News & Publications
Find out the latest news, stories, reports and opinions from Trade Aid staff and trading partners around the world.
For more news and views, publications, and the press room use the left hand navigation.
Coffee Traders in Malacatan, Gutemala
Pick of the Crop - The Coffee Market
28 Mar 2011
The latest issue of Pick of the Crop is now available online, from Trade Aid's food buyer, Justin Purser.
Justin's introduction to the March 2011 issue:
Even the least worldly of roasters and café owners will surely understand by now that for the foreseeable future the prices they will pay for their coffee will be significantly higher that they’ve been used to paying in recent years (for a graph showing how export prices have risen since mid-2010, see the graph of page 6 of this newsletter). They will also surely realise that their pricing, and their profitability, need their careful attention right now.
What they might not realise is that, perhaps counter intuitively, the quality of the coffee for which they will be paying higher prices might not be up to their usual expectations.
It’s not my intention to expand too much here on the many contributing reasons for these recent price hikes (although I do list several links on page 6 to online articles that provide an overview of the various factors which have combined to create the current situation). Instead, I think it would be more valuable for me to pass on to you here what I’ve been observing out at origin in recent months.
Since November I’ve spent several weeks in the field in Sumatra, Mexico, Guatemala and Colombia, assessing the impact of this volatile market on the farmers we support with our trade and also getting a feel for what is happening in the wider market. I am sharing some of my observations with you here; with this information, I hope you can both better understand what you’ve got to ‘look forward to’ in terms of upcoming coffee quality and pricing, and that you can also be better positioned to pass on to your own customers the reasons why, to maintain the quality of our coffee, we all need to adjust our expectations around pricing—a challenging conversation at the best of times. To echo the words of one of our own trading partners: we only wish we could do something to cool down the market. Price shocks suit none of us.
Justin's introduction to the March 2011 issue:
Even the least worldly of roasters and café owners will surely understand by now that for the foreseeable future the prices they will pay for their coffee will be significantly higher that they’ve been used to paying in recent years (for a graph showing how export prices have risen since mid-2010, see the graph of page 6 of this newsletter). They will also surely realise that their pricing, and their profitability, need their careful attention right now.
What they might not realise is that, perhaps counter intuitively, the quality of the coffee for which they will be paying higher prices might not be up to their usual expectations.
It’s not my intention to expand too much here on the many contributing reasons for these recent price hikes (although I do list several links on page 6 to online articles that provide an overview of the various factors which have combined to create the current situation). Instead, I think it would be more valuable for me to pass on to you here what I’ve been observing out at origin in recent months.
Since November I’ve spent several weeks in the field in Sumatra, Mexico, Guatemala and Colombia, assessing the impact of this volatile market on the farmers we support with our trade and also getting a feel for what is happening in the wider market. I am sharing some of my observations with you here; with this information, I hope you can both better understand what you’ve got to ‘look forward to’ in terms of upcoming coffee quality and pricing, and that you can also be better positioned to pass on to your own customers the reasons why, to maintain the quality of our coffee, we all need to adjust our expectations around pricing—a challenging conversation at the best of times. To echo the words of one of our own trading partners: we only wish we could do something to cool down the market. Price shocks suit none of us.
More News...
5 Jun 2013
The Trade Aid Education Tour group is travelling through the high altitudes of Peru, visiting... more»
4 Jun 2013
How does fair trade, as practised by Trade Aid and MINKA, contribute to the aspirations of Quechua... more»
30 May 2013
Students are invited to enter the 2013 Trade Aid Essay Competition.
The topic for this year is:... more»
