The Blog

Measuring ROI of farm management activities on water resources in the Coffeelands

2017-11-07 Comments Off on Measuring ROI of farm management activities on water resources in the Coffeelands
Measuring ROI of farm management activities on water resources in the Coffeelands

Measuring how better management of coffee farms improve water resources in the Coffeelands Blue Harvest started as an idea of how to restore and improve the management of water resources in coffee producing areas in El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, while increasing the productivity of coffee farms located in our target watersheds.  As we have […]

Farmgate Price: An Important – but Partial – Piece of the Sustainability Puzzle

2017-09-19 Comments Off on Farmgate Price: An Important – but Partial – Piece of the Sustainability Puzzle
Farmgate Price: An Important – but Partial – Piece of the Sustainability Puzzle

In March, I wrote about my reaction to Kickapoo Coffee publishing a minimum FOB price for all their coffees. That article focused on Kickapoo and other efforts to make pricing more transparent – an aspect of the specialty coffee business that can be quite murky. I had 3 takeaways of things that I liked about […]

Robusta farmers rewarded for quality in the 2nd Taza Dorada

2017-08-29 Comments Off on Robusta farmers rewarded for quality in the 2nd Taza Dorada
Robusta farmers rewarded for quality in the 2nd Taza Dorada

The Coffeelands blogs suffers from a few coffee prejudices, which we readily admit to.  Our geographical base is in Central America and therefore our coverage tends to be towards issues that are of great concern in this part of the world.  We’re unabashedly Arabica centric as well.  You’ll find it in our daily drink and […]

Celebrating the public launch of the Spanish language Water Smart Agriculture blog by CRS – Agua Verde

2017-08-02 Comments Off on Celebrating the public launch of the Spanish language Water Smart Agriculture blog by CRS – Agua Verde
Celebrating the public launch of the Spanish language Water Smart Agriculture blog by CRS – Agua Verde

One of the biggest deficiencies of the Coffeelands blog is that we have only published in English to a broad, sector wide audience.  We here at the blog report, analyze and opine on issues relevant to origin (with a very Latin-American centric perspective due to where we are all based); yet when these same discussions […]

Thoughts on the UTZ and Rainforest Alliance Merger

2017-06-21 Comments Off on Thoughts on the UTZ and Rainforest Alliance Merger

Over the past 36 months, the coffee industry has seen a wave of consolidations roll through the retail/manufacturing sector and those of us on the sidelines have been trying to figure out what it all means (see Sara Morrocchi’s great talk at Re:co Dublin last year). While some argued that consolidation was going to be […]

ROYA IS EVOLVING. SO WHAT NOW?

2017-05-22 Comments Off on ROYA IS EVOLVING. SO WHAT NOW?
ROYA IS EVOLVING.  SO WHAT NOW?

World Coffee Research has spoken.  Lempira, a high-yielding, popular variety planted throughout Honduras is no longer what thousands of farmers hoped that it would be: resistant to coffee leaf rust.  While there is not yet any conclusive scientific evidence that la roya has evolved into a new race or strain, all indications are pointing to […]

COFFEE LEAF RUST REARS ITS UGLY HEAD AGAIN

2017-05-08 Comments Off on COFFEE LEAF RUST REARS ITS UGLY HEAD AGAIN
COFFEE LEAF RUST REARS ITS UGLY HEAD AGAIN

Right in the build up to the SCA, there popped up a bit of news out of Honduras that caught my attention.  Like the villain in the in a cheesy horror movie, coffee leaf rust, better known as la roya, just won’t go away.   Initial reports in late March said that there was an outbreak […]

First the DNC, now Coffeelands!

2017-04-24 Comments Off on First the DNC, now Coffeelands!

Dear Coffeelands readers, Our regular transmissions were interrupted this week.  No, we did not decide to start hustling pills to supplement our NGO salaries; on the contrary, we were hacked by somebody who decided to use our platform for nefarious purposes. We apologize for unwittingly filling your inbox with spam and hope you didn’t purchase […]

A new approach to working on Price Risk Management

2017-04-17 Comments Off on A new approach to working on Price Risk Management

If you have been following us in this space, you know that one of the topics that has been at the front of my mind has been Price Risk Management (PRM).   PRM refers to a set of strategies and practices for farmer organizations that minimizes the negative impact of drastic changes in the global price […]

Look out, Austin! CRS Coffeelands at the 2017 National Coffee Association Convention

2017-03-19 Comments Off on Look out, Austin! CRS Coffeelands at the 2017 National Coffee Association Convention

  We are 3 months into another year, and we’re about to start the convention/summit/expo/meeting season.  This year the schedule is a bit different for Coffeelands. This is the first year that we are going to the National Coffee Association Convention.  Over here in Coffeelands, we are big fans of Bill Murray, the CEO and […]