STiR coffee and tea magazine

10 STiR coffee and tea / Issue 3, 2018 (June / July) NEWS Keurig to Build New Facility in South Carolina Keurig Green Mountain will build a new roasting and packaging facility in South Carolina. Once completed, the plant will create 500 new jobs locally. Keurig, a leader in single-serve coffee brewing systems and cups, will construct the new facility in Moore, S.C., at a cost of $350 million, according to the company. The production operation is intended to house coffee roasting and packaging for the K-Cup pods. Officials say it also may support beverage distribution and warehousing sometime in the future. Keurig Green Mountain chief supply chain officer Richard Jones said "the Keurig Green Mountain business continues to grow. As we plan for the future, we're pleased to locate our newest facility in Spartanburg County to support our growth." "We view the region's talented employee base and attractive business environment as the right place to invest," he said. Unrest Halts Nicaraguan Coffee Exports Nicaragua's 44,000 coffee farmers are unable to reliably export coffee due to massive civil unrest that has closed transportation hubs. Streets throughout the major cities are barricaded following violent clashes between police and protesters angry with the government's economic policies. One thousand civilians are reported injured and the death toll is nearing 100. Annual production is around 225,000 60-kilo bags, most of which is exported April through July. Due to uncertainties involving safe transport coffee for export largely remains on the farms. Coffee is one of Nicaragua's most important export goods. Dubai to Host World of Coffee 2020 The Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) announced a new annual World of Coffee Dubai trade show to premier in March 2020, and cancelled all competi- tions scheduled for Dubai in 2018. The competitions previously scheduled for Dubai will be held during International Coffee Week (ICW) Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil on Nov. 7-9, 2018. Competitions include latte art, coffee in good spirits (coffee and alcohol), the World Brewers, and World Cup Tasters Championship. The new event in Dubai, staged in partnership with the Dubai World Trade Center (DWTC), will be part of GulfHost beginning in March 2020. The event is being scheduled in addition to SCA's World of Coffee show that takes place each year in Europe. The move comes after the association and its competition arm, World Coffee events, was criticized for selecting Dubai as the host city for the 2018 World Coffee Championships. SCA members said that the laws of the United Arab Emirates' and its human rights record involving members of the LGBTQ community and others could put competitors in legal jeopardy. The new World of Coffee Dubai event signals "new directions in partnership," according to SCA. "This will be the premium coffee show in the region, attracting coffee producers, manufacturers, retailers, traders, baristas, roasters, and the broader industry," SCA stated. "Designed to meet the specific needs and interests of the region's coffee communi- ties, the show will include the addition of SCA trade show features such as education from their coffee skills program, best new product awards, design lab exhibits, lectures, and workshops." FDA Rules Ban Caffeine Concentrates Two recent deaths from an overdose of caffeine prompted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in April to issue a new guidance. FDA is now soliciting comments. In 2013 FDA warned that "products with added caffeine (both liquids and solids) are proliferating in the food supply." Soon after FDA banned alcoholic beverages with unusually high quantities of caffeine. The more recent rules are proposed in "Highly Concentrated Caffeine in Dietary Supplements." (www.fda.gov/FoodGuidances). The European Union's Food Safety Authority considers ingestion of up to 400 mgs daily to be safe when consumed throughout the day. Doses accumu- late putting coffee drinkers at risk because of the likelihood of ingesting unknown amounts in foods, beverages, and unlikely sources such as gum, and candy. A teaspoon of caffeine powder contains 3,200 mgs, far exceeding the toxic dose. Nematode infested arabica, left, and infested liberica Photo courtesy USDA/ARS Nematode Researchers Document Worm DNA Scientists have for the first time mapped the DNA of coffee-specific nematodes, a parasitic worm that feeds on plant roots. Targeting coffee-specific nematodes is difficult as the infestation of individual plants is hard to spot. Developing treatments for plant-specific pests, which vary by region, will reduce millions of dollars in annual losses. "The sad fact is that wherever we take samples, we find plant-parasitic nematodes, which are hugely damaging to coffee crops," writes Peter Urwin, professor of plant nematology at the University of Leeds. Working with Nestle agronomists, "we found widespread evidence of these parasites by country and looking at soil samples I can now tell the difference between nematodes native to Vietnam and Brazil or Indonesia." It is hoped the research will assist farmers in taking appropriate mitigating actions, said Urwin. The research was first published in the journal Phytopathology.

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