STiR coffee and tea magazine

18 STiR coffee and tea / Issue 5, 2018 (October / November) Colombian finance minister Alberto Carrasquilla and Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC) head Roberto Velez made the September announcement, Reuters reported. The federation, representing about 550,000 coffee-growers, will work with government officials to determine how the money will be used and distributed. "We have just finished the National Committee of Coffee Growers, where the anguish is the low price," Velez said at the press conference. "We agreed on the creation of a round table where we will first agree on the trigger price, and second, what will be the mechanism by which these resources will be delivered." Velez estimates farmers need to earn about $1.40 to $1.50 per pound to be profitable. Coffee was selling at 84 cents per pound at the time of the announcement. JAMAICA Farmers Seek Own Markets Coffee farmers across Jamaica are looking for places to sell their products. The Jamaica Coffee Growers Associa- tion is not happy with green bean prices offered by coffee traders, so the associa- tion has decided to begin marketing on their own, according to a report by The Gleaner, a Jamaican news site. The association has an export license and now it needs buyers. Before starting, however, investment money needs to be secured to expand processing facilities. One option may be grant funding. Jamaican farmers were paid $6,000 per 27-kilo box of green beans two years ago but the price dropped to $3,000 this year, association president Donald Salmon told The Gleaner. That price prevents farmers from earning a profit. "We are the new kid on the block. Starbucks and UCC don't buy from us but we produce good coffee." Salmon said. " We are sanctioned by [the Jamaica Agricultural Commodities Regulatory Authority]. We have a model that we are trying to develop whereby we can increase by increments purchas- ing of both high mountain and Blue Mountain coffee, but we are restricted by market and capital." Philanthropic Farmer Assist Struggling small coffee farmers in Jamaica have new resources available thanks to a $60 million donation from philanthropist and businessman Michael Lee-Chin. The donation, announced on Sept. 10, will be managed by the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA). Disbursements will be available to more than 7,000 registered coffee farmers and will be based on need. Farmers will describe what they need in the way of tools and other supplies to improve productivity. RADA then will purchase the materials. The donation also may help boost a slumping coffee industry. "We used to produce 700,000 boxes of Blue Mountain coffee," Audley Shaw, minister of industry, commerce, agriculture and fisheries, said in an- nouncing the Lee-Chin donation. "We are targeting 230,000 or 240,000 right now – that's a pretty sharp decline." He also said 20,000 boxes of High Moun- tain coffee are now being produced, where it previously yielded 400,000 boxes. Unlike standard 60-kilo bags, Jamaica ships its coffee in 27-kilo boxes and wooden kegs that once earned $44 to $55 per kilo ($10,000 per box). "It is most unfortunate that while the demand for coffee consumption globally has either been steady or generally increasing, our coffee industry is going in the opposite direction. Something has to be done about it," Shaw said. Parliament member Juliet Holness said she approached Lee-Chin to discuss the plight of coffee farmers and ask for his help. "This one-time gift to the farmers means that many are going to be comfortably able to send their children back to school this term, and many will be in a position to be able to access, through RADA, some amount of assistance," Holness said. Lee-Chin said he understands that the government cannot afford to provide financial help and that his gift is "a stop-gap solution to the plight faced by our farmers" in an industry that "is in crisis". KENYA Java House Heads for China Java House, east Africa's largest coffee chain, has signed a distribution deal with Green Chain. The agreement calls for Java House to sell 10 to 15 metric tons of beans each month. Green Chain is a subsidiary of the Shanghai-based logistics firm CJ Smart Cargo. The contract is part of Java House's strategy to expand and solidify its positions in the Chinese, US, and European markets. NEW ZEALAND Mojo Acquired by Cooks Mojo Coffee Roasters, a popular Kiwi cafe brand, is being acquired by Auck- land-based Cooks Global Foods. Once finalized, the sale will be worth about $12.6 million. Mojo got its start in Wellington, New Zealand, 15 years ago. "Mojo is a well-established, popular, profitable business with a highly-suc- cessful brand with a network of 36 cafes in Wellington and Auckland," Cooks executive chairman Keith Jackson said in a statement. "It has the potential to boost our international growth ambi- tions, particularly in the US, where it has already established a strong presence in Chicago with increasing customer awareness and American's developing taste for good coffee." As a retail café development company, Cooks Global Foods has an interest in Canadian coffee brand Esquires Coffee, a roasting and retail operation with 130 locations in Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, China, Australasia and the Middle East. "We think Cooks is going to be really good for us in helping expand Mojo," said Mojo founder Steve Gianoutsos. "Their experience in international markets and strategy to look globally is going to get our interna- tional expansion really firing; it's something we've been pushing for some time. I've been working in the flagship Chicago store and we're going to look to push out into the US and beyond." Gianoutsos is expected to lead the US expansion, said Cooks. Mojo founder Steve Gianoutsos

• Cover