Poor Farmer

By Debarati Roy Bloomberg January 28, 2011 Coffee futures surged to a 13-year high on signs that supplies from Colombia, the world’s second- largest producer, may be shrinking. Colombia’s National Federation of Coffee Growers said the harvest in Antioquia, the largest producing region, may drop below last year’s levels after excessive rainfall. Before today, futures jumped 77 percent in the past 12 months as adverse weather reduced global crops. “There is a production deficit, and we hear that several coffee traders and brokers are demanding higher prices from companies,” said George Kopp, a senior market analyst at International Futures Group in Chicago. “Also, there is technical buying.” Arabica coffee for March delivery advanced 6.6 cents, or 2.8 percent, to $2.4355 a pound at 9:54 a.m. on ICE Futures U.S. in New York. Earlier, the price reached $2.4635, the highest since June 1997. The commodity may rise to $2.50 should the settlement top $2.42, Kopp said. Brazilian ...

“Amaro Gayo, and more specifically one woman in the community, Asnakech Thomas, had an export license. Ethiopian law requires that exporters have at least 30 hectares of land, which Asnakech does. Through her, a handful of farmers found a way to sell their coffee directly, bypassing the ECX. And because the coffees were so good, they sold for double the rate of other coffees in this region. This has allowed farmers to reinvest in their community, and in their coffee farms, further improving quality. This is a win-win scenario, benefitting farmers and consumers. “The bottom line is that Ethiopia is a challenging coffee origin, yet it still manages to find ways to export some of the world's finest coffees almost every year. Despite grinding poverty, low yields, unpredictable weather and impenetrable bureaucracy, chances are 2011 will be no exception.” - David Pohl Asnakech Thomas (Photo: Courtesy of The Huffington Post) David Pohl ( Equator Coffees and Teas) The Huffington Post...

Wild Arabica coffee naturally occurs exclusively under the shade of trees in the isolated highland forests of Southern Ethiopia. (Photo credit: Paola Viesi via Worldwatch Institute) By Matt Styslinger Nourishing the Planet A Worldwatch Institute Blog January 17, 2010 It is hard to imagine modern life without coffee. But one thing that rarely crosses our minds as we sip our morning cups is that coffee is an African native. Worldwide coffee is a $90 billion a year industry, there are 125 million people whose livelihoods depend on it, and 25 million of those are small-scale farmers in developing countries whose sole source of income is coffee production. Of the two globally cultivated coffee species (Coffea Arabica and Coffea Canephora)—commonly known as Arabica and Robusta—Arabica is the most admired and dominates 70 percent of all coffee production. The species naturally occurs exclusively in the isolated highland forests of Southern Ethiopia. For thousands of years, people ...