What’s in a name? Apparently, a whopping $9.56 per pound. In December 2015, that was the difference between the average retail price that select specialty roasters charged for lots that included growers’ names and the average retail price of those that didn’t, according to the folks behind Transparent Trade Coffee (TTC). Whoever they are. (Am I the only one […]
Two days ago I announced our USBC Origins Project, an initiative designed to honor the growers behind the extraordinary coffees that will be served by the country’s best baristas at the USBC Finals in Atlanta in April. Today, I pause to celebrate the growers behind four coffees from our Borderlands project in Colombia and four […]
I am delighted to announce the USBC Origins Project, an initiative to identify and celebrate the growers behind the coffees that will be featured in the 2016 US Barista Championships in Atlanta in April.
Nearly a year ago, I published this reflection on the importance of public policy in shaping outcomes for coffee supply chain actors. Policies at origin and in the marketplace are a primary determinant of who participates in the coffee trade and how. And yet, efforts to influence policy are often beyond the scope of projects […]
For the final (for now…) Price Risk Management conversation, I wanted to go in a different direction. So far we have heard about a PRM perspective for cooperatives, estates, small farms and from the exporter. Our conversation today is with someone who really understands the mechanics of how price insurance and hedging with futures work. […]
My personal New Year’s Resolutions for 2016 come straight from the top: Pope Francis wants me to be irksome and make a ruckus.
Today, the annual review of the Coffeelands content you liked best over the past year. .
During the last months of 2015, I had posted a number of conversations regarding price risk management (Intro; part 1; part 2; part 3) all with the goal of better understanding the topic and how we might better use these tools to protect cooperatives and other farmer associations. Today I want to pick up the […]
Before we break Christmas, a reflection on two words we don’t care for when applied to our coffee programming—“well-intentioned” and “naive”—and a perspective from Pope Francis that turns the idea of naïveté on its head.
For more than a week we have been writing here about Brazil’s extraordinary effort to eradicate modern slavery, and how that effort relates to the country’s coffee sector. Today is the eighth, final, and perhaps most important post in the series. The one that answers the question, “So, what?” So, now we know this terrible […]
