Poor Farmer

By Gregory Warner NPR July 22, 2013 As we reported during in April, coffee aficionados for single-origin roasts. The village of Boto in the Ethiopian highlands was selling some of the  cheapest coffee in Ethiopia, the notorious "Jimma 5."  Now it's selling a bean coveted by specialty U.S. roasters, and has  built a road with some of the proceeds. Courtesy of: Gregory Warner/NPR The professional prospectors working for specialty coffee companies will travel far and wide, Marco Polo-style, to discover that next champion bean. But to the farmers who hope to be that next great discovery, the emergence of this new coffee aristocracy is less Marco Polo, more Cinderella: How do you get your coffee bean to the ball? Consider this tale of impoverished Ethiopian coffee growers whose beans once sold for rock bottom prices: The yellowed highlands around the city of Jimma in Ethiopia are where coffee was discovered in the 8 th century. But...

When Dub Hay, Starbucks senior vice present of global coffee procurement, came to the defense of C.A.F.E. Practices following a negative story on the program in Ethiopia in 2007, he responded: "You go to Nariño, Colombia. We built 1,800 [coffee] washing stations and sanitation facilities and homes.... It's literally changed the face of that whole area.... The same is true throughout Latin America. They call it the Starbucks effect." No one I met called it the Starbucks effect. Even the farmers who sell knowingly to Starbucks and those who had received assistance prefer to get their beans certified by and sold to Nespresso, which pays 28 cents more per kilogram. The consensus in this area is that not much has happened with the C.A.F.E. Practices program in the past seven years; but while the program appears to be missing on the ground, it is very present on the company's website, in marketing copy, and in any discussion about its corporate responsibility. ...

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...