Poor Farmer

The Increasing Sophistication of Coffee Drinkers is Good for Producers From The Economist print edition April 17, 2008 ADDIS ABABA COFFEE prices are the highest they have been for a decade. As consumers in India and China develop a taste for the drink, prices are likely to keep rising. Meanwhile something new is happening in developed markets. Europeans, Americans and Japanese are switching to higher-quality coffee. Discerning consumers now demand authenticity: they want stories about where their coffee beans come from. So the best coffees will increasingly be differentiated, like fine wines and spirits, and sold at previously unthinkable prices. The move from instant-coffee powder to luxury beans is in some ways reminiscent of what happened when the Scotch-whisky industry shifted from cheap blends to expensive single malts, each with its own story. But where the whisky revolution was masterminded by distillers, the coffee revolution is a messier insurgency. Gourmets and specialist ...

Fog rolls over the hills in Yirgacheffe on Dec. 7, 2007. Photographer: Michael Tsegaye/ Bloomberg News By Marianne Stigset Bloomberg April 17, 2008 Wearing a gray jacket and white cap to ward off the early morning chill, Bedhane Gambarso plucks ripe, red coffee berries from the trees on his 1.5-hectare (3.7- acre) farm in the hills of Ethiopia's Yirgacheffe region. Gambarso, a 44-year-old former soldier, earned 4,000 birr ($421) last year from his crop, which had to support his wife and eight children until the next harvest. At night, the family shares its one-room hut with two cows and three sheep. Ethiopia, where coffee originated, is trying to boost the incomes of farmers like Gambarso by trademarking its beans, prized for their rich, fruity flavor. Producing nations such as Colombia have followed suit as growers struggle to grab more of the $25 billion consumers spend on premium varieties each year. Success may mean higher prices for lattes and cut profits for companies such ...

A farmer at his coffee plantation. Premium earnings will be buoyed by the rise in global demand. Photo: courtesy of Reuters via Business Daily Business Daily April 14, 2008 Coffee producers are set to continue enjoying premium earnings in the medium term helped by a steady rise in demand for the commodity in the global market. An International Coffee Organisation (ICO) survey shows that though Arabica coffee prices recorded downward adjustments of about five per cent in March, the trend is expected to level out in the coming month as demand improves. Kenya exclusively produces small volumes of the much-sought high quality Arabica coffee. The ICO reckons that continuing fund activity in the commodity markets had triggered price volatility that has surprisingly worked in favour of Robusta producing nations such as Uganda with the prices climbing by as much as 5.6 per cent. “In the space of two days between March 5 and 6 quotations on the New York futures market (ICE) fluctuated by 5.5...

Press Release SCAA April 1, 2008 LONG BEACH, Calif. ---- Demonstrating its commitment to promote sustainability within the specialty coffee industry, the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) is going “green” at its upcoming 20th Annual Conference & Exhibition, May 2 – 5 in Minneapolis, Minn. SCAA is the world's largest coffee trade association. At the SCAA conference, the association’s carbon neutrality program will help offset emissions related to conference travel, lodging and energy consumption. Conference attendees will pay a small tariff to participate in the program, and funds collected from registrants---included in the conference fee---will be donated to the sustainable agroforestry non-profit organization, Trees for the Future, for the purchasing and planting of new trees. SCAA and specialty coffee importer, Sustainable Harvest representatives will provide oversight on funding the project. Additional “green meeting” efforts at the 2008 show, organized by SCA...

By David Usborne in New York The Independent March 21, 2008 Best we know there is no federal bail-out planned for Starbucks nor is one of its competitors, say Dunkin' Donuts, poised to buy it for a rock-bottom price. Things are not that fragile at the house of the double-shot soy-milk frozen macchiato. But, by its own admission, they are no longer especially buoyant either. If the failure of one very large bank last weekend brought the woes of Wall Street into focus then the new-found struggles of America's most ubiquitous coffee purveyor may similarly be a symbol of the more general economic malaise infecting Main Street. The foam on its lattes is suddenly going sour. It is a uncharacteristically contrite Starbucks that is now acknowledging that its model for retailing coffee beverages at not-so-modest prices is suddenly under assault and that salvation resides in reconnecting with its coffee-roasting roots and, hopefully, its customers. The pain is being felt most acutely in...

Announcing the First Bird Friendly Coffee from Africa! By Menkeli Kanaa March 17, 2008 Ethiopia – Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center (SMBC) has announced that Anfilo Specialty Coffee Enterprises (ASCE) has been certified bird friendly - the first in Africa to obtain this certification. SMBC’s first bird friendly certified coffee from Africa comes from two woredas (sub sections), of western Wellega, surrounding the Gerjeda Forest Reserve. The areas include some 600 hectares of undisturbed wild coffees that are self- sown, and grow under the full coverage of natural forests. The coffee is grown at an altitude of 1800 to 2400 meters above sea level (5905 – 7874ft). Those two weredas, Anfilo and Gidami, are among other important coffee producing weredas that also surround this forest reserve. The growing trend in today’s coffee market is for certification programs, which assure consumers that their purchases are grown under environmentally and socially responsible conditions Bird friendly c...

Coffee cherries sit in a basket ready for sale in Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia, on Dec. 8, 2007. Photographer: Michael Tsegaye/Bloomberg News By Aya Takada Bloomberg March 13, 2008 Global coffee supply will be curbed by the dollar's decline against the currencies of producing countries and by increasing costs as consumption gains, the International Coffee Organization said. Rising coffee prices are failing to boost planting because the weakening dollar erodes the value of sales in local-currency terms and record crude oil boosts fertilizer and transport costs, said Nestor Osorio, executive director of the London-based group. Consumption increases 1.7 percent to 2 percent a year, he said. Supply constraints may raise prices of coffee, which gained to a 10-year high in New York last month, adding to costs for roasters including Starbucks Corp. , the world's largest chain of coffee shops, and Doutor Nichires Holdings Co. , the biggest in Japan. An index tracking the dollar against six m...