STiR coffee and tea magazine

48 STiR coffee and tea / Issue 4, 2018 (August / September) Coffee Intangibles Luis F. Samper Daniele Giovannucci, president of the Committee on Sustainability Assessment and Luis F. Samper with 4.0 Brands in Bogota, Colombia, teamed up with Brazilian researcher Luciana Marques Vieira to publish a United Nations financed report on the powerful role of intan- gibles in the coffee value chain. "There are valuable opportunities for producer origins to create new value and generate the conditions to sustainably improve livelihoods"; that is the conclusion of a new pa- per coauthored by Daniele Giovannucci, director of the Committee on Sustainability Assessment (COSA) based in Italy and the US, Brazil's Luciana Marques Vieira at FGV (Fundacao Getulio Vargas - Escola de Administracao de Empresas) and Luis F. Samper, founder at 4.0 Brands. The work was commissioned by the World Intellectual Property Organization (a UN body) and made public as part of its flagship global report released biannually. In the paper, the authors review the volume and value of major coffee market segments, their challenges and emerging solutions to grow value and distribute it more equitably. The report conclude that there is ample opportunity to use intellectual property much more effectively to create new value and create the conditions for producer origins to reap appropriate benefits and establish a level of empowerment within supply chains that they currently do not have in most cases. By Dan Bolton STiR: What can be done to alter the current scenario where farmers take much of the risk and receive only limited rewards for growing specialty coffee? Samper: First is to understand that the evolution of coffee as a commodity in the last century has permitted widespread market penetration and lower market costs but has also led to the steady de- cline of distinctive characteristics and the diversity of coffees around the world. If that trend continues, it is likely that many of the uniquely interesting coffees that still exist today will be gone in just a few decades due primarily to the dual pres- sures of unsustainable prices and climate change that make coffee farming less vi- able for many. We may thus lose a very valuable source of future value. In our paper we underline that in typi- cal market-driven value chains, where coffees and suppliers are easily inter- changeable it is easy to lose distinctions that can grow value. Industry now finds the need to ensure long term supply to ensure growth, which can open up pos- sibilities of mutual inter-dependence between suppliers and industry to even create valuable long-term collaborations. These collaborations have the chance to be successful if farmers and coffee ori- gins develop the intrinsic values of their production systems. This is best done via their own intangibles in terms of regional, collective or individual brand equity and origin content that authentically com- municates the diversity, and embedded knowledge or quality inherent in sustain- able farming techniques. STiR: Is this suggested route consistent with current market trends? Giovannucci: Yes. Third wave cof- fees are having a tremendous influ- ence in the industry, even beginning to affect conventional brands and mass market channels. Single origin coffees are now available at higher price points and the content behind these offerings needs to be competently handled for both marketing and reputation man- agement purposes. As business opens to much greater consumer awareness, many industry players are progressive- Q A

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