to the success of this export-driven production model. This particular market structure—where the Global North exerts power over the trade of coffee that is produced in the Global South by artificially low-cost labor—is still reflected in today’s market.
As the specialty coffee industry continues to reflect on systemic racism, inequality, and discrimination, social media feeds have filled with resources for those who wish to support the Black Lives Matter movement, including lists of Black-owned coffee businesses across the value chain.
Coffee communities in Africa are facing unprecedented hardship as they attempt to manage the effects of torrential rain and swarms of locusts amid the ongoing global pandemic. Countries across East Africa, particularly Rwanda, Kenya, and Uganda, have been especially affected by the heaviest rains in months. Critical infrastructure, including bridges and schools, as well as farms and homes have been swept away by landslides. At least 70 people have lost their lives in Rwanda, neighboring Kenya has reported nearly 200 lives lost in the past month, and thousands have been displaced in Uganda after two rivers burst their banks. While it’s impossible to ascertain the full scope of the damage to the East African coffee sector, relief efforts are mounting. Raw Materials, a nonprofit coffee trading company, has reported at least 28 members of coffee-growing communities in the Nyabihu District of Northern Rwanda lost their lives in early May flooding. Raw Materials has joined efforts with Muraho Trading Company, an owner/operator of mills in North Rwanda, to fundraise for a three-phase relief effort for the affected communities.
This episode of Recap was made possible with the support of DaVinci. If you want to dive deeper into anything you heard today, check out the links in the description of this episode. Recap will be back in two weeks’ time. Thanks for listening.
Further Reading:
A global Black civil rights movement has spurred an industry-wide conversation about the structural inequity of specialty coffeeAn Open Letter to the US Coffee Industry on Racism (Phyllis Johnson, BD Imports)This Week’s Webinar: Race and Specialty Coffee (Royal Coffee)Coffee Businesses Respond in Solidarity Amidst US Protests (Daily Coffee News)#BlackLivesMatter Initiatives Coffee Businesses Can Support (Barista Magazine)Support These Black-Owned Coffee Companies (Sprudge)Support Black Lives Matter (Fresh Cup)Coffee & Colonialism: A Reading Club with the US Chapter of the SCA (SCA USA)The Making of a Global Commodity | Part 1: Out of Arabia (Dr. Steven Topik, SCA News)The Price Crisis Response Summary of Work Coffee communities in Africa face unprecedented hardship as they manage the effects of torrential rain, swarms of locusts, and the ongoing global pandemicA Triple Thread Imperils Millions of People Across Africa (Wired)Rwanda: Dozens killed as heavy rains trigger floods, landslides (Al Jazeera)Eastern Africa Region: Floods and Locust Outbreak Snapshot (May 2020) (Relief Web)Relief Effort Underway for Rwanda Coffee Communities Ravaged by Floods (Daily Coffee News)Rwanda Landslides Urgent Appeal (Raw Materials) -
Welcome to Recap, a brief overview of recent coffee developments every two weeks from the Specialty Coffee Association, made possible with the support of DaVinci.
Special Thanks to Our Sponsor, DaVinci
This episode of Recap is made possible with support from DaVinci. With its heritage in specialty coffee and expertise in trends and menu innovation, DaVinci is the beverage brand of choice for the foodservice professional. Their product range is designed to provide end-to-end solutions and support specialty coffee professionals in their mission to create inspirational beverages. Follow us at DaVinci Europe, DaVinci North America, or using #WeAreDaVinciGourmet.
Organizers of the inaugural Ethiopian Cup of Excellence competition were undeterred by the onset of a global pandemic. In April 2019, Alliance for Coffee Excellence—or ACE—announced that it would run the first-ever Ethiopian Cup of Excellence program in 2020. According to Dr. Adugna Debela, Director General of the Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority, the competition was held by sending coffee samples to each member of the jury rather than bringing them to Ethiopia as originally planned. Three coffees, all from the Sidama region, scored more than 90 points in the competition, each receiving the Presidential Award. All of the top 28 coffees will be sold in a record-breaking online auction on June 25.An ongoing story in coffee investments, first noted in December 2019, also came full circle this month: JAB Holdings has announced the planned initial public offering, or IPO, of JDE Peet’s on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. A combination of Jacobs Douwe Egberts and Peet’s Coffee, JDE Peet’s holds a sizable coffee brand portfolio across traditional roast and ground coffees as well as soluble coffee, on-demand systems, and compatible products. The impending JDE Peet’s IPO confirms that, despite recent difficulties for China’s Luckin Coffee, investors continue to see the potential in coffee companies to deliver profits. In another example, Kopi Kenangan, an Indonesian startup founded in 2017, has just raised US$109 million in Series B funding. As a part of the funding round, Eduardo Saverin—famously known as the co-founder of Facebook—will join Kopi Kenangan’s board of directors. The company aims to provide a mid-market coffee option that celebrates Indonesian and South-east Asian flavors. As specialty coffee’s popularity continues to surge in local and global markets, it’s interesting to note the degree to which larger companies—like JDE Peet’s, Luckin Coffee, and Kopi Kenangan—are leveraging it to engage investors. When considered in concert with the uneven distribution of the additional value specialty coffee offers on top of lower-quality products, the market’s current belief in the “profitability” of specialty coffee could hamper efforts to redistribute value along the chain more equitably.
And finally, as COVID-19 continues to impact coffee producers around the world, reports of government aid and agricultural support continue to make headlines. In Honduras, an unprecedented executive order has declared agroindustry support a national priority. A number of programs, including the “Presidential Coffee Bonus,” “Solidarity Productive Bonus,” and the “Family Agriculture Program” all provide financial support in different ways to small and medium coffee producers. In Uganda, coffee production was labeled “critical” in a presidential directive. With the government’s support during their March lockdown, Uganda coffee exports increased by 38%. In return, the Uganda Coffee Development Authority mobilized its members to donate coffee, maize, fuel, medical equipment, and other essentials to communities in need, including frontline workers.
This episode of Recap was made possible with the support of DaVinci. If you want to dive deeper into anything you heard today, check out the links in the description of this episode. Recap will be back in two weeks’ time. Thanks for listening.
Further Reading:
Cup of Excellence Ethiopia: Announcement and Scores from ACEThree Coffees Awarded 90+ in inaugural Ethiopia COE (Global Coffee Report)Coffee Investment News: JDE and Peet’s Coffee to Combine and Explore IPO (Jacob Douwe Egberts, December 2019)Coffee Looks Hot as JDE Peet’s Aims to Raise US$2.5 billion in IPO (Reuters)Indonesian Coffee Chain Raises US$109m, Eduardo Saverin to Join Board (Business Times)Government and Agricultural Support for Coffee ProducersHonduras Allocates Funds and Resources to Support Coffee and Basic Grains Producers (Government of the Republic of Honduras)Coffee Sector Donates Coffee, Food, Vehicles and Medical Equipment to Fight COVID-19 (Uganda Coffee Development Authority) -
Welcome to Recap, a brief overview of recent coffee developments every two weeks from the Specialty Coffee Association.
If it feels as if news platforms have been writing more about coffee, you’re not wrong: Google Trends reports that April 2020 had the highest amount of interest in the search term “coffee” since 2004. Some of this could be attributed to the recent social media craze for Dalgona coffee, a fluffy coffee drink made with instant coffee, sugar, and hot water, popularized in South Korea. Bloomberg attributes a massive rise in demand for instant coffee to the trendy drink, citing a 65% growth in instant coffee imports to South Korea in March. But Nestlé reports that sales of instant coffee have increased in most markets as consumers around the world find themselves drinking more coffee at home due to lockdown restrictions.
As lockdowns begin to ease in Europe and job-retention relief programs are expected to end, coffee shops and roasters face difficult decisions. Although some small and medium businesses have received some form of payroll subsidy from local governments, few have received any support for the rental costs of their closed premises. In Dublin, the historic Bewley’s café, a large multi-floor in operation as a coffee shop and roastery since 1927, will close permanently. Located on the city’s main pedestrianized shopping street, the café’s art deco tile murals and stained glass windows are firmly lodged in the city’s literary heritage, featuring in The Dubliners by James Joyce. The company cited its €1.5 million annual rent as the reason for the closure, which amounts to 30% of its sales. Serving more than 600,000 customers each year, the café’s closure will prompt the loss of over 100 jobs, and calls the future of large café spaces into question.
Other news outlets have turned their attention to the picking and production of coffee as COVID-19 continues to impact this year’s harvest. BBC News recently drew attention specifically to the situation farmers of specialty coffee now face as they experience a drop in orders after a soaring demand for coffee earlier this year. Online sales of specialty coffee, previously a complementary stream to retail and wholesale for coffee roasters, have grown considerably, but they don’t amount to the volume of demand generated by hospitality businesses. If the demand for specialty coffee continues to fall, some coffee producers will be forced to sell their green coffee at a discount to what they might expect to receive from specialty buyers, pull up their coffee trees, or sell their farms. While demand is expected to return, the interconnected nature of specialty coffee businesses throughout the supply chain means that the impacts of COVID-19 could reduce the availability of specialty coffee from many coffee-producing regions.
In an interesting twist, an unmanned café design announced in January may offer a blueprint for socially-distanced café operations. A collaboration between the design firm Nendo and Maruyama Coffee in Japan, Gacha Gacha Coffee was designed to cut back on café labor and increase service quality by offering customers the ability to make their own coffee. The shop design features coffee-dispensing gacha machines, based on the hand-cranked toy-vending machines found in arcades across Japan. When first announced in January, Nendo imagined that this style of shop would allow staff to focus more on customer service. Customers would select their coffee from a gacha machine, flip a switch to grind it into a dripper, and then watch as brews directly into their cup without ever being touched by a barista. As coffee shops begin to reopen with a renewed focus on contactless customer service, Gatcha Gatcha Coffee’s model offers an interesting--and playful--way to maintain staff and customer safety as well as service.
If you want to dive deeper into anything you heard today, check out the links in the description of this episode. Recap will be back in two weeks’ time. Thanks for listening.
Further Reading:
Whipped Dalgona Craze is Perking Up Sales of Instant Coffee (Bloomberg) Bewley’s on Grafton Street to Close Permanently with Loss of 110 Jobs (The Irish Times) Is It Safer to Visit a Coffee Shop or a Gym? (NY Times)COVID-19 Continues to Impact This Year’s HarvestCoronavirus Coffee Farmer: “We’re definitely scared” (BBC)Online Sales Helping Chicago Roasters, but Will Specialty Coffee Survive the Pandemic? (Chicago Tribune) COVID-19 and the Most Complex Colombia Harvest in Decades (Daily Coffee News) Tokyo’s Gacha Gacha Coffee is a Blueprint for the Unstaffed Cafes of the Future (Globetrender)Nendo Designs an Almost Fully-Automated Cafe Called Gacha Gacha Coffee (Designboom) -
Welcome to Recap, a brief overview of recent coffee developments every two weeks from the Specialty Coffee Association.
Root Capital, a company that supplies agricultural businesses with financial capital and training, recently conducted a survey to gauge how COVID-19 is affecting rural agricultural communities. The results confirm the reports emerging from coffee-growing communities that we shared on our last episode. Delays in shipping contracts, unpredictable changes in demand, decreased processing capacity, and unavailability of in-person agronomic assistance have led to the inability to plan for the future, given the uncertainty of the near-term.
While we wait to fully understand the impact the virus will have on coffee harvests in Central and South America, reports of significant losses emerging from Yunnan, China foreshadow a bleak result. The Yunnan harvest, occurring in January and February, offers a glimpse of how lockdowns and social distancing are likely to impact farmer livelihoods in other coffee-producing countries, where COVID-19’s effects are only beginning to be reported. Despite freezing temperatures in December 2019 destroying yields, Yunnan growers were hopeful that years of increasing capacity while battling climatic inconsistency would finally result in cost-covering prices for the 2019-2020 harvest. But in January, China implemented curfews in the Hubei province to mitigate the spread of the virus. This mid-harvest lockdown limited transport to processing facilities and resulted in labor shortages as entire villages were isolated. In some cases, the “last harvest,” usually reserved for picking “premium-grade” coffee, had to be abandoned, leaving coffee farmers with both a significantly reduced yield and the ability to sell high-quality coffee at a premium. Reports like this—and the results of the Root Capital survey—confirm fragility of the current system and its incapacity to ensure coffee production is a thriving, equitable, and sustainable activity.
The Specialty Coffee Association has released a summary of the Price Crisis Response Initiative’s work between December 2018 and December 2019. Led by a core team of SCA staff with the support and guidance of Forum for the Future and industry volunteers, the Price Crisis Response, or “PCR,” set out to confront the economic systems that threaten the livelihoods of coffee farmers and the quantity and quality of the global coffee supply. Structured to reflect the working group’s journey through the year, the report synthesizes the desk research, stakeholder interviews, four industry convenings, and learnings from a peer review process into a series of recommendations. While implementing these recommendations will require overcoming numerous challenges, the SCA believes they are some of the best options to achieve a specialty coffee sector that distributes value equitably, fosters resilient farming communities, and values diverse producers of differentiated coffees. The SCA’s Chief Sustainability and Knowledge Development Officer, Kim Elena Ionescu, will lead a lecture on the findings of the report during #ExpoWeekend on both April 30 and May 1. A forthcoming article in Issue 12 of the SCA’s quarterly publication, 25, also outlines the key findings.
Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism announced a joint campaign with Tokopedia, a local E-Commerce company, to promote domestic coffee. Both coffee growers and coffee shops have been negatively impacted by the virus, with the value of Aceh-grown coffee plummeting 50% and shops reporting significantly decreased footfall. Using the hashtag #SatuDalamKopi, or “United in Coffee,” the campaign involved nearly 1,200 coffee businesses nationwide offering their products in Tokopedia’s marketplace to drive the demand for locally-grown coffee.
If you want to dive deeper into anything you heard today, check out the links in the description of this episode. Recap will be back in two weeks’ time. Thanks for listening.
Further Reading:
Root Capital Shares Results of Survey of COVID-19’s Impact on Rural Farming CommunitiesChina’s Coffee Growers Survive a Difficult Year (STiR Coffee & Tea) The SCA Releases the Price Crisis Response Initiative’s Summary of WorkRead the full summary of workAttend a virtual lecture on the subject as a part of #ExpoWeekendRead a summary of the report’s findings in Issue 12 of 25National Coffee Campaign Enlivens Industry Amid Pandemic in Indonesia (Tempo) - Visa fler
