Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/763665
24 STiR coffee and tea / Issue 6, 2016 (December/January) products are really seeing a boom, with an increase of 23.5% spurred on by the hybridization trend among industries. "Ever more coffee shops offer this type of format," according to organizers. According to TradeLab, coffee consumed outside the home in Italy is worth $1.3 billion, with a breakdown of: about $667 million in bars (with 41% of turnover for these businesses coming from coffee products), $286 million consumed at self-service stations, $138 million in food service and group catering, $133 million in restaurants, $26.5 million in hotels and the remaining $10.6 million in other channels. Learn more: www.host.fieramilano.it La Marzocco Riding Tradition Italians celebrate their passions for coffee, cycling and tradition each year during the L'Eroica riding event and festival in Chianti. Coffee machine manufacturer La Marzocco joined the 20th anniversary celebration as an event sponsor with pop-up cafés for both riders and spectators. La Marzocco, based in nearby Florence, created a customized version of its Linea Mini espresso coffee machine – the "Linea Mini Eroica" – for the four-day event Sept. 29 to Oct. 2. Italian coffee roaster Goppion created a coffee blend for the festival as well. L'Eroica – the heroic – features amateur cyclists riding vintage bicycles and clothing across Tuscany. income, Nucafe said. The group represents more than 1 million coffee growers. Nucafe presented a draft version of a new law under consideration. The move follows a decline in coffee-export earnings for a 12-month period ending in September. Earnings dropped to $327 million compared to $411 million during the same period a year earlier. Low export volumes and weak global prices were noted by the Uganda Coffee Development Authority. Coffee shipments dropped to 3.32 million bags in 2015-16 compared to 3.46 million the previous year. US Cedar Grove Accepts Single-Serve Cedar Grove Composting now accepts single-serve pods made with 100% compostable material. The Cedar Grove standards are widely adopted by other composting facilities throughout the US The Seattle-based company collects coffee pods from area office and commercial customers that match the PürPod100 format. A Cedar Grove spokeswoman said the format is certified and "brands that claim to be biodegrad- able or claim percentages like 95% or 97% won't work in our processes." For a list of items accepted, visit this site: cedar-grove.com/compostable/ accepted-items. Compostable Packaging Two California coffee companies have teamed to produce compostable packaging for their coffee products. Oakland Coffee Works, owned by Green Day musicians Mike Dirnt and Billie Joe Armstrong, now delivers its products in bags made of certified compostable materials. They also have developed single-serve pods made from compostables. The company is partner- ing with San Francisco Bay Coffee Company to make available fully compostable pods at COSTCO loca- tions by early 2017. The next step in the evolution of coffee is "Organic, truly high-quality coffee that fairly supports the farmers who grow it and that comes in packag- ing made from fully compostable materials," Mike Dirnt, Green Day bassist and long-time coffee enthusiast, said in a statement. "It's no-compromise coffee in no-compromise packaging." HOST Milan scheduled for Oct 2017 Photo courtesy Federica DiGiovanni / LaMarzocco Riders stop by a pop-up café during the L'Eroica cycling event. More than 10,000 customers visited the Cofix Moscow retail shop in the first week. Photo courtesy of Cofix RUSSIA Cofix Expands to Russia Cofix, an Israeli coffee chain, has opened the first two of 1,000 planned stores in Russia. Cofix, known for its fixed price menus, opened its first outlet in early October in the Okhotny Ryad shopping center. The second opened later that month in the Paveletskaya Raily Station building. Cofix plans to expand with 300 stores in Moscow alone, the company said in a statement. Cofix has 152 branches in Israel. Partnering with Cofix in Russia are Satesh Melwani, c.e.o. of Melsons Group, and brothers Mikhail and Grigory Pechersky of the ADG Group development firm. The Cofix menu offers fresh brewed coffee, tea, fresh carrot juice, sandwich- es, salads, and pastries all that the same fixed price of 50 rubles. More than 10,000 customers visited the Okhotny Ryad location in the first week, the company said. UGANDA Union Seeks Quality Control A Ugandan farmers union wants a new law to protect the quality of coffee exported from the country. The National Union of Coffee Agribusiness and Farm Enterprises (Nucafe) has called on the Ugandan government to draft legislation to define crop management methods and establish penalties for anyone who mismanages their crops and contributes to the inferior exports, according to a Bloomberg News report. Some farmers, for example, pick immature beans and use improper drying methods. Coffee is the country's largest export revenue generator and maintaining quality control improves farmers'