Production & Trade

Production & Trade

salvadoran coffee producers pacamara

Have Salvadoran coffee producers backed the wrong horse?

Fewer than 3% of El Salvador’s coffee farmers produce Pacamara, a home-grown hybrid variety.

coffee price premiums

Price premiums: Can specialty coffee roasters stay true to their promises?

High arabica prices & soaring energy costs are testing roasters' abilities to pay farmers the premiums they have promised.
Young coffee farmers face new challenges, from climate change to a disillusioned labour force.

How young Salvadoran coffee producers are overcoming fresh obstacles

In El Salvador, where coffee farms are generally smallholder and family-run, younger generations grow up knowing that one day they will take the reins from their parents.
consolidation of colombian coffee farms

Consolidation is an escape route for disillusioned coffee farmers

Consolidation has become a defining characteristic of the coffee industry – but is working for coffee farms?
cup of excellence

Private coffee auctions are killing off Cup of Excellence

Cup of Excellence (CoE) was launched in Brazil in 1999 as a platform for coffee producers – but private auctions have begun to eclipse its popularity.
china coffee

Can China quench its thirst for East African coffees?

A Chinese company recently paid more than $400/lb for an Ethiopian Sidama coffee. Where will it end?
coffee auctions

Coffee auctions: Why the gulf between origins is widening

The discrepancy is largely due to scarcity and marketing – although other factors are also at play.
young coffee farmers kenya

Out with the old: Why Kenya’s young coffee producers are rejecting cooperatives

Young farmers returning from jobs in the city are disillusioned with power structures. A few have taken matters into their own hands.
counterfeit coffee china

China is suffering from a counterfeit coffee crisis

The volume of coffee consumed in China has jumped more than 44% in the last five years – but not all of it is what it claims to be.
kenyan coffee farming

FinTech is making Kenyan coffee farms more efficient

As of September 2021, more than 53% of Kenyans owned a smartphone – and coffee farmers are harnessing them to become more efficient than ever.
colombian coffee pickers

Why Colombia’s coffee pickers aren’t Colombian

9 out of 10 coffee pickers in Colombia are Venezuelan, many of whom have crossed the border in recent years to escape domestic political and economic turmoil.
honey processed coffee

Honey processing: Did the world steal Costa Rica’s coffee niche?

Costa Rican coffee farmers pioneered honey processing; then other origins soon followed.

Smuggling & tariffs: The complicated world of coffee imports to origin countries

Many of the world’s coffee origins import coffee to meet domestic demand – but a secret culture of smuggling has existed for decades.
auditing coffee producers

Why the coffee industry’s “audit culture” is ruining direct relationships

When they arrive, the auditors not only ask probing questions, but feed the information back to the ones who have paid for the audit.
older generation of coffee producers

Specialty coffee varieties: Why older farmers have reason to be sceptical

While 43% of US coffee consumers report drinking specialty coffee, it still remains a relatively small market compared to commodity coffees.
urban coffee farms in Medellín Colombia

Invisible Medellín: Lifting the curtain on Colombia’s urban coffee farms

Sixty years of armed conflict uprooted many of Antioquia’s rural coffee farmers – now a new urban coffee-producing sector has emerged.

Are consuming countries forcing two-way traceability on coffee farmers?

For many of the world’s producers, knowledge of what happens to their coffee ends long before it finds its way into a consumer’s cup.
coffee prices affect local economy of antioquia in colombia

From literacy rates to criminal activity: How coffee prices affect local economies

High coffee prices fuel a thriving local economy – but market volatility can have disastrous consequences.
female shea butter producers

Women’s gold: What the coffee industry can learn from shea butter production

Gender inequality is rife on coffee farms. But it can learn from the shea butter industry.
fetishisation of coffee farmers

The fetishisation of coffee farmers

Exploring why specialty coffee's marketing efforts need to move beyond the narrative of impoverished farmers.

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