Poor Farmer

Heather Murdock Voice of America October 27, 2011 Louis Ntiricakeza is one of the few Rwandan farmers already  growing coffee underneath bananas, October 2011.  Photo: VOA - H. Murdock Sakara, Rwanda - Over the next three to four decades, temperatures in the Great Lakes Region of Central Africa are expected to rise about two degrees Celsius. Scientists say without immediate innovations in farming, crops will be devastated and the region will be thrown into chaos. So Rwanda is experimenting with what is already widely practiced in some neighboring countries. They are growing banana and coffee plants on the same soil to prepare for the new climate in the long term, and to grow the economy in the short term. Frederick Musangwa has a farm in Rwanda. He grows bananas to eat, and coffee to sell. He cooks over a wood fire, and has no electricity or running water. In the past, he grew food crops to feed his family and sell in the market, and earned about $11...

By Heather Walsh Bloomberg October 24, 2011 Colombia, the world’s second-largest supplier of Arabica coffee beans, may produce its smallest crop in two years in 2011 because of excess rain that poses a risk for next year’s harvest, according to a top growers’ leader. Output may slide to less than 8.5 million bags this year, said Mario Gomez, a member of the board of Colombia’s National Federation of Coffee Growers for almost three decades. In August, the Federation cut its forecast to 9 million bags, from 9.5 million previously. Last year’s crop was 8.9 million bags. “Output could be hit mainly because of the weather,” Gomez said in an interview on Oct. 21 near the city of Manizales in the heart of Colombia’s central coffee-growing region. “Production isn’t responding. Coffee like no other product needs light” and periods of dry weather, he said. Coffee has jumped 25 percent in 12 months as lower production in Colombia contributes to a slide in stockpiles of the...

Coffee Drinkers Less Likely to Develop Most Common Type of Skin Cancer By   Jennifer Warner Reviewed by   Laura J. Martin, MD WebMD Health News October 24, 2011 Drinking coffee may help prevent the most common type of   skin cancer. A new study shows that women who drank more than three cups of coffee per day had a 20% lower risk of developing basal cell carcinoma (BCC) than women who drank less than one cup a month. Men who drank more than three cups of coffee benefited from a 9% reduction in risk of this type of skin   cancer. Drinking decaffeinated coffee did not have any effect on skin cancer risk, which leads researchers to suspect   caffeine   is the key ingredient. "It is likely that caffeine has a protective effect," researcher Fengju Song, PhD, postdoctoral fellow in dermatology at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, says in an email. "BCC risk was inversely associated with caffeine." But be...

By Mia Lamar The Wall Street Journal October 24, 2011 Sara Lee   Corp. has sold the majority of its North American foodservice coffee and tea operations to   J.M. Smucker   Co. for $350 million in cash, continuing a slimming-down effort at the packaged-foods company. Sara Lee has worked in recent months to sell off businesses and narrow its focus. The company is currently in the process of splitting apart, separating into an international coffee and tea business and a North American business that includes the Jimmy Dean and Hillshire Farms brands. "Our decision to sell a major part of this business to Smucker is an example of Sara Lee Coffee and Tea's renewed focus on sustainable, profitable growth and part of our mandate to create the strongest possible pure-play company," said Executive Chairman Jan Bennink. The deal is expected to close in the beginning of next year. Also Monday, Sara Lee said that its Senseo coffee business in North America wil...

The Hindu October 23, 2011 Picture: Courtesy of The Hindu COONOOR, Oct . 23: The Coffee Board says the shortfall in global coffee production to continue this year as well. Speaking at the 118th Upasi annual meet on commodity outlook for coffee, Mr M. Chandrasekar, Secretary, Coffee Board, said: “South America is yet to recover and the shortfall for crop year 2011-12 is expected to be around 3.10 million bags.” Global arabica output is expected to be down by 6 per cent at 78.76 million bags and robusta up by 1.7 per cent at 50.71 million bags. Major production gain is seen in Columbia 10 million bags (10 per cent) Uganda 3.2 million bags (14 per cent). Shortfall is seen in Brazil 43.15 million bags (10 per cent), Vietnam 20-22 million bags (10 per cent) Indonesia 6.7 million bags (27 per cent). Coffee prices witnessed downward correction in September, but is still relatively firm, particularly in arabica. The decline is mainly caused due to disinvestment...

By Fakir Balaji IANS via TwoCircles.Net October 23 2011 Coonoor (Tamil Nadu) : Indian coffee planters and exporters are brewing profits like never before due to soaring prices and growing consumption of the aromatic beverage worldwide. Riding on surging commodity rates globally, producers of the green bean, mainly from Karnataka, and exporters are making a killing as prices in international and domestic auctions rule at historic highs on growing demand despite competition from traditional and new players. "Indian coffee growers and exporters are on cloud nine as their Arabica and Robusta bean varieties have regained ground and are competing with the best in the world for better prices on growing demand," a representative of the planters' body told IANS. A decade after cyclical highs and lows and lifting of quotas under the World Trade Organization (WTO) regime, the Indian coffee sector is at the cusp of a new era as the latest trends indicate an up...

Product more attractive as dollar hits new low Reuters via  Gulf News October 23, 2011 New York/London: Arabica coffee futures soared on Friday, posting the biggest jump in 16 months on concerns about heavy rains in Central America, dwindling certified stocks and a lack of producer selling. Sugar and cocoa finished mixed. "One small fundamental factor that is important is the certified [stocks] drawdown. Then you have the macro picture, which is somehow driving things higher with Europe, and then third you have piling on," said one US coffee dealer, referring to buying that was spurred by the rally. In December arabica futures on ICE jumped 13.20 cents, or 5.7 per cent, to close at $2.4485 (Dh8.99) per pound, the biggest daily percentage gain since June 2010. It peaked at $2.4670. Volume rose above 28,000 lots, the highest since September 22, preliminary Thomson Reuters data showed. Article continues below Heavy rains in Central America, where ...