Category: Markets

More PRM! Best practices with contracts for cooperatives and farmer associations

2016-10-18 Kraig Kraft Comments Off

(Influenced heavily by these fantastic reference pieces Trading Practices for a Sustainable Coffee Sector – IISD, Jason Potts, with Guido Fernandez and Chris Wunderlich and by the International Trade Center’s – The Coffee Exporter’s Guide) Recently, we’ve been working with the cooperatives participating in the Blue Harvest project in Central America to improve the commercialization […]

Developing the specialty market for robusta with the first “Taza Dorada” in Ecuador

2016-08-16 Kraig Kraft Comments Off

The Borderlands project took place on two sides of the Colombian – Ecuadorian border. In Nariño we know about the hidden potential to produce high quality Arabica coffees. We’ve shared some of the stories from there previously on this blog. Less than 100 miles away, while the Andes mountains continue tracing the spine of South […]

Coffee’s role in the future of a peaceful Colombia

2016-07-11 Kraig Kraft Comments Off

A few weeks ago, some exciting and hopeful news came out of Colombia. You might have missed it, as It was predictably lost in the news cycle which was dominated by the horrific mass shooting in an Orlando night club; the permissive gun laws in the US; the Brexit and its global economic ramifications; the […]

We Are Facing Climate Change Head On

2016-06-27 Maren Barbee Comments Off

Cheers to the coffee world out there. From the consumers to the farmers who grow it, to market participants and NGOs who work to support it… To all of us who live and breathe coffee. I found myself in a meeting a couple weeks ago that took me back to Re:Co Symposium and SCAA Atlanta […]

Price Risk Management revisited: Reality check and back to basics

2016-06-20 Kraig Kraft Comments Off

If you have been following the Coffeelands blog, you’ll know that Price Risk Management is a topic that if increasing importance to us. I’ve been writing about this topic for the last 9 months and talking about it for even longer. Finally, this last week, I got to walk the walk. With the help of […]

Brazil’s Congress convenes hearing on modern slavery in the coffee sector

2016-06-09 Coffeelands Comments Off

Next week, a public hearing in Brazil’s Câmara dos Deputados will explore the issue of modern slavery in the country’s coffee sector. The Human Rights Commission and the Labor Commission have jointly convened the gathering, scheduled for Wednesday, 15 June at 2 pm in meeting room #9. The event was organized by the Articulação dos Empregados […]

Brazil’s Supreme Court lifts ban on “Dirty List”

2016-06-08 Coffeelands Comments Off

Brazil’s Supreme Court has lifted its injunction on one of the most powerful and distinctive tools in the country’s campaign to eradicate slave labor, clearing the way for its reinstatement after a suspension that lasted nearly 17 months. The “Dirty List”—a public registry of employers found by the Ministry of Labor to be employing workers […]

Georgia on my mind

2016-06-07 Coffeelands Staff Comments Off

Nearly two months have passed since the curtains closed on the 2016 SCAA events in Atlanta, but like the great Ray Charles, I still have Georgia on my mind. Three Ps stand out in my reflections: Policy, Progress and Paul Katzeff.

Beyond the hot take on the Starbucks sustainability bond

2016-06-06 Kraig Kraft Comments Off

A few weeks ago, Starbucks made an incredible announcement. They were going to have nitro cold brew in their cafes!! I think this definitively answers the Symposium question, is cold brew a category or craze? OK, OK. I’m joking. The real earth-shaker is that Starbucks has issued the first US corporate bond for sustainability. The […]

Caravela Pledges Percentage of Ecuador Coffee Sales for Earthquake Relief

2016-04-29 Coffeelands Staff Comments Off

Caravela Coffee, the vertically integrated exporter/importer formerly known as Virmax, has been a key CRS partner in our Borderlands project in Colombia, delivering dozens of single-farm and community lots to Counter Culture and Stumptown over the past three years and delivering quality premiums to hundreds of smallholder growers who had never earned them before. This […]