Last May, ANACAFE hosted the III Producer & Roaster Forum, an event organized by Perfect Daily Grind. Yave and Guatemalan Coffees supported this year’s edition.
Producers from several Central American countries gathered with roasters from the US, Europe, Asia, and Australia. It was a very straightforward event, with the first blockchain auction serving as the highlight of the event.
Coffee sector conferences are a great space to discuss sustainability, do business, and extend network contacts. Nonetheless, this year, the SCA conference gravitated toward one topic: prices. Given the C-Price on Friday, April 12 (during the Conference) plummeting to $0.90/lb, it is clear why this was such an important topic.
Las conferencias en el sector de café son un gran espacio para dialogar sobre sostenibilidad, hacer negocios y ampliar las redes de contacto. Sin embargo, este año la conferencia del SCA se orientó a un tema en particular: ¡precios! Y como no, el viernes 12 de abril, en plena Expo, el precio “C” en la bolsa de New York cayó a los $0.90/lb.
On this International Women's Day, we commemorate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women, while acknowledging the many obstacles and gender-power imbalances women face, especially in coffee and cocoa communities in Latin America. For this blog entry, we shine the light on a growing organization, Bean Voyage, that is empowering women in Costa Rica.
Numerous organizations have been working on sustainability projects within the specialty coffee sector with supply chain partners committed to the long-term viability of the farmers and their communities. Encouraging efforts are underway in the specialty coffee trade, and here will I attempt to distill a simple recipe of eight core ingredients that will improve the taste of your coffee by adding the flavors of sustainability. Post by: Saurin Nanavati
“Sustainability. Do we say it too much?” COSA’s President and Co-Founder Danielle Giovannucci asked during his keynote speech at this year’s edition of Sintercafé.
Maybe we do. This word is everpresent in coffee marketing, debates, and events. The real question is, are we practicing what we preach?
From planting to harvesting and beyond, women play a crucial role in coffee production. Nonetheless, coffee is considered a man’s crop. Women earn less income, own less land, are less organized, and have fewer training and leadership opportunities, according to the Coffee Barometer 2018. Situations must change to improve the livelihoods of coffee farmers, families, and communities. On this International Coffee Day, we would like to celebrate all the women and initiatives that are working to make coffee more equitable.
The Specialty Coffee Expo and World of Coffee reunited roasters, traders, producers, baristas, organizations, and coffee enthusiasts from around the world. These events allowed actors across the value chain to exchange information, create business relationships, and learn from each other. I was there first-hand to live the experience, and here are a few of my takeaways from the events.
Nearly eighty-five percent of young adults are from low-income countries. While agriculture is the primary livelihood for adults in these countries, many youths in rural areas are not equipped with the necessary training or financing to pursue a life in farming. Rural youth often struggle to find a trajectory that will lead to a livelihood with a reliable, year-round income.
SAFE prides itself on being a platform oriented toward action, and also on allowing different actors to converge and work together to transform the realities smallholder coffee and cocoa farmers face.
During the Global Specialty Coffee Expo, new alliances sprouted, and we were able to create ideas on how we could make the most of our Platform.
With a total investment of $3.2 million, The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), several international organizations, and other trade partners will support four specific projects that have just been launched this month as a part of the SAFE Platform. One of them is a SAFE Individual Project and the rest are Small Interventions.
It's three in the morning, when most people are asleep and haven’t even started thinking about the chores of the day, let alone water, a resource many of us take for granted. But not doña Ángela*. She is already up and making her way to Matagalpa, the biggest nearby town, to buy much-needed chlorine for her community’s water system.
Theodora Reyes rarely looks at the camera. I’ve never been in her presence, but in pictures her gaze seems to rather focus on stuff that matter for her, like the tiny coffee plantations that grow sheltered by her confident, skillful hands.
In September I visited Medellin to attend the signing of a new coffee renovation and technification project. The city, a strategic center of one of the most important coffee producing regions in the country, has an atmosphere that mixes with local tragic humor anecdotes about Pablo Escobar.
It is incredible to think that something as small and essential to my life as a cup of coffee is related to the life of so many people around to world As many topics that might determine the future of our region, this one has a dark and a bright side.
Oxfam recently released the paper: Feeding Climate Change, What the Paris Agreement means for food and beverage companies (June, 2016), where it emphasizes that “For the first time, the 2016 World Economic Forum’s global risks report ranks the failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation as the most impactful risk to countries and industries, with water crises coming third”.
These numbers are already starting to become a reality with the effort of all partners. The first period for receipt of SAFE projects proposals has recently ended.
Blue Harvest has the challenge of attaining two goals that are apparently opposite. The first one is to reach more production and agricultural productivity and the second is to safeguard water sources. The good news is that it is achieving both.
Creativity and sustainability: Two huge words we love using in our every-day corporate, organization and educational jargon. We do not always stop and think how both connect and how both might define the future of our existence.