Guatemala City :

Sustainability leaders and advocates from across the coffee supply chain will gather in Guatemala City to participate in the first sustainability conference hosted by the Specialty Coffee Association.

The inaugural event, called Avance, will be held Oct. 11-12 at the headquarters of Anacafé, Guatemala’s national coffee association. It will consist of lectures, workshops, panel discussions and dialogue on topics like climate change and coffee production economics, with a focus on Central America.

Avance is designed to be inclusive of roles and experience levels across the coffee industry, as well as of English and Spanish speakers. Business representatives from coffee-consuming countries, as well as farmers, development practitioners, and public officials from coffee-producing countries, will be present to learn from experts and from one another about sustainability topics in the coffee sector.

Avance is the result of years of advocacy by members of the coffee community to include the voice of coffee farmers and representatives from coffee-producing countries in discussions around sustainability issues. The conference also builds on years of work by the SCA’s Sustainability Council and conversations within the specialty coffee community on how the industry can work together to make coffee better.

The Specialty Coffee Association was formed last year after members of the Specialty Coffee Association of America and the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe voted to unify the two groups. They are continuing to operate as separate organizations while the unified structure is put into place.

source: http://www.vendingtimes.com / Vending Times / Home / by Emily Jed / Gautemala City – August, 24th, 2017

India’s output by volume tilts towards Robusta, at 70% of the estimated coffee output in 2016-17, according to Coffee Board data

The headline forecast for coffee in 2017-18 indicates consumption is growing, while output could be flat. Coffee output is expected at 159 million bags—a bag is 60kg—the same as the previous year, according to the US department of agriculture’s (USDA’s) forecast. Domestic consumption is pegged to increase by 1.3% and along with higher exports, is expected to lower closing stocks of coffee in 2017-18. That is ordinarily a good situation for prices.

The trend looks somewhat different when you consider the two varieties, Arabica and Robusta. In 2016-17, the Arabica crop had risen by 14% but is now expected to fall by 3.6% mainly due to a decline in Brazil, which has an off year for the crop.

The Robusta variety, on the other hand, is expected to increase by 6.7%, as output in countries such as Vietnam, Brazil, Indonesia and even India is projected to increase. These countries saw output decline in 2016-17 due to bad weather conditions. Vietnam is the largest grower of Robusta and its output is expected to benefit from good rains between January and March, said the USDA report.

India’s output by volume tilts towards Robusta, at 70% of the estimated coffee output in 2016-17, according to Coffee Board data. Although output fell that year, prices of Robusta had risen sharply. The Robusta benchmark of the International Coffee Organization on 15 June was up by 24% over a year ago, but the Brazilian Arabica benchmark was down by 10.6%. Recent months have seen Robusta prices turn flattish-to-lower.

Predictions of a better monsoon in 2017-18 are expected to see India’s coffee output recover after falling by 9.8%, based on post-monsoon estimates. That is good news even if prices stay flat but not if prices decline as that can affect margins. However, lower prices should benefit instant coffee makers such as Hindustan Unilever Ltd and Nestlé India Ltd, as also the instant coffee operations of companies such as Tata Coffee Ltd, which also runs coffee plantations.

The one imponderable here is that the goods and services tax on instant coffee has been set at 28% compared to 5% on other coffee (such as roast and ground). This can be a dampener for the instant coffee business and one will have to see if companies hike prices post-1 July. That can potentially upset demand.

source: http://www.livemint.com / Live Mint / Home> Money / by Ravi Ananthanarayanan / Tuesday – June 20th, 2017

Nilphamari farmer defies odds to produce the beans

by EAM Asaduzzaman and Andrew Eagle

Bangladesh has a long, established history as a producer of quality tea. As for that other hot beverage, coffee, despite rising popularity among Bangladeshi consumers over the past few decades, there is no such agricultural tradition. Nursery owner Abdul Kuddus, from Munsipara village in Nilphamari’s Kishoreganj upazila, however, has taken the first steps to change that. He decided to grow coffee, driven by nothing more than unstoppable curiosity.

“I first heard about coffee in 2009 at a conference run by the Nursery Owners Association,” says Abdul, an energetic septuagenarian who yet walks with a spring in his step. “For a long time I wanted to grow it but I couldn’t procure any saplings.”

“For about the whole of his life Abdul has been inquisitive on the subject of rare plants,” explains his neighbour Fazal Kadir, a primary school headmaster.

“Finally in 2014, I managed to purchase 254 coffee saplings from Cox’s Bazar,” Abdul continues.

“I contacted the agriculture extension department for advice on how to grow it, but they were uninterested.” Thus Abdul relied on common sense, planting the saplings on his fifteen decimals with a reasonable distance between each one.

The plants seemed to appreciate Abdul’s efforts. With organic fertiliser they grew quickly. He decided to prune them, cutting their tops such that they didn’t grow any higher than five feet. In 2016 Abdul held his breath. The two-year-old crop for the first time began to grow fruit, which blackened as they ripened.

Abdul’s family was unimpressed. Who’d ever heard of coffee being grown in Nilphamari?

“We forbade father to proceed,” recalls his son Md Akram. “We told him all his efforts would be in vain but he didn’t listen. He collected the mature fruit and used a wooden tool, a “dheki” to break them open and bring out the beans.”

“Of course there is no specialised machine to crush coffee here,” says Abdul. “So I took the beans to a flour mill and ask them to grind it. I got 67 kilograms of coffee powder.”

Despite the innovative refining process involved, Abdul’s groundbreaking coffee is proving popular.

“The coffee produced in Kishoreganj upazila tastes really good and has a nice aroma,” says Siddiqur Rahman, who used to be the upazila nirbahi officer of Kishorganj and now works as an additional deputy commissioner in Narail district.

“I tasted Abdul’s coffee and found it better than the imported brands available in the market,” says Sayed Hossain Shabul, president of a local citizens’ committee.

Based on the favourable reviews of consumers, Abdul went to the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution in Rajshahi some months ago to apply for a licence for his coffee.

“They said it was not on their list, so I failed,” he says. “However I did get recognition from the district civil surgeon’s office which issued a licence under the Food Safety Act 2013 under the name “The Bismillah Coffee”.

Eight ounces of coffee contains 135 milligrams of caffeine, explains Prof Abdul Latif, head of the botany department at Nilphamari Government College.

“It’s a popular drink that serves as an energy source. The plant is bushy, of medium height and evergreen. It yields bunches of small, marble-like green fruit which is then crushed to extract the coffee powder.”

Abdul earned Tk 1.3 lakh from this year’s coffee crop, selling it for Tk 2,000 per kilogram in Dhaka.

Now he wants to extend his plantation to cover thirty decimals. “If the government and private entrepreneurs get on board,” Abdul says, “then coffee cultivation can be a profitable segment of our agricultural future.”

In the meantime, the local community is already convinced. Several locals have decided to follow Abdul’s lead, buying coffee saplings from his nursery at Tk 250 per piece.

source: http://www.thedailystar.net / The Daily Star / Home> Back Page / by EAM Asaduzzaman & Andrew Eagle / July 09th, 2017

Among people of various ethnicities and cultures, higher coffee consumption — whether caffeinated or decaffeinated — was associated with all-cause and cause-specific mortality benefits, according to two new studies published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

“Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world and in the U.S. population,” Song-Yi Park, PhD, from the University of Hawai’i Cancer Center, and colleagues wrote. “Therefore, even a small health-promoting effect of coffee could have a substantial impact on public health.”

Researchers for both studies noted that although recent studies have found that higher coffee consumption was associated with lower risk for all-cause death, the relationship between consumption and mortality in nonwhites and diverse European populations is unknown.

The first study, focusing on nonwhite populations in the United States, included 185,855 blacks (17%), Native Hawaiians (7%), Japanese Americans (29%), Latinos (22%) and whites (25%) who were aged between 45 and 75 years at the time of recruitment from 1993 to 1996. Park and colleagues evaluated coffee consumption via a validated food-frequency questionnaire, which was updated approximately every 5 years. A total of 16% of participants reported not drinking coffee, 31% drank one cup a day, 25% drank two to three cups a day, 7% drank four or more cups a day and 21% had irregular coffee drinking habits. Participants were followed until 2012.

During an average follow-up of 16.2 years, 58,397 deaths occurred. After adjusting for smoking and other potential confounders, the researchers identified an association between coffee intake and lower total mortality among those who drank one cup per day (HR = 0.88; 95% CI, 0.85-0.91); two to three cups per day (HR = 0.82; 95% CI, 0.79-0.86); or four or more cups per day (HR = 0.82; 95% CI, 0.78-0.87]). Participants who drank one cup of coffee per day and two to three cups of coffee per day had a 12% and 18%, reduced risk of death, respectively. Both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee produced similar trends, according to the researchers.

The inverse association between coffee consumption and mortality was significant for all ethnic groups studied except Native Hawaiians. Furthermore, never-smokers, participants younger than 55 years and those without chronic disease also demonstrated an inverse relationship. Intake of coffee consumption lowered the risk for death due to heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory disease, stroke, diabetes and kidney disease.

“Our findings support the recent dietary guidelines from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which indicate that moderate coffee consumption can be integrated into a healthy diet and lifestyle, by confirming an inverse association with mortality and suggesting that association’s generalizability to different racial/ethnic groups,” Park and colleagues concluded.

These results can be applied to other ethnic groups without safety concerns because the association was observed in four different ethnicities, Veronica W. Setiawan, PhD, lead author from the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, said in a press release.

“This study is the largest of its kind and includes minorities who have very different lifestyles,” Setiawan said. “Seeing a similar pattern across different populations gives stronger biological backing to the argument that coffee is good for you whether you are white, African-American, Latino or Asian.”

“Coffee contains a lot of antioxidants and phenolic compounds that play an important role in cancer prevention,” she continued. “Although this study does not show causation or point to what chemicals in coffee may have this ‘elixir effect,’ it is clear that coffee can be incorporated into a healthy diet and lifestyle.”

“We cannot say drinking coffee will prolong your life, but we see an association,” she added. “If you like to drink coffee, drink up! If you’re not a coffee drinker, then you need to consider if you should start.”

The second study, led by Marc J. Gunter, PhD, from the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France, focused on coffee intake and mortality risk in European populations, and included 521,330 participants mainly aged 35 years or older from Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Gunter and colleagues recruited these participants between 1992 and 2000.

According to the data, 41,693 participants died during a mean follow-up of 16.4 years. The researchers observed a statistically significant lower all-cause mortality for participants in the highest quartile of coffee intake compared with those who did not drink coffee, among men (HR = 0.88; 95% CI, 0.82-0.95) and women (HR = 0.93; 95% CI, 0.87-0.98). In addition, death due to digestive disease was lower in relation to coffee consumption for both men (HR = 0.41; 95% CI, 0.32-0.54) and women (HR = 0.6; 95% CI, 0.46-0.78). The researchers found a statistically significant inverse relationship between coffee intake and with circulatory disease mortality (HR = 0.78; 95% CI, 0.68-0.9) and cerebrovascular disease mortality (HR = 0.7; 95% CI, 0.55-0.9) among women, as well as a positive association with ovarian cancer mortality (HR = 1.31; 95% CI, 1.07-1.61).

Gunter and colleagues also evaluated whether coffee consumption was associated with serum biomarkers of liver function, inflammation and metabolic health in a subcohort of 14,800 participants. They found that higher intake of coffee was linked to lower serum alkaline phosphatase, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, gamma-glutamyltransferase, as well as C-reactive protein, lipoprotein(a) and glycated hemoglobin levels in women.

“We found that higher coffee consumption was associated with a lower risk of death from any cause, and specifically for circulatory diseases, and digestive diseases,” Gunter said in a press release. “Importantly, these results were similar across all of the 10 European countries, with variable coffee drinking habits and customs. Our study also offers important insights into the possible mechanisms for the beneficial health effects of coffee.”

“Due to the limitations of observational research, we are not at the stage of recommending people to drink more or less coffee,” he added. “That said, our results suggest that moderate coffee drinking — up to around three cups per day — is not detrimental to your health, and that incorporating coffee into your diet could have health benefits.”

The researchers emphasized that more studies are necessary to determine which compound in coffee may be responsible for benefiting health and to explore the effect of coffee consumption on health outcomes.

“These findings add to a growing body of evidence which indicates that drinking coffee not only is safe, but it may actually have a protective health effect for people,” Elio Riboli, MD, ScM, coauthor of the study from the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, said in the release. “While further research is needed, we can be confident that the results from a large European study confirm previous findings seen around the world.”

In an accompanying editorial, Eliseo Guallar, MD, DrPH, from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, and colleagues note that the relationship between coffee consumption and mortality “was modest and sensitive to confounding.”

“Recommending coffee intake to reduce mortality or prevent chronic disease would be premature,” they wrote. “However, it is increasingly evident that moderate coffee intake up to three to five cups per day or caffeine intake up to 400 mg/d is not associated with adverse health effects in adults and can be incorporated into a healthy diet.” – by Alaina Tedesco

References:

Guallar E, et al. Ann Intern Med. 2017;doi:10.7326/M17-1503.

Gunter MJ, et al. Ann Intern Med. 2017;doi:10.7326/M16-2945.

Park SY, et al. Ann Intern Med. 2017;doi:10.7326/M16-2472.

Disclosure: Park and colleagues report funding from the National Cancer Institute. Gunter and colleagues report funding from the European Commission Directorate-General for Health and Consumers and the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Guallar and colleague report no relevant financial disclosures.

source: http://www.healio.com / Healio / Home> Internal Medicine> Nutritional Fitness> In the Journals / July 10th, 2017

Ho Chi Minh City, (Xinhua):

“We are striving to make King Coffee one of world’s top five coffee brands and to make Vietnam a global coffee powerhouse,” the wife of Vietnam’s coffee king told Xinhua.

Le Hoang Diep Thao is the chief executive officer of Ho Chi Minh City-based Trung Nguyen International Corporation (TNI), part of the Trung Nguyen Group (TNG).

Her husband, Dang Le Nguyen Vu, who has been recognized as Vietnam’s coffee king by Forbes Asia and National Geographic Traveler, is the co-founder and co-owner of TNG, a leading coffee firm in Vietnam, specializing in instant coffee, roasted and ground coffee, cafe trading and coffee export.

After the couple successfully brought the G7 coffee brand to more than 60 countries in the world, Thao launched TNI King Coffee and is aiming to conquer the hearts of coffee lovers all over the world, including over 1.3 billion Chinese consumers who are used to drinking tea.

“In the last 20 years, we have focused on the coffee business only. We provide full services, from coffee bean plantation to blending and roasting,” Thao said.

“TNI’s coffee beans are finely chosen from the best coffee beans in Buon Ma Thuot (the capital city of Dak Lak central highland province, Vietnam’s coffee kingdom).

Combined with advanced technology, production equipment imported from Europe, and the secret recipe from Trung Nguyen, TNI coffee is distinctive,” the graceful woman, wearing a long, red traditional dress explained.

In late April, Thao put into operation a big TNI King Coffee factory, with an initial capacity of churning out 9,000 tons of roasted coffee beans and 19,800 tons of instant coffee a year, in the southern province of Binh Duong.

King Coffee has been exported to many countries in the world, including the United States, Australia, Russia, China, India, South Korea and Singapore, and is expected to be available in 129 other markets in the future.

“King Coffee for the king market,” Thao said, implying that China is world’s biggest coffee consumer. In China, King Coffee has advanced to become one of the four best-selling brands on T-Mall Supermarket, one of three key e-commerce websites of online trade platform Alibaba.

In March, at the 96th China Food and Drink Fair held in the Chinese city of Chengdu, Thao announced that TNI will strive to meet its sales target of 1 billion U.S. dollars from the Chinese market in the next few years.

“More and more Chinese young people like to drink coffee and regard it as a casual lifestyle,” Thao stated.

Peter Tsang, Trung Nguyen’s general manager in charge of the Chinese mainland, echoed Thao’s statement, saying the Chinese market’s potentiality is huge and cafes are mushrooming there and becoming indispensable for Chinese youths.

“Most of China’s population is used to drinking tea, but many Chinese people, especially youngsters, like to drink coffee,” he said, adding that Vietnamese coffee exported to China enjoys preferential treatment, including tax incentives.

There are three key factors leading to the success of Trung Nguyen coffee in China, namely Vietnam’s fine coffee beans, the firm’s know-how, and the use of European machines and technologies, Tsang stated.
“We hope that we will attain the sales target of 1 billion U.S dollars in the Chinese market by 2020,” he said.

Now, over 1,000 Trung Nguyen cafés are set up home and abroad.

However, two decades ago, Vu, born in 1971, was a medical student with poor parents. Motivated by the aspiration to make a fortune for himself and his country by selling processed coffee, Vu, in 1996, opened a coffee roasting facility in Dak Lak, with a total workforce of only four, including himself and three of his friends.

Having practically no money or experience, Vu struggled to make his business survive while still having to attend classes. Time went by, and so did the money Vu invested in his small production base. His parents had to sell their own house to contribute capital to the base.

According to local media, Vu, burdened with financial difficulties but wanting to realize his dream, met Thao, a 20-year-old lady, who was born with a silver spoon in her mouth (her father is a gold jewelry tycoon in Buon Ma Thuot), and agreed to marry.

Vietnam, the world’s second biggest coffee exporter after Brazil, shipped 467,000 tons of coffee worth nearly 1.1 billion U.S. dollars overseas in the first quarter of this year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Thao expressed her strong belief that TNI King Coffee will be a huge success, especially in international markets, like the previous brand G7.

“My greatest vision is expanding the Vietnamese brand all over the world, and for it to be able to compete with multinational companies in the coffee industry,” she said.

source: http://www.news.xinhuanet.com / Xinhuanet.com / Home / source: Xinhua / by Tao Jun, Dong Hua / April 28th, 2017

Sao Lourenco, Brazil,(Xinhua) :

A small Brazilian city, once famous for its mineral water springs, is now welcoming tourists with new attractions — a specialty coffee with unique taste and quality.

Besides enjoying the natural beauty of Sao Sourenco, a city located in Brazil’s southeastern state of Minas Gerais, tourists from around the world are also flocking to a coffee shop at the city center to take a sip of the local coffee, which has a history of over 100 years.

The coffee sold in Junior’s shop was grown at a farm located in the mountainous region of southern Minas Gerais, the soil and climatic conditions of which are favorable to coffee growth.

Meanwhile, Sao Lorenco is famous throughout Brazil for its natural spring water, which also helps to explain why the region produces much of the best coffee in the country.

“The coffee here has acidity and sweetness, and does not need sugar,” said Helcio Junior, director and the fourth generation coffee farmer running the coffee shop Unique Cafes.

The good quality of local coffee has greatly boosted the development of tourism in the region, said Junior, who dedicated himself after graduating from university to transforming his family business from a coffee bean exporter to a specialty coffee producer.

In 2005, a coffee sample from the farm won the first place in the “Cup of Excellence,” an annual competition held in several countries to identify the highest quality coffee produced, with a world record of 95.85 points on a scale of 0 to 100.

Brazil is the world’s largest producer and exporter of coffee. Coffee plantations are mainly located in the southeastern states of Minas Gerais, Sao Paulo and Parana.

According to the Brazilian Association for the Coffee Industry, every single major coffee brand uses Brazilian coffee in its blend.

However, Brazil has, for decades, oriented its export of coffee as a commodity instead of a specialty product, therefore it has lost the marketing game when it comes to promoting its own brand.

“I started to roast our own coffee in 2005, when I entered our family business,” Junior said.

“Before that, our company had only planted and produced green coffee beans, and starting to roast coffee means that our own coffee product enters the domestic market,” Junior said.

According to Junior, his family has been exporting coffee beans to Japan, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Canada, Australia and the United States.

“We have entered the Chinese market in recent four to five years, and we have opened a coffee shop in Shanghai,” he said.

Junior believes that his specialty coffee has a promising prospect in the Chinese market.

source: http://www.news.xinhuanet.com / Xinhuanet / Home / source: Xinhua / Editor: Zhou Xin / June 24th, 2017