Tag Archives: coffee

Coffee

In Spite of Pandemic Coffee Still Plentiful

Coffee lovers, here’s something to be grateful about. Unlike paper towels, disinfectant or yeast, coffee has never been hard to find during the pandemic.

It has remained widely available on supermarket shelves even though COVID-19 has been particularly bad in some of the world’s largest coffee growing nations. Brazil, which has recorded more cases than any nation other than the United States, is the world’s top producer of coffee. India, Mexico and Colombia all rank in the top ten globally for both COVID cases and coffee production. Other major coffee exporters including Peru and Uganda have found themselves cut off by border closures and lockdowns.

“It’s natural to think that the harvesting of the coffee crops may be disrupted or perhaps badly disrupted,” says Steven Hurst, a coffee trader based in London. “But quite honestly and quite frankly, we’ve seen relatively little, if any, evidence of that.”

Source: Many major coffee producing nations also have large COVID outbreaks : NPR

For Peru, there are no international flights, and many coffee regions only recently began to have domestic air service. Lockdowns have been very strict, yet cases have been some of the highest in the world. The bigger exporters & Cooperatives with previous contracts have been doing well, but the small farmers that have no long term commitments are suffering.

For us, it meant no trip to Peru this summer, and uncertainty as to when we’ll be able to return.

Selective Picking for Only Ripe Cherries

 

Coffee

Trump urged to prevent trade war from affecting US coffee industry

The coffee industry is begging President Trump to keep imports of instant, roasted, and decaffeinated coffees out of the trade fight with the European Union over airline subsidies, warning that hundreds of companies could close if he fails to intervene.

Coffee companies want the tariffs waived, saying that imports of those coffee products from the EU could nearly double in price under the White House’s proposed retaliatory tariffs, a serious blow to the domestic industry, which employs 1.7 million Americans.

“Several coffee brands such as Illy and Lavazza are dependent on imports from Italy for their U.S. business,” National Coffee Association president Bill Murray told U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in a letter obtained by the Washington Examiner. “These companies distribute premium Italian-roasted coffee nationally across the United States.” He warned that a 100% tariff would force “hundreds of small businesses” dependent on these imports to shut down.

Source: Trump urged to prevent trade war from affecting US coffee industry

May be an opportunity for someone to get into the instant coffee business here in the US. Meanwhile, since we import from Peru, so worries yet…

Selective Picking for Only Ripe Cherries
Coffee

How To Make Barista-Quality Espresso at Home | Perfect Daily Grind

So, you love sipping on a delicious espresso, latte, or flat white at your favorite coffee shop, but wish you could have that same great coffee at home. Well then, this article is for you! Kim Ossenblok and Danilo Lodi are both coffee ambassadors at the Italian espresso machine manufacturer Dalla Corte.

They agreed to share with me their advice for brewing barista-quality espresso at home. Preparing good espresso doesn’t have to be as complicated as you might think. With the correct equipment and a little bit of know-how, you’ll soon be pulling great shots in the comfort of your own kitchen.

Source: How To Make Barista-Quality Espresso at Home | Perfect Daily Grind

Coffee, Economy

How Brazil and Vietnam are tightening their grip on the world’s coffee – Reuters

With increasing use of mechanization and other new technologies, the world’s top two coffee producers, Brazil and Vietnam, are achieving productivity growth that outstrips rivals in places such as Colombia, Central America and Africa.They are set to tighten their grip.

A plunge in global coffee prices in recent months, to their lowest levels in 13 years, has begun to trigger a massive shake-out in the market in which only the most efficient producers will thrive, according to coffee traders and analysts.Rival producers elsewhere in the world are increasingly likely to be driven to the margins, unable to make money from a crop they have grown for generations. Some are already turning to alternative crops while others are abandoning their farms completely.Such shifts are almost irreversible for perennial crops like coffee, as the decision to abandon or cut down trees can hit production for several years.

“Brazil and Vietnam have had consistent increases in productivity, other countries have not,” said Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, citing advances in mechanization, selective crop breeding techniques and irrigation technology.

In Colombia and Central America, coffee is typically grown on hillsides where mechanization is more difficult, and hand-picking cherries has kept production costs relatively high. The African sector, meanwhile, is dominated by small-scale farmers often unable to raise the capital needed for new techniques.

Source: How Brazil and Vietnam are tightening their grip on the world’s coffee – Reuters

Yellow Bourbon Coffee (Photo: Roast Magazine)
Coffee

US Army tool reveals how much coffee is needed to stay awake – Business Insider

US Army researchers have developed an online tool that suggests how much coffee you should really drink to stay awake. The algorithm is not only meant to help you become more aware of how much caffeine you’re drinking but can also help reduce your coffee consumption.

For the study, which was published in the trade magazine “Sleep”, participants underwent several sleep deprivation and shift work scenarios. Researchers observed how their lack of sleep affected alertness and performance and how much caffeine influenced this.

In some cases, study participants had to stay awake for up to 60 hours and their regular sleeping time was severely shortened. The research team then developed the Open Access tool 2B-Alert Web 2.0 based on these results.

Link here.

Coffee

Coffee farmers meet in Brazil amid crisis, seek alternatives – Reuters

Brazil’s city of Campinas, in the southeast state of Sao Paulo, will host the 2nd World Coffee Producers Forum on July 10-11. The first edition was held in 2017 in Medellin, Colombia. Organizers of the global conference say the main objective this year is to look at ways to improve the economic sustainability of producers. “In Medellin, the target was to find a way to mobilize producers, to have a coordinated forum to discuss our issues,” said Vanusia Nogueira, one of the organizers. “Prices only fell from there on, so now we need to discuss alternatives to improve income for farmers,” she said. Coffee prices in New York reached a 12-year low in May at 86 cents per pound. They recovered slightly recently, mostly due to expectations for a harsh winter in Brazil, but are still at around 110 cents per pound, a level seen by many producers as unsustainable.

Source: Coffee farmers meet in Brazil amid crisis, seek alternatives – Reuters