Yemen’s famous coffee farms have been replaced by khat farms in recent years after coffee had an agricultural and economic priority.

Gradually, those coffee beans exports disappeared and weakened after it flourishing for centuries in Yemen. After all, “Mocha” gained its name after the Yemeni port city of Mokha, known for having been a point of contact between coffee lovers and farmers in Yemen.

In 2015, production fell from 55,000 coffee bags to 8,000 bags in exports, which urged farmers to seek replacement of coffee seeds with Khat or other crops.

Al Arabiya interviewed one young man who is trying to restore the original spirit of coffee by exporting the Yemeni origin beans to the world. Hussein Ahmed is a certified coffee connoisseur and holds the international taste certificate for coffee from the American Coffee Quality Grader.

But Hussein prefers to be called the “Coffee Hunter”.

Love story with caffeine
Hussein says that the secret behind his love for coffee comes from the smell of the beans which reminds him of his mother.

“I grew up in a family that loves coffee. Since early childhood, my mother asks me to go to the market to buy coffee and I used to enjoy this. When I was getting ready for school, my mother makes coffee and its smell filled the house. This scent was the source of my daily happiness. My mother’s coffee was my companion when I moved to Britain to study, where I visited a lot of coffee shops seeking to find the smell of my mother’s coffee. Unfortunately, I could not find the same smell which my mother used to prepare in my childhood,” Hussein told Al Arabiya.

“At this point I became more interested in coffee in Britain. Ten years later, I returned home in late 2007 and settled in Sanaa. I worked in the software industry, but I noticed that our economy depended on consumption only, so I decided to produce the best of the Yemeni production. Thus, I focused on coffee,” he said.

Hussein would go on to spend more than a year traveling between the mountains of Yemen and the valleys looking for the legendary Yemeni coffee, and documented information and data as much as he could.

Japan and his first coffee shop
“My Japanese wife, who came to Yemen with me, she could not adapt with the life in Yemen. So we decided to immigrate to Japan where we decided to export the Yemeni coffee to Japan. We started to send samples to Japanese labs and made high scores in the tasting sessions. This is when passion turned into business. After I settled in Japan and started working in exporting the high quality Yemeni coffee beans to Japan. I opened the first coffee shop specialized in the Yemeni coffee in Tokyo in 2011,” he said.

“In late 2013, I stopped the business and returned back to Yemen due to family issues. Then, I focused on exporting Yemeni coffee to the United States,” Hussein told Al Arabiya. “In 2014, I went to America for two years, during which I studied coffee tasting and got the international tasting certificate, and I established a trading company.”

Hussein revealed that there were some obstacles in the supply due to the instability of exchange rates, the difficulty of shipping charges, high operating costs, and the unavailability of oil derivatives and facilities for farmers.

How Khat contributed negatively to decline of Yemeni coffee
Hussein asserted that the major problem now in Yemen is due to the plantation of khat, which he said was a real environmental disaster as it drains most of the groundwater and goes to the fertile soil where coffee used to be grown on.

As for the future of coffee in Yemen, Hussein confirmed the necessity of developing the quality of the production, marketing and establishing a center to develop the beans. Returning the Yemeni coffee to the international market, Hussein also added that it was important to have fair prices for the farmers and stopping the bad and unfair trades of Yemeni coffee beans.

source: http://www.english.alarabiya.net / Al Arabiya English / Home> Features / by Frash Shmsan, Al Arabiya English / Saturday – April 07th, 2018

A Los Angeles judge has determined that coffee companies must carry an ominous cancer warning label because of a chemical produced in the roasting process.

Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle said Wednesday that Starbucks and other companies failed to show that benefits from drinking coffee outweighed any risks. He ruled in an earlier phase of trial that companies hadn’t shown the threat from the chemical was insignificant.

The Council for Education and Research on Toxics, a nonprofit group, sued Starbucks and 90 other companies under a state law that requires warnings on a wide range of chemicals that can cause cancer. One is acrylamide, a carcinogen present in coffee.

“Defendants failed to satisfy their burden of proving … that consumption of coffee confers a benefit to human health,” Berle wrote in his proposed ruling.

The coffee industry had claimed the chemical was present at harmless levels and should be exempt from the law because it results naturally from the cooking process that makes beans flavorful. It also argued coffee was good for the body.

The ruling came despite eased concerns in recent years about the possible dangers of coffee, with some studies finding health benefits. In 2016, the International Agency for Research on Cancer — the cancer agency of the World Health Organization — moved coffee off its “possible carcinogen” list.

The lawsuit was brought under the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, passed by voters in 1986. It allows private citizens, advocacy groups and attorneys to sue on behalf of the state and collect a portion of civil penalties.

The law has been credited with reducing chemicals that cause cancer and birth defects, such as lead in hair dyes, mercury in nasal sprays and arsenic in bottled water. But it’s also been widely criticized for abuses by lawyers shaking down businesses for quick settlements.

“Coffee has been shown, over and over again, to be a healthy beverage,” said William Murray, president and CEO of the National Coffee Association, in reaction to the decision. He argued the lawsuit “does nothing to improve public health.”

The lawsuit has been brewing for eight years and is still not over. A third phase of trial will determine civil penalties of up to $2,500 per person exposed each day over eight years, an astronomical figure in a state of 40 million that appears unlikely to be imposed.

Attorney Raphael Metzger, who brought the lawsuit and drinks a few cups of coffee daily, wants the industry to remove the chemical from its process. Coffee companies have said that’s not feasible.

“Getting it out is better for public health than leaving it in and warning people,” he said.

Metzger’s client brought a similar case later taken up by the state attorney general that resulted in potato-chip makers agreeing in 2008 to pay $3 million and remove acrylamide from their products.

The chip-makers opted to do that rather than post cancer warnings like those that are found, and largely ignored, throughout California.

Parking garages have signs warning of chemical dangers that can cause cancer, birth defects and other reproductive harm. They note carbon monoxide and gas and diesel exhaust is present and that people should not to linger longer than necessary.

Many coffee companies have already posted warnings saying acrylamide is found in coffee. However, many are posted in places not easily visible like below counters where cream and sugar are available.

The judge has given the defense a couple weeks to file objections to the proposed ruling before he makes it final. California judges can reverse their tentative rulings, but rarely do.

About a dozen of the defendants in the case have previously settled and agreed to post warnings, Metzger said. With some defendants dismissed or affiliated with larger companies about 50 defendants remain.

Among the latest to settle was 7-Eleven, which agreed to pay $900,000. BP West Coast Products, which operates gas station convenience stores, agreed to pay $675,000.

Even at Starbucks shops where the labels are posted, many coffee drinkers are unaware of them.

Afternoon coffee drinkers at one shop in Los Angeles said they might look into the warning or give drinking coffee a second thought, but the cup of joe was likely to win out.

“I just don’t think it would stop me,” said Jen Bitterman, a digital marketing technologist. “I love the taste, I love the ritual, I love the high, the energy, and I think I’m addicted to it.”

Darlington Ibekwe, a lawyer in Los Angeles, said a cancer warning would be annoying but wouldn’t stop him from treating himself to three lattes a week.

“It’s like cigarettes. Like, damn, now I’ve got to see this?” he said. “Dude, I’m enjoying my coffee.”

———

Associated Press writer Amanda Lee Myers in Los Angeles and AP Chief Medical Writer Marilynn Marchione in Milwaukee contributed to this story.

source: http://www.abcnews.go.com / abc News / Home / by Brian Melley, Associated Press / Los Angeles – March 29th, 2018

The Alliance For Coffee Excellence (ACE) announced on 27 March the election of four new board members: Keita Matsumoto, Cory Bush, Yuko Itoi and Aleco Chigounis.

This election, voted in by ACE’s members, country partners and head judges, brings the number of formal board members to eleven.

Keita Matsumoto, the Deputy General Manager Sales Dept. of Wataru & Co., Ltd is based in Japan. He has over 18 years of coffee experience in both the marketplace and at origin and has served on multiple Cup of Excellence juries. Wataru is one of the largest buyers of Cup of Excellence coffees at the auction.

Cory Bush will join the board from Antwerp, Belguim where he is the incoming Managing Director of a European specialty coffee importer. His experience includes work with Technoserve in East Africa and as Senior Trader for Falcon Coffee in the United Kingdom.

Yuko Itoi is the owner of Times Club, a small influential coffee roaster in Japan. She will receive a golden spoon award at the upcoming SCA conference in Seattle having served on 45 Cup of Excellence international juries and has purchased more than 100 Cup of Excellence lots including multiple first place winners.

Aleco Chigounis is Co-Founder and President of Red Fox Coffee Merchants in Berkeley, CA. USA & Red Fox Sourcing Company in Lima, Peru. Aleco has extensive experience developing coffee quality & supply chains for a diverse set of companies including The Neumann Kaffe Gruppe’s San Jose office and Stumptown. He has served on close to a dozen COE juries.

“This is such a crucial time for ACE and the Cup of Excellence,” said Will Young, ACE’s Board Chairman, in a statement.” We need to make the right choices and engage our members more than ever as we strengthen the program and shape it for the future. This is the board that can succeed at doing just that.”

The new members join the present board made up of Chairman Will Young, from Australia, Past- Chairman Geoff Watts from the USA, Yun Son Lee from Korea, Joe Hsu from Taiwan, Tim Taylor from the USA, Augustin Manirakiza from Burundi and Noelia Villalobos from Costa Rica.

The Alliance for Coffee Excellence is a non-profit global membership organisation dedicated to advancing excellence in coffee. Cup of Excellence gives out prestigious awards in coffee, helping lift the prices through an online auction system following the competition.

source: http://www.gcrmag.com / Global Coffee Report / March 26th, 2018