STiR coffee and tea magazine

STiR coffee and tea 51 Brewed for Business www.specialitycoffeentea.com 24 - 27 April 2018 SINGAPORE EXPO Endorsed by Supported by Held in Organised by SpecialityCoffee&Tea2018 is a part of Since 1978 Food&HotelAsia Find us on FHA2018 will be held in 2 venues concurrently - Singapore Expo and Suntec Singapore. Rest of the World UBM Allworld Tel: +44 20 7840 2149 Email: fha@oesallworld.com Asia UBM SES Tel: +65 6233 6638 Email: fha@sesallworld.com The region's dedicated speciality coffee & tea trade-only platform for café owners, baristas, distributors, hoteliers, restauranteurs, caterers and many more! Book your space at SpecialityCoffee&Tea2018 now! Scan the QR code for SpecialityCoffee&Tea2018 Sales Brochure Host of activities that gather decision makers, business owners and professional users, including: > Barista Challenge > Roast Master Challenge > Silver Spoon Challenge > Latte Art Showdown > Barista certification and skills development courses by Speciality Coffee Association of Europe - Singapore Chapter Joint Organiser of Competitions: Sponsors: Photos by Dan Bolton/STiR • Once the lot is sold, a pickup notice is brought to the regional branch and the truck delivers the coffee to the buyer (or the buyer's designate). "Our hypothesis is that keeping cof- fee on the delivery truck during trading is the simplest and most scalable solution," said Ermias Eshetu, c.e.o. of the ECX. In the current ECX system the combination of coffee into warehouse stacks means differentiating factors are not identified until after purchase, he explained. This compromises traceability. In Seattle at the Global Specialty Cof- fee Expo STiR spoke with traders who said that buying lots by truck and storing a fleet of thousands of trucks would be expensive and unnecessary in countries with modern transport and warehousing — but in Ethiopia it may prove workable. In the current system coffee arrives at the warehouse in lots determined by type, origin and grade. Bags from differ- ent washing stations with different cer- tifications are combined in stacks in the warehouse. Quality grading is regulated and there are storage and transfer pro- tocols in place but there is limited prod- uct information available to buyers. It is only after the coffee is purchased that the buyer is given detailed information about the coffee. "This leads to exporter inefficiency as they must overbuy to meet contracts for sustainably certified coffees and then manually separate the lot after the sale," said Eshetu. Different farms maintain different standards. Standards for handling coffee certified by the Rainforest Alliance, the 4C program, and USDA's National Or- ganic Programs are not interchangeable. Organic regulations for example, require the coffee to be stored separately from non-certified coffees. The TLL model will enable identifi- cation of these certified lots and prevent contamination while insuring traceability, an important requirement if Ethiopia's coffee is to remain competitive, said Es- hetu. In his slide presentation, Eshetu cited for key objectives: Improving quality of life - Farming communities benefit from implementa- tion of sustainable practices that forbid child labor, provide better working con- ditions and mandate clean water both for sanitation and in the coffee waste stream. Strategic relevance - Major customers, representing 25% of current exports, have made a public commitment to source sustainable coffee going forward. Adopting sustainable practices is necessary to keep their business and to prevent other cus- tomers from moving to other markets that meet their sustainability requirements. Motivation to improve - The identification of individual lots creates incentives for farmers to differentiate themselves through improvements. Adopting advanced agron- omy practices will boost quality and yields. Ermias pointed out that "The opportunity is significant. Adjusting our platform to further differentiate coffee would drive growth across the value chain." He said that lot of work had been done in the background at ECX to change the information available to buyers. "We expect to be up and running in a few weeks at a few sites," he added.

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