Poor Farmer

The Economist July 15, 2013 COFFEE has many devoted drinkers. Its appealling aroma and caffeinated kick mean that 83% of all American adults drink it, 63% of them on a daily basis, according to a survey from the National Coffee Association. Yet despite the strong demand for coffee, some suppliers are unhappy. In Brazil, which produces a third of the world's coffee beans, farmers are striking over falling prices and burning sacks of coffee in protest. Why are coffee-growers feeling the strain? There are two main varieties of coffee bean: arabica and robusta. The former, which accounts for around 60% of the world's crop, is considered superior and fetches higher prices; the latter is a hardier crop, resistant to leaf rust, but has a more bitter taste. Most of the beans produced in Brazil are of the arabica variety. But these beans now fetch around $106 a 60kg bag, less than half of what farmers could get for them a couple of years ago. Farmers in Colombia and Eth...

Programs Aims to Secure Premium Beans to Appeal to Discerning Consumers By John Revill The Wall Street Journal July 15, 2013 LAUSANNE, Switzerland—Coffee companies are increasingly lending support to farmers in Asia and Africa, part of efforts to secure premium beans as they compete for discerning customers. On Monday, Nestlé SA NESN.VX +0.31% said it was expanding a program in Africa that provides seedlings to Latin American farmers producing coffee for the food giant. Nestlé, the world's largest coffee seller, will also provide training and replanting programs to help farmers in Ethiopia, Kenya and South Sudan. "We always need more coffee," Jean-Marc Duvoisin, who runs the company's Nespresso business, said at an event for the program. "We always need more good quality coffee." Nestlé isn't alone in investing in coffee farmers. Earlier this month, Mondelez International Inc., MDLZ   -0.59% the world's No. 2 coffee ...

By Thomas Mulier Bloomberg July 15, 2013 Nespresso, the biggest maker of single-serve coffee, will introduce its sustainability program to Africa as it forms a board with the heads of Fairtrade International and Rainforest Alliance plus actor George Clooney. The Nestle SA (NESN) division plans to start the program in Ethiopia and Kenya as well as try to help reestablish a coffee industry in South Sudan, Nespresso said in a statement today. “We always need more coffee,” especially sustainable coffee, Nespresso Chief Executive Officer Jean-Marc Duvoisin said at a press conference in Lausanne, Switzerland. Nestle is highlighting Nespresso’s environmental and labor standards of production as competition in single-serve coffee intensifies. Rival capsules that work in Nespresso machines probably squeezed the brand’s first-quarter sales growth to 8 percent, the slowest pace in its history, Jon Cox, an analyst at Kepler Cheuvreux in Zurich, has estimated. “Thi...