Poor Farmer

Highlight in this excerpt: Three exchanges (SAFEX, ECX, and MACE) remain operational but only SAFEX is clearly sustainable and thriving based on the voluntary participation of all relevant market participants, and without significant external donor funding to sustain its operations.   While it is sometimes argued that the ECX has promoted the welfare of coffee farmers as the value of exports has increased from $529 million in 2007 when the exchange was established to $797 million in 2012, others indicate that this rise can be almost totally explained by the increase in international coffee prices over this period. Moreover, recent analysis of ECX data indicate that the farmers’ share of the international coffee prices has not risen compared to pre-ECX farmer shares.  [footnote 14: For example, data from the International Coffee Organization indicates that farmers took home 51.6% of the export price of their ...

Wondwossen’ Note: The retraction notice is here: http://www.dovepress.com/retraction-randomized-double-blind-placebo-controlled-linear-dose-peer-reviewed-article-DMSO The retracted paper is here: http://www.dovepress.com/randomized-double-blind-placebo-controlled-linear-dose-crossover-study-peer-reviewed-article-DMSO ----- Researchers retract bogus, Dr. Oz-touted study on green coffee bean weight-loss pills By   Abby Phillip   The Washington Post October 22, 214 Researchers have   retracted a bogus study   that was used by a company to validate weight-loss claims for green coffee bean pills,   one of several questionable supplements   being scrutinized by federal regulators. The study, which was conducted in India but written by researchers from the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania, initially claimed that people who used the supplement lost 16 percent of their body fat (about 18 pounds each) with or without diet...

By Ethan Hauser The New York Times October 18, 2014 I DON’T know what an Americano is. I don’t know what Chemex is, though I thought the point was to get chemicals out of our foods, not into. Maybe that is what the “ex” is for. I don’t know what cold drip is. (I do know what iced coffee is. Iced tea, too — Mayor Bloomberg tried to ban it and that’s what got him voted out of office, right?) I know what a latte is. I know what Starbucks is. Starbucks invented the latte, in Seattle, where the rain and natural beauty make people stay inside and create sprawling companies that eventually make people dependent and angry. I know what addiction is: I recently rewatched every episode of “The Wire.” Is espresso the miniature one, or is that cappuccino? I don’t know what Nespresso is. Did Nestlé buy espresso? Hello, Federal Trade Commission? Isn’t this against the law? I know what a barista is. They pull levers and shout and have better taste in music than I do. Some of them have ...

Traditionally it takes rather a long time to be served a cup of coffee in Ethiopia - but things are now speeding up. By James Jeffrey, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia BBC News October 15, 2014 Tomoca now has five cafes across Addis Ababa As coffee plants originate from the east African nation - where they first grew wild before cultivation started in the country more than 1,000 years ago - it is perhaps unsurprising that Ethiopians take coffee drinking very seriously. So much so that Ethiopia has a ceremonial method of making coffee at home that continues to this day. The ceremony sees raw beans roasted over hot coals, with each person in attendance being invited to savour the smell of the fumes. The beans are then ground with a wooden pestle and mortar before finally being brewed - twice - in a clay boiling pot called a jebena. While the resulting coffee is inevitably delicious, the whole process can take more than an hour. And a growing number of Ethiopia...

Arabica-Coffee Futures Surge to More than 5-Month High; Cotton Falls Lack Of Brazil Rain Causes Concern For Production This Year And Next By  Alexandra Wexler The Wall Street Journal October 2, 2014 NEW YORK—Arabica-coffee prices surged on Thursday, as traders and investors continued to worry that dry weather in top grower and exporter Brazil would lead to fewer beans next year. During the trading session, arabica futures soared 6.7% in price to its highest in more than five months, but the contract for delivery in December on ICE Futures U.S. pared gains later in the session to end 4.1% higher at $2.0860 a pound. It was the highest settlement since Sept. 2. "Coffee is pretty much going solo on the upside after triggering more (buy) stops and attracting new fund buying ahead of postponed forecasts for rains in Brazil," said Rodrigo Costa, head of the coffee desk at brokerage Newedge in New York. "Everyone is afraid of the unknown." ...