Poor Farmer

In advance of National Coffee Day, study shows that scientists/lab technicians top the list of those who are less productive in their workday without coffee; Nearly one half of all workers claim they are less productive without coffee PRNewswire September 28, 2011 CANTON, Mass. and CHICAGO , Sept. 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- National Coffee Day is Thursday, September 29 , and according to a new survey commissioned jointly by Dunkin' Donuts and CareerBuilder®, scientists/lab technicians are the professions that need coffee the most, followed by marketing/public relations and education administrators. The survey results also show that coffee plays a major role in helping professionals perk up at work, as 34 percent need coffee to get through their workday, and 46 percent of those who drink coffee claim they are less productive without a cup of Joe. For the second year in a row, Dunkin' Donuts, the national leading quick service retailer of hot brewed/flavore...

Ed's Note:   Coffee in Retrospect   is a column prepared by   Coffee Monitor   and   Poor Farmer   blog to provide context for the current global coffee trade by republishing news   articles from the past. In this column, we intend to reprint archived prints by converting images into electronic file formats with careful conformity to originals and, whenever applicable and possible, we provide links to the sources of the information. Meanwhile,  responsibility for the contents lies solely with the authors and the views expressed in the articles do not necessarily reflect our opinions. ---- U.S. TO EXCHANGE WHEAT FOR COFFEE Agreement With Brazil Signed by Farm Board Official The Montreal Gazette Aug 22, 1931 Washington, August 21 - Two nations oppressed by excessive agricultural production today sought a partial solution of a mutual problem by the simple expedient of exchanging portions of their surplus crops. An agreement ...

Ed's Note:   Coffee in Retrospect   is a column prepared by   Coffee Monitor   and   Poor Farmer   blog to provide context for the current global coffee trade by republishing news   articles from the past. In this column, we intend to reprint archived prints by converting images into electronic file formats with careful conformity to originals and, whenever applicable and possible, we provide links to the sources of the information. Meanwhile,  responsibility for the contents lies solely with the authors and the views expressed in the articles do not necessarily reflect our opinions. ----- Expert Doubts Coffee Prices Will Decline St. Petersburg Times Feb 8, 1954 WASHINGTON, DC - A New York expert told Senate investigators yesterday there is no hope for a dip in coffee prices as long as the demand stays normal. Leon Israel, vice president of the New York Coffee and Sugar Exchange, gave that appraisal to a Senate Banking subcommi...

By Isis Almeida Bloomberg September 30, 2011 Coffee production in Vietnam, the world’s grower of the robusta variety, will have a record crop in the season starting Oct. 1, according to Sucafina SA, a green coffee trader based in Geneva, Switzerland. Output will be in excess 1.25 million metric tons (20.8 million 60-kilograms bags) in the 2011-12 season, up from 1.2 million tons in the current crop year, Nicolas Tamari, managing director at Sucafina, said in an interview in Geneva today. The company has offices in Vietnam, according to its website. “We are going to have an exceptional crop in Vietnam and this is mainly due to the high prices,” Tamari said. “There has been good husbandry and ideal weather.” Robusta coffee prices have risen 14 percent over the past year on speculation demand would outpace supply with a smaller 2011-12 crop in Indonesia, the third-largest producer. Brazil is the second-biggest robusta producer. Coffee production in Indonesia dropped to 7...

At 400 million cups a day, America has become a coffee nation By Scott Wapner CNBC September 29, 2011 HOUSTON, Tex.  — There was a time in America when coffee was just a drink. Today, it's something more. It's fancier, tastier, pricier — a magic elixir that satisfies our collective craving and our national addiction to caffeine. If there’s any doubt that America has become a coffee nation, the proof can be found at the U.S. Barista Championship, where connoisseurs battle for a $5,000 cash prize and a shot at making it to the world championship. Top honors are given for the best cup o’ joe in the country. Coffee slinging was once a job. Today, it’s a calling. “We’re going to give people what they want,” said Joshua Boyt, 29, a barista and the owner of Metronome outside Seattle. “That’s what coffee is about. It’s an experience.” “Barista” is Italian for bartender, and just like making a perfect martini, there’s a lot of skill required of these ambassadors ...

KETKnbc.com September 29, 2011 TYLER — It's National Coffee Day Thursday, and in light of the "special day," we decided to look into the seemingly rising prices of our daily cup of joe. It's a luxury to some, but a necessity to others to start our morning off right. We spoke to one local roaster who says the higher bean costs have greatly affected his business. Ray Johnson has owned Coffee City USA in Tyler for 14 years. Johnson's business roasts thousands of pounds of coffee a day, and then sells it to different retailers across the country. Due to the recent rise in bean prices, it's taking a toll on his work. "Right now, it's about $3.25 today. A year-and-a-half ago, it was at about $1.30," Johnson said. Johnson says he doesn't remember bean prices being this steadily high since about 1997. He says coffee prices right now are as volatile as gasoline due to a number of factors, including a rise in demand and the climat...

By Elizabeth Flock The Washington Post September 29, 2011 Today, tell all those smug tea drinkers to take a walk, because it’s international coffee day. Caribou Coffee, 7-11, Thornton's, and Krispy Kreme are all making it easier to feed your addiction by handing out free cups of joe at nationwide locations. (Note the fine print: 7/11’s freebies end at 11 a.m., and at Caribou, it’s buy one, get one for a friend free.) Though rumored to be participating, Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks say they will not be handing out free coffee, prompting one fan to write, “I still love your coffee, and I'd still pay for it on National Coffee Day while other people moan and complain, and go to 7-11 for a [expletive] cup of free coffee.” In addition to getting a cup of java, we suggest you celebrate by remembering where coffee came from — a group of hopped-up goats. According to the National Coffee Association, an Ethio¬pian goat herder named Kaldi was the first to realize coffee’s w...

By Isis Almeida Bloomberg September 28, 2011   Brazil, the world’s largest coffee grower, may produce a record crop in the 2012-13 season, said the nation’s coffee exporters’ council, known as CeCafe. Output in the South American country will climb to 57 million to 58 million bags as trees enter the high-yielding half of a two-year cycle, said Guilherme Braga, head of CeCafe. The 2012-13 season starts in July next year. The 2011-12 harvest began in the summer and is expected to be 46 million to 47 million bags, he said. “If the weather is favorable and rains fall in the right period, production may be higher than in the previous high- yielding season,” Braga said today in an interview at the International Coffee Organization in London. “Producers also benefited from favorable prices during the current season and therefore applied more fertilizers and tended to the crop.” Dry weather earlier this year helped the harvest and the quality of beans, although rains ...

By Jean Guerrero Dow Jones Newswires September 28, 2011 MEXICO CITY -(Dow Jones)- Nestle SA (NESN.VX, NSRGY) is expanding its coffee operations in Mexico with a $15 million plan to establish its first coffee-propagation center in a coffee-producing country and locally develop 30 million coffee plants by 2020, company officials said Wednesday. Nestle signed an agreement with Mexico's National Institute of Forestry, Farming and Fishing Research and with the Mexican crop-technology-and-distribution company Agromod to expand on its Nescafe Plan announced in August of last year. The new public-private alliance raises Nestle's initial goal in Mexico of planting five million high-yielding coffee trees by 2015, which was part of its plan to distribute 220 million plants world-wide by 2020. It turns Agromod's current crop-propagation laboratory in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas into a local-development-and-distribution center for Nestle's coffee plants starting i...

By Isis Almeida Bloomberg September 27, 2011 Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Farmers from Vietnam to Brazil will supply a record robusta crop in the marketing year that begins next month, extending a slump in coffee futures that spurred Kraft Foods Inc. and J.M. Smucker Co. to cut prices. Production will rise 5.4 percent to 3.29 million metric tons (54.9 million 60-kilogram bags) in the 2011-12 season, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates. Vietnam and Brazil, the biggest producers, will reap the most beans ever. Robusta traded on the NYSE Liffe exchange in London fell 26 percent since March, and will drop another 5 percent to $1,884 a metric ton by Dec. 31, according to the mean in a Bloomberg survey of 16 brokers, traders and analysts. Robusta, the second most-consumed coffee after arabica, is reversing a rally that more than doubled prices in the 12 months ended in March as shortages emerged. That was part of a global surge in food prices that the United Nations estimates rea...