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Recap: Recent Developments in Coffee

Specialty Coffee Association

Welcome to Recap, a new podcast from the Specialty Coffee Association that offers a brief overview of recent developments in coffee every two weeks.

  • 4 minutes 21 seconds
    #27 | March 25, 2021

    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: 


    UK Shift to Local Shopping Could Last Beyond Pandemic - Poll (The Guardian)

    25 March 2021, 1:12 pm
  • 4 minutes 3 seconds
    #26 | March 11, 2021

    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: 


    11 March 2021, 3:56 pm
  • 3 minutes 46 seconds
    #25 | February 25, 2021

    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: 

    25 February 2021, 4:00 am
  • 3 minutes 34 seconds
    #24 | February 11, 2021

    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: 

    11 February 2021, 4:00 am
  • 3 minutes 54 seconds
    #23 | January 28, 2021

    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: 


    28 January 2021, 11:16 am
  • 4 minutes 10 seconds
    #22 | November 19, 2020

    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: 


    19 November 2020, 4:00 am
  • 4 minutes 30 seconds
    #21 | November 5, 2020

    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: 

    5 November 2020, 9:34 am
  • 3 minutes 49 seconds
    #20 | October 22, 2020

    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: 

    22 October 2020, 2:00 am
  • 4 minutes 28 seconds
    #19 | October 8, 2020

    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: 

    8 October 2020, 7:00 am
  • 4 minutes 38 seconds
    #18 | September 24, 2020

    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: 

    24 September 2020, 7:00 am
  • 4 minutes 55 seconds
    #17 | September 10, 2020

    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: 

    10 September 2020, 7:00 am
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