Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/491374
26 STiR tea & coffee industry international I n December American coffee ports will finally receive their first bulk deliveries of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) arabica. Although robusta has been shipped in lined containers for some time, and ara- bica is shipped in lined containers when specified in private contracts, the unanimous vote of the ICE Futures Coffee Committee means that there will be a dramatic increase in bulk deliveries over time. The 2013 loosening of regulations, after a mandatory 24 month wait, will likely also increase the coffee stored in warehouses, adding to stockpiles which impact price. Currently 15% of all arabica exports are bulk shipments destined for European and Asian ports that have long since modernized handling systems to quickly offload 20-ton containers into giant silos. The coffee is then dumped into reception hoppers and moved in enclosed chutes and by cable and chain conveyors into silos for storage. Eighty years ago coffee arriving at ICE-certified ports in New York or New Or- leans was unloaded by hand. Two hundred and fifty sacks per lot, weighing 60-kilos each were tossed into cargo nets, lifted off the boat and then stacked on pallets to be deposited in a warehouse for delivery to roasters. In the late 1930s it took dozens of men many hours to offload the cargo from the five holds in a 459-foot-long C3-class general purpose cargo ship built to MARCOM (U.S. Maritime Commission) specs. Coffee arriving from Brazil, Central America, Indonesia, or Africa was delivered directly to warehouses, to roasters who had purchased the "C" contract, or to brokers at auction where buyers bid for it on the open exchange. The green coffee was trans- ported in burlap "gunny" sacks stenciled in code identifying country, exporter and lot. Sampling green coffee offloaded from a plastic lined shipping container at Vollers port facility in Bremen, Germany. Checking green coffee as it pours into the reception hopper and then travels by chutes into the storage silo. By Ken Macbeth Knowles ICE rule change makes way for more efficient delivery of coffee BREMEN, Germany Arabica Arrives in Bulk