GCR Jul 2021

July/August 2021

MAKING THE PRICE RIGHT New-look pricing models

ONWARDS & UPWARDS

The market’s gradual recovery after years of low prices

SUCCESS IN ASIA

Companies make their move in this fast-paced market

REDISCOVERED SPECIES

Is Coffea Stenophylla the next Arabica?

RESPECTING

THE FUTURE

ILLYCAFFÈ CEO MASSIMILIANO POGLIANI ON STEPS TO BECOMING CARBON NEUTRAL AND WHY SUSTAINABILITY IS AN INVESTMENT EVERYONE NEEDS TO MAKE www.gcrmag.com

COMMITMENT

EVERSYS ARE COMMITTED TO BEST OF BREED, LEAN MANUFACTURING AS WELL AS EMBRACING SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES. OUR SKILLED, MULTIFUNCTIONAL TEAM IS DRIVEN BY A PASSION TO PRODUCE MARKET-LEADING PRODUCTS. ANDREA ROMANIN, Operations Director at Eversys

CONTENTS July/August 2021

COVER STORY

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WHAT DREAMS ARE MADE OF illycaffè CEO Massimiliano Pogliani on making history as the roaster’s first external CEO, steps to becoming carbon neutral, and why sustainability is an investment everyone needs to make.

IN THIS ISSUE FEATURES

ORIGIN

illycaffè CEO Massimiliano Pogliani on becoming the first Italian coffee company to obtain B Corp status

Challenging times for the Nicaraguan coffee industry and its players is shifting with quality in sight

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WHAT DREAMS ARE MADE OF

12 BUILDING BALANCE

How the Gender Equity Index is set to increase awareness and action on the importance of gender equality as a key driver for sustainable development

16 ONWARDS AND UPWARDS

The International Coffee Organization on the market’s gradual recovery after years of low prices

20 SEEDS OF CHANGE

WCR bring attention to coffee’s hidden crisis in the seed sector and is now examining how to bolster its professionalism and genetic purity

24 MAKING THE PRICE RIGHT

GCR looks at how new pricing models can increase emphasis on the farmer’s living income and share of the profits

28 LOOK TO THE PAST, PREPARE FOR THE FUTURE

The rediscovered coffee species Coffea stenophylla could provide an important resource for the development of climateresilient coffee crop plants

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32 WINDS OF CHANGE

SUCCESS IN ASIA

36 THE ONE TO WATCH

46 GOING STEADY

The Poursteady automatic brewer makes pour over coffee an efficient option for busy cafés – making a consistent cup as quickly as a barista can make espresso.

Eversys on how it embraces innovation and why it’s the brand of choice in Asia when it comes to robotic and automatic coffee solutions

48 ALL FOR THE CUSTOMERS

38 FRANKE FORGES AHEAD

50 A NEW WAVE

How the Swiss manufacturer is evolving in one of the world’s most desirable trade regions

40 COMBINED FORCES

Neuhaus Neotec and Devex succeed as team players, offering complete roasting and instant coffee plant solutions

TECH & INNOVATION 42 GO WITH THE FLOW

How the Flow telemetry system delivers feedback on coffee quality, even before it touches customers’ lips

44 RISE OF THE HOME BARISTA Mahlkönig’s new X54 grinder is designed to meet the needs of a new target audience

Rancilio’s Connect telemetry system is designed with an open architecture to best support its clients Nuova Simonelli unveils the Aurelia Wave UX with a new engine and technology that’s set to improve the workflow and user experience

LAST WORD

“YOU DON’T NEED TO BE A CHARITY TO DO GOOD IN THIS WORLD. YOU CAN BE A GROWING COMPANY, MAKING PROFIT, PROVIDED THAT IN YOUR ACTIONS YOU CONSIDER ALL COMMUNITIES AND STRIVE TO MAKE A POSITIVE IMPACT ON PEOPLE AND THE PLANET. IT’S NOT EASY TO DO BOTH, BUT IT CAN BE DONE.” Massimiliano Pogliani ILLYCAFFÈ CEO

58 GROUNDED IN SUSTAINABILITY Vietnamese sustainable manufacturer AirXCoffee realised it could replace single-use plastics with a material abundant: coffee grounds

REGULARS 04 06 52 54 56

EDITOR’S NOTE NEWS DRIP BY DRIP WHAT’S BREWING DIARY DASHBOARD MARKETPLACE

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EDITOR’S NOTE Global Coffee Report

PUBLISHER Christine Clancy christine.clancy@primecreative.com.au EDITOR Sarah Baker sarah.baker@primecreative.com.au ASSISTANT EDITOR Ethan Miller ethan.miller@primecreative.com.au

THE BEATING HEART AS A WOMAN IN COFFEE writing her 60th edition of Global Coffee Report, I know that I lead a privileged position. I live in a country where women and men gain the same respect in their employment opportunities. I seek independence without judgement, and I live in a safe and secure home.

Far removed from the dominant origin production countries of our world, a mere 14,000 kilometres away, it still amazes me that my team and I can put together a publication that celebrates our global industry, and the people and products within it, but at the heart of it all, are incredibly devoted and hard working women across the coffee supply chain still experiencing gender inequity. In some minorities, women are not recognised – socially or financially – for their contributions.

Buying a bag of coffee sourced from a women’s cooperative has long been an accessible method of support, but the need and opportunity for impact is far greater.

In speaking with Kimberly Easson, Founder and CEO of non-profit organisation, The Partnership for Gender Equity, she says the time has come for gender equity in the coffee sector. The Gender Equity Index is one such tool that aims to open dialogue and encourage companies to integrate gender into all facets of their sustainability investments.

With coffee prices still falling below production costs in many countries, in this edition we explore new pricing models with the hope of increasing emphasis on the farmer’s living income and share of profits.

The world is battling a once-in-a-century

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global pandemic, but there are still many prevalent issues that run the risk of being supressed unless conversation and action is taken.

In my interview with illycaffé CEO Massimiliano Pogliani, he says being a company with strong sustainable and ethical values is part of its DNA. To keep it accountable, last year illycaffé applied for B Corp certification, which it successfully obtained in April, becoming the first Italian coffee company to do so.

The Italian roaster now has its mind set on becoming carbon neutral by the time it cuts the cake on its 100th birthday in 2033.

Pogliani hinted he may well be in retirement by that stage, but that’s exactly why he takes great responsibility in the decisions and investments he makes on behalf the company. For they will impact the generations to come, in 10, 20, and 30 years’ time, and beyond.

It’s also why each decision must be made with the intention of positive impact: for people and the planet. After all, as Pogliani reminded me so simply, “it’s the only one we have”.

JOURNALIST Shanna Wong shanna.wong@primecreative.com.au DESIGN PRODUCTION MANAGER Michelle Weston michelle.weston@primecreative.com.au ART DIRECTOR Blake Storey blake.storey@primecreative.com.au DESIGN Madeline McCarty, Kerry Pert BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AND MARKETING ACCOUNT MANAGER Courtney Walker courtney.walker@primecreative.com.au CLIENT SUCCESS Ben Griffiths ben.griffiths@primecreative.com.au PHOTOGRAPHY Alex Kipenko, RBG Kew, CIRAD, ASOPEP CONTRIBUTOR Nikita Sisaudia, Lindsay Holloway HEAD OFFICE Prime Creative Pty Ltd 11-15 Buckhurst Street South Melbourne VIC 3205 Australia p: +61 3 9690 8766 f: +61 3 9682 0044 enquiries@primecreative.com.au www.gcrmag.com SUBSCRIPTIONS +61 3 9690 8766 subscriptions@primecreative.com.au

Global Coffee Report Magazine is available by subscription from the publisher. The rights of refusal are reserved by the publisher.

ARTICLES

All articles submitted for publication become the property of the publisher. The Editor reserves the right to adjust any article to conform with the magazine format.

COPYRIGHT

Sarah Baker Editor, Global Coffee Report

Global Coffee Report is owned and published by Prime Creative Media. All material in Global Coffee Report Magazine is copyright and no part may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means (graphic, electronic or mechanical including information and retrieval systems) without written permission of the publisher. The Editor welcomes contributions but reserves the right to accept or reject any material. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information Prime Creative Media will not accept responsibility for errors or omissions or for any consequences arising from reliance on information published. The opinions expressed in Global Coffee Report are not necessarily the opinions of, or endorsed by the publisher unless otherwise stated.

NEWS DRIPBYDRIP 28

AFRICA Endemic to Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Ivory Coast, Coffea stenophylla grows wild in hottropical areas at low elevation, only 400 metres above sea level.

The rediscovered species grows and crops under similar climatic conditions to Robusta, but with a higher mean annual temperature requirement of 24.9⁰C, which is 1.9⁰C higher than that of Robusta and a substantial 6.2⁰C to 6.8⁰C higher than Arabica.

Combined with its desirable flavour qualities, the coffee could help prepare coffee production for the worsening effects of climate change.

See page 28.

AMERICAS With the coffee industry spending around US$300 to US$400 million on sustainability efforts each year, the Gender Equity Index seeks to leverage this investment in support of the women who provide between 40 to 80 per cent of pre- and post-harvest labour.

The GEI will serve as a scalable

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strategy that enlists extension and other advisory service providers to adopt gender “best fit” practices in the design and implementation of their programs.

See page 12.

Through the Maximizing Opportunities in Coffee and Cacao in the Americas initiative, World Coffee Research identified 62 seed lots in the five focus countries in 2020 and began working with them to check the genetic purity of their seeds. To that end, the research organisation has adapted modern DNA testing approaches for coffee varieties.

See page 20.

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Bellwether Coffee signed the first contract in the coffee industry based on Verified Living Income after a pilot study of the pricing model with the ASOPEP showed it needed to increase the prices it paid the cooperative by 20 per cent to meet the benchmark.

In the United Kingdom, the consumer-focused Farm to Home eCommerce website was launched, a platform that sees producers take greater ownership and shares of the profits from the sale of coffee.

See page 24.

According to the ICO, Nicaragua produced nearly 2.9 million 60-kilogram bags of Arabica coffee in the 2019/20 harvest season. Coffee first arrived in Nicaragua in the late 1700s, and by 1870 it was the largest export crop. Today, Nicaragua is the 11th largest coffee exporter in the world, according to the International Coffee Organization, yet it is the second-poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, largely due to an ongoing sociopolitical crisis.

See page 32.

Their first prototype of the Poursteady automatic pour over coffee maker debuted at the New York City Maker Faire in 2013, where the brewer made more than 800 cups of coffee across the weekend event. The manufacturer has since grown around the world, offering cafés the ability to produce pour over coffee with a possible turnover of one per minute.

See page 47.

ASIA PACIFIC According to market intelligence company Mordor Intelligence, in 2020 an average of one new coffee shop opened in China’s Chengdu city every day. That pushed the total number of coffee shops in the city to more than 4000 – just after Shanghai and Beijing. Data from the China Coffee Association Beijing says China’s coffee consumption is increasing at an annual rate of 15 per cent.

To date, more than 10 customers use Eversys machines for their robotic coffee solutions, including companies in Korea, Japan, China, Singapore and Taiwan.

See page 36.

Franke has operated in China through its sister divisions for many years, building a wealth of knowledge on the local culture and market demands. In early 2021, Franke officially registered its own company in China.

See page 38.

Asia has been a core coffee market to Neuhaus Neotec since the early 1990s, first delivering industrial grinders to Japan and

NEWS In brief

South Korea. The roasting plant and equipment manufacturer has since built strong customer bases in Vietnam and Southeast Asia, and emerging markets in India and China.

See page 40.

The Flow system can be connected directly to an espresso machine from any major manufacturer. The dashboard provides an overview of how well each site is performing. whether one site or 500, giving owners the ability to assess the performance of each site remotely. This allows management to direct resources to the sites that need it the most.

See page 42.

To create the coffee-based material, AirXCoffee dries spent coffee grounds at low humidity and crushes them into small particles. The recycled materials are also pre-crushed before being mixed with the grounds and melted together at a high temperature. The product is then left to harden and broken into small bullet shaped pieces.

See page 58.

EUROPE In April 2021, illycaffè became the first Italian coffee company with global presence to obtain B Corp status, a certification only 3 per cent of the 100,000 companies that applied for it received.

For a company that usually sees a 60-40 split for the HoReCa and home consumption markets, respectively, COVID-19 lockdowns saw that reverse. According to iIlycaffè’s 2020 Annual Report, it achieved a revenue of €446.5 million (about US$546.1 million) in 2020, a decrease of only 14 per cent

42 compared to the prior year. Illycaffè grew its online sales by 49 per cent in France, 39 per cent in Italy, 70 per cent in the United States, 69 per cent in Austria, 259 per cent in the United Kingdom and 300 per cent in Brazil.

Fifty per cent of online sales came from first-time customers.

See page 8.

In the first half of coffee year 2020/21, the ICO composite indicator averaged 114.27 US cents per pound. In May 2021, the ICO daily composite indicator breached 140 US cents per pound for the first time in more than four years. Prices have rallied on signals of tightening supplies in the near future, as well as expectations of a post-COVID-19 recovery in key consuming markets in 2021. These trends will combine for a widely anticipated global deficit in coffee year 2021/22.

See page 16.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of connectivity and resilience of the retail coffee market, but one area that can still be improved is access to high quality domestic grinding equipment. As such, premium grinder manufacturer Mahlkönig has launched its multipurpose X54 Allround Home

Grinder that produces grind sizes specifically for espresso, AeroPress, v60, chemex and French press coffees.

See page 44.

Releasing across July and August 2021, the POUR’D cold coffee dispense system allows a venue to serve ready-to-drink cold coffee and cold coffee from concentrate, which can be mixed from a single font.

See page 46.

The Connect system is able to support any of Rancilio Group’s traditional espresso and automatic coffee machines produced after 2016, using espresso extraction sensors built into each coffee machine. This includes traditional espresso machines under the brands Promac, Rancilio Specialty and Rancilio, and fully automatic machines under Egro.

See page 48.

The Nuova Simonelli Aurelia espresso machine has received a series of facelifts since its debut in 2004, resulting in the launch of the Aurelia II in 2012 and Aurelia Wave in 2017 with the introduction of new materials and T3 technology. And now, the model has evolved one step further with the unveiling of the Aurelia Wave UX. See page 50.

2.9M The number of 60-kilogram bags of coffee Nicaragua produced in the 2019/20 harvest season.

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Image credits: Alex Kipenko

COVER STORY illycaffè

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WHAT D

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REAMS ARE MADE OF ILLYCAFFÈ’S MASSIMILIANO POGLIANI ON MAKING HISTORY AS THE ROASTER’S FIRST EXTERNAL CEO, STEPS TO BECOMING CARBON NEUTRAL, AND WHY SUSTAINABILITY IS AN INVESTMENT EVERYONE NEEDS TO MAKE.

W

hen illycaffè became the first Italian coffee company to obtain B Corp status in April 2021, CEO Massimiliano Pogliani was proud, given that only 3 per cent of the 100,000 companies that applied met the criteria for excellence. Rather than shout the news from the rooftop, Pogliani says the certification, established by B Lab, the international certifying entity for companies that meet the highest standards of social and environmental performance, is simply validation of the sustainable practices the company has applied since it was founded in 1933.

“We don’t see it as kind of a prize, an ‘Oscar’, or a championship win, we see it as confirmation our business model is solid, which is based on creating value for all stakeholders, not only for the shareholder,” Pogliani tells Global Coffee Report. “Having strong sustainable and ethical values is part of the DNA of the company, so to see us officially certified from an external party gives us a sense of pride, but it’s not the end of the road, it’s just the beginning.”

Illycaffè’s application for B Corp status was made through the 2020 global pandemic, with the roaster’s national and international behaviour and practices put under the microscope. This included the way it interacts and impacts the communities it’s involved with: coffee producers, suppliers, subsidiaries, customers, and factory workers. Illycaffè’s workplace environment at origin and its Triestebased factory were also considered, as was its ability to transfer knowledge, add value, and uphold gender diversity and inclusion.

The ultimate goal, Pogliani says, is for illycaffè to reduce its carbon footprint and have a carbon neutral supply chain by 2033, the year illycaffè celebrates its 100th birthday.

Pogliani says it’s thanks to new innovations and technology that weren’t available 10, even five years ago, that are helping reach this target. At illycaffè’s production facility, 100 per cent of its electrical energy comes from renewable sources. It has upgraded its factory with new roasting technology that uses 40 per cent less energy. Methane gas consumption is reduced by using recovered energy – 89 per cent from roasting and 10 per cent for heating and hot water production – which decreases CO2 emissions by around 380 tonnes per year.

Illycaffè’s green bean warehouse ceiling is fitted with solar panels, which Pogliani describes as “one of the biggest installations in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region”. And at origin, illycaffè constantly promotes best practices towards water consumption reduction. It supported the implementation of wastewater treatment systems in Nicaragua and Honduras that reduced water consumption by 35 per cent.

“We have a responsibility to pave the way and show what it means to respect future generations and the planet – the only one that we have,” Pogliani says. “For me, sustainability is not a cost it’s an investment everyone needs to make. Perfecting our business and environmental strategies is a never-ending story. We are not perfect, but we are committed to a continuous improvement pattern.”

Pre-COVID, illycaffè also started using disposable materials and changed its single-use cups to PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) materials from sustainablymanaged forests, helping rescue 175 tonnes of plastic annually.

“The B Corp status held us accountable to be transparent in everything we do, and I believe it’s important the consumer judges us not only on the quality of our product but the quality of our standards. We want to make it very clear to our customers that this is the way we think every company should behave in the future. There is no contradiction in pursuing business and revenue goals with social and environmental goals, you can reach both together in a harmonious way,” Pogliani says.

He adds that, in days gone by, managements systems would push “just for profit and growth”, but today, it’s about “growing in a profitable way” by having a positive social and environmental impact.

“You don’t need to be a charity to do good in this world. You can be a growing company, making profit, provided that in your actions you consider all communities and strive to make a positive impact on people and the planet. It’s not easy to do both, but it can be done,” Pogliani says.

“As a manager, you have to make decisions that focus on the here and now, and allow you to reach your annual KPIs and goals. But when you’re a stakeholder company like illycaffè, you also have to consider that the decisions you make will impact people in 10, 20, 30 years’ time, and beyond. By then, I probably won’t be CEO, possibly retired, happy living in Bondi Beach, but for now, I invest my time, the company’s money, and its resources, in projects I believe will help produce a great product with an even greater positive impact.”

Of all the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, the one that Pogliani is most passionate

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COVER STORY illycaffè

about is encouraging collaboration between the public and private sectors. For him, this is not about competition, but cooperation.

“For sure, we compete with other roasters for the preference of the consumer, but when it comes to the health of the planet, we need to be at one with our competitors,” he says.

Already, illycaffè collaborated with Lavazza on the Coffea arabica genome sequencing project to understand how plantations can be more climate resistant and productive. Pogliani says all study findings are shared with World Coffee Research to benefit more people in developing climate-resistant varietals. It has also signed a new capsule recycling program with TerraCycle that will be implemented in many countries, and a new agreement with Nestlé to pilot an innovation recycling project in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region. If successful, the project will be applied throughout Italy.

DESTINY AWAITS Pogliani joined illycaffè in 2016 as the first non-Illy family member in management. Prior to his appointment, Pogliani says the Italian icon had always played a role in his life. His passion for coffee began while working part-time at coffee vending machine company Saeco while studying at university. Years later, he decided to pursue his passion further by undertaking an illycaffè coffee tasting and training diploma, followed by a teaching diploma, run by the late illycaffè Chairman Ernesto Illy.

“I was infected by his passion for coffee. He is someone I still vividly remember as nothing but exceptional. Everything I learned about coffee was from him. When I finally received my teaching diploma from him, it was like receiving something from the Pope,” Pogliani recalls.

He pursued work in other sectors but eventually, when hired by machine manufacturer Saeco Gaggia, Pogliani’s knowledge and passion for coffee returned. He later joined Nestlé and Nespresso, but still, illycaffè was a source of inspiration in terms of quality espresso.

“I have been connected with this company, in my soul, for a long time, so you can imagine that when I was asked to join illycaffè all those years later, it was like closing the circle on this dream.

I would never ever have imagined I would be the CEO of this fantastic company. It wasn’t even a choice. It was my destiny,” Pogliani says.

“This change away from a family-owned, led, and managed company has brought an additional dimension to the business. It’s synergising with the entrepreneurial spirit of the family, and I’m happy to be in my second mandate.”

TESTING TIMES Pogliani’s second term was tested when COVID-19 hit northern Italy “like a bad storm” in 2020.

Rather than trying to control what it couldn’t, Pogliani says the company focused on what it could. Thankfully, pre-pandemic, illycaffè had already enacted a ‘smart working program’ to

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illycaffè CEO Massimiliano Pogliani expects a rebalancing of the home and out-of-home coffee channels by early 2022.

give employees the flexibility to work from home and in the office. All travel was halted, factory workers were divided into split shifts to minimise contact, and not once did production stop nor was a COVID-19 case detected on-site.

For a company that usually sees a 60-40 split for the Ho.Re.Ca and home consumption markets, respectively, lockdown saw that reverse. To keep up with demand for at-home products, the roaster even installed a new capsule production line.

“We saw online orders grow five times the average, with 39 per cent ecommerce sales growth in 2020 compared to 2019.

Not only is that exceptional growth but we grew more than the market average for coffee categories,” Pogliani says.

According to iIlycaffè’s 2020 Annual Report, it achieved a revenue of €446.5 million (about US$546.1 million) in 2020, a decrease of only 14 per cent compared to the prior year.

Illycaffè grew its online sales by 49 per cent in France, 39 per cent in Italy, 70 per cent in the United States, 69 per cent in Austria, 259 per cent in the United Kingdom, and 300 per cent in Brazil. Fifty per cent of online sales came from first-time customers. It was a growth illycaffè was ready to capture thanks to its digital transformation program that started in 2018. Pogliani says digital has become more than just a transaction channel but a platform for customer interaction, and an enabler across all departments.

“COVID brought us so many bad things, but it also brought us the democratisation of digital operations that are not only utilised by millennials but by the whole population. It’s one of the positive things to come out of the

situation because it allows us to communicate efficiently, be more transparent, tell stories, and remain accountable,” he says.

Pogliani predicts a rebalancing of the home and out-of-home channels to a 50-50 split, and a permanent redistribution of populated coffee bars to suburban areas once Italy’s lockdown has ended and the vaccination rollout is complete by end of 2021, early 2022.

Through the pandemic, illycaffè supported its customers with extended payment options and training in preparation for business to return. It even donated coffee to medical workers in its region, and funded an Intensive Care Unit for COVID-19 patients at its local Cattinara Hospital.

“We haven’t stopped investing in the company, our people, and our community. We believe that if you start reducing your investments, laying off people just because of the immediate situation, then when the economy bounces back you won’t have the structure, the system, or the people to support your recovery,” Pogliani says.

“Companies per se do not have values. People have values. Values are not written on the wall or on a PowerPoint presentation, they need to be embedded in the company DNA and embraced by its people. It would be a problem for me to work in a company that does not behave for the good of its people and planet, but I believe everyone working in illycaffè shares this same vision.”

Despite the hardship of 2020, Pogliani says it was a “special and significant year” with global private equity firm Rhone Capital becoming illycaffè’s first external investor, taking a 20 per cent stake to support its expansion to foreign markets, particularly the US. With the same goal and mission to grow the company’s legacy for quality coffee with upheld ethical and social standards, Pogliani is excited to begin illycaffè’s new journey in the post-pandemic era.

“I am happy my personal and professional dreams for the company’s sustainable future are coming true,” he says. “We are ready for whatever comes next, and we will move forward with the same goals, values, and mission that has been anchored deep into our roots from the very beginning.” G C R

FEATURE Gender Equity

BUILDING

BALANCE

GCR DISCOVERS HOW THE GENDER EQUITY INDEX TO SET TO INCREASE AWARENESS AND ACTION AMONG INDUSTRY ACTORS ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF GENDER EQUITY AS A KEY DRIVER FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT.

A

profound ignorance of gender in coffee production still exists, according to Kimberly Easson, Founder and CEO of independent non-profit organisation The Partnership for Gender Equity (PGE).

With no common understanding of gender equity, considered a complicated, multi-dimensional, multi-faceted issue impacted by region, culture, religion, poverty, and personal bias, Easson says the time has come for gender equity globally in the coffee sector.

“In reality, there is no gender equity anywhere on the globe, but there is an opportunity for vast change in every origin. In some countries of the world, women are seen only as workers and their contributions aren’t recognised at all, or in extreme circumstances, gender-based violence is just a way of life. And it’s not only about women who have generally been more oppressed of the genders, men also suffer the impact of gender inequality,” Easson says.

Commonly, Easson says coffee businesses are so focused on the daily operations, that when it comes to the realm of sustainability programming, gender has not really been presented in a way that captures the understanding of the industry, with the ability to react and do something meaningful. However, the industry is in a process of defining its scope of responsibility and the touch points where it can have impact.

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Outside supporting organisations such as the International Women Coffee Alliance, PGE’s Greg Meenahan says the default strategy roasters use to support women at origin is to purchase women’s grown coffee or admit gender reluctantly under the ‘house of sustainability’. Some companies support onthe-ground projects and try to ensure that the leadership of organisations with whom they do business embraces women, but as Easson and Meenahan have found, companies don’t just want to just support a gender program, they want to integrate gender into all facets of their sustainability investments.

What’s needed, he says, is a gender due diligence tool to evaluate sustainability portfolios and make sure investments are being made gender equitably.

For the past five years, PGE, which started under the umbrella of the Coffee Quality Institute, has been looking for a scalable strategy that would enlist extension and other advisory service providers to adopt gender “best fit” practices in the design and implementation of their programs. The outcome, made possible

with the support of coffee and cocoa partners who donated US$122,000 in February 2021, is the Gender Equity Index (GEI).

With the coffee industry spending more than US$500 million on sustainability efforts each year, according to PGE, the GEI seeks to leverage this investment in support of the women who provide between 40 to 80 per cent of pre- and post-harvest labour, including activities that are critical to product quality and yield, as well as the profitability of the family farm.

The GEI will become a tool to provide a shared language about gender equitable capacity building at origin so that producers, roasters, and green suppliers can identified gaps, clarify goals, and prioritise action.

The first step, Meenahan says, is going to origin, surveying the women, and asking what their needs are and what it is that they want.

“You can’t just go to a farm, find the man, and ask him what the wife needs or what the wife does,” Meenahan says. “You also have to understand what her limitations are and the

impediment on her time. If you’re going to pull women out of their household tasks and busy schedules, you have to make sure the training is going to add value.”

And that’s the aim, Meenahan says, to design a training program for women farmers that is accessible, beneficial, and productive, in which overcomes the gender barriers related to technology and skill transfer at origin regarding good agricultural practices, renovation and rehabilitation, post-harvest processing, financial literacy training, quality assurance, Q-grading, and other efforts designed to increase the profitability and resilience of producers.

When industry players across the supply chain were presented with the concept of the GEI and the goal to make training gender equitable, Meenahan says it was the solution many roasters had been looking for.

“People want to do something and are asking, ‘what can we do?’ That’s where the GEI comes in.

It’s easy to understand and get involved with, and that’s why we think it’ll be successful,” he says.

For so long, Easson adds the topic of gender equity has been so complex, that the industry hasn’t known how to talk about it, let alone address the issue.

“Twenty years ago, there was no language to talk about specialty coffee quality or how to define a flavour profile, and it’s similar when talking about gender equity. You can find significant research and reports on gender in agriculture going back a decade or more, but all those things have failed to gain significant traction since they’re not tailored to the industry. And because there isn’t a shared language, there’s not an understanding when we talk about empowerment, equality, or inequality,” she says.

“Roasters have a significant degree of leverage to engage their supplier in supply chain conversations related to gender equity. If we can complement this conversation using a shared language and with tools that are really well positioned and targeted to fill the gap that has existed for so long, then it’s a great connection that can really move the needle.”

FEATURE Gender Equity

COLLABORATIVE ACTION WITH IMPACT To help devise the GEI, a gender expert panel made up of leading gender researchers and practitioners ensures a current understanding of good practice and research on gender from diverse perspectives. An expert advisory group maintain appropriate GEI framework and provides feedback for continuous improvement. One such member and financial contributor is independent sustainability standard 4C, who sees the GEI as a tool to complement its own verifiable criteria on gender equality in coffee production, the 4C Gender Equality Add-on.

“Advisory and extension services need tools that are aligned to be able to reach women more effectively. We believe this initiative will allow the coffee industry to have a common language, goals, and objective to address gender inequalities,” says 4C Senior Sustainability Consultant Katia Masias-Bröcker.

“4C is passionate about improving smallholder livelihoods and promoting gender equality, which is an important ingredient of a long-term prosperity recipe for the coffee business.”

Masias-Bröcker says the information GEI presents on women in coffee supply chains only confirmed 4C’s own findings, but what was surprising, is the low level of awareness and action on this topic among advisory and service providers.

“One of the main reasons [gender inequity remains in the supply chain] is the lack of general awareness of women’s rights,” Masias-Bröcker says. “This leads to gender stereotypes and discrimination in health, education, at home, and in the workplace. Social and cultural norms can also be key barriers and perpetuate inequalities. Gender norms assign certain roles and responsibilities to women which in many cases lead to power imbalances and restrict women from enjoying greater rights and opportunities.”

In coffee production, Masias-Bröcker says women are involved in planting, picking, processing, and sorting berries while men typically control activities like transport and selling. Despite this, women tend to have little say in farm decision-making processes and lack access to essential resources, such as land, finance, and education. This has implications not only for the income, health, food security, and education of coffee-growing families, but for coffee yield and quality.

Masias-Bröcker’s hope is for an industry with no constraints for either women or men to reach their full potential and access the economic, social, and ecological benefits from coffee production.

“We hope for the coffee industry to provide women and men with the same opportunities, rights, and obligations. 4C strongly believes that gender equality and women empowerment is a key driver for sustainable development and economic growth,” she says.

Pamela Schreier, Global Sustainability Senior Manager at Ecom Agrotrade, is also on the GEI industry advisory committee. She says it’s been interesting to learn about the positions of other members, largely roasters, and discover that Ecom isn’t the only one “stuck in the gap” between wanting to identify weaknesses in its practices and improving gender equity at origin.

“Ecom has done a lot of different projects at origin but we’re very decentralised. Every team has their own structure and priorities. It’s hard to measure our performance of one specific initiative, but the GEI is something we could apply to everyone. It would give us a common language to use throughout the organisation, and become a tool to compare our projects, see where we’re at, and identify what’s working and what’s not,” Schreier says.

Once the GEI is live, Ecom will implement it across about 12 cocoa origins and 10 coffee origins, and work with PGE to set up a roadmap and action plan.

“What we hope is that the Index can become part of our internal program that’s applied to our field teams as a day-to-day practice. Once we are aware of what the real issues are and their root causes, then hopefully we can make a change,” Schreier says.

For the largely origin-based company, Schreier says most of its field staff are male, as are many of its agronomists. While this is not a conscious decision, she hopes the company’s involvement in the GEI will also challenge its own understanding of gender equity.

“Some field staff may be very aware of the issue, and some would simply have no idea. The GEI will hopefully give them a platform to open their minds,” Schreier says. “We also need to arm our field teams with the skills to talk to women and understand their differences. We have

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“4C IS PASSIONATE ABOUT IMPROVING SMALLHOLDER LIVELIHOODS AND PROMOTING GENDER EQUALITY, WHICH IS AN IMPORTANT INGREDIENT OF A LONG-TERM PROSPERITY RECIPE FOR THE COFFEE BUSINESS.” Katia Masias-Bröcker

4C Senior Sustainability Consultant

trouble getting their opinion expressed because their voices are not as strong, but so often the women are the ones negotiating price and giving us more ideas on how to improve our income diversification strategies.”

Schreier hopes to see women’s industry participation become normalised, moving away from the forced nature of ensuring there’s a female coop board member, and instead allowing more natural positions of power because the woman is simply the best person for the job.

“Hiring a certain quota of female farmers doesn’t necessarily guarantee participation from her. That’s why we need more active participation of women across our farming practices and community development programs,” she says.

Caravela Coffee is a trader with 90 per cent of its employees based at origin, working directly with more than 4000 coffee growers in Latin America. As such, CEO Alejandro Cadena says work that focuses on empowering coffee growers, increasing resilience and generating further value at origin is extremely important.

“Historically, both in coffee producing

countries and consuming countries, women have had many disadvantages. The root of this inequity lies in the colonial history of coffee, which spans more than four centuries.

One of the findings that the work that the GEI has done over the past six months is that gender strategies are relatively new to the industry, often fewer than 10 years old, and that when they exist, they have been mostly driven by consumer demand,” Cadena says.

“Perhaps the biggest gender barriers lie in land rights and financial access of women. Women are a crucial part of the coffee industry. They are still marginalised by restricting their right to own land or have a bank account. Without land rights or bank accounts their access to credit is hindered, thus making it harder for women to progress, to invest in their farms and increase their yields and profitability.”

To help start a permanent industry shift, Caravela has provided economic support to develop the first steps of the GEI, with

Cadena involved as a member of the Industry Development Team.

Rather than creating a siloed gender equity project, what Cadena values is the opportunity to weave the GEI within Caravela’s existing company strategies. This includes its own Grower Education Program and Extension and Advisory Services (EAS) teams of agronomists, which provides training to coffee growers in the seven countries in Latin America where it has sourcing operations. It is here that Caravela plans to be one of the beta testers for the GEI. “More than using it in our buying process, we aim to use the Index to constantly improve our – that of our employees and coffee growers – understanding of gender equity and transform the provision of EAS to achieve a gender-equitable coffee industry from the ground up,” Cadena says.

“Ensuring that training and capacity building efforts reach women is vital to achieving higher quality coffee, which will in turn will provide coffee growing families with a higher income and thus a better quality of life.”

Cadena is aware this movement is a journey and not a destination. It will take time to achieve gender equity in coffee, not to mention the world, but he’s optimistic that through initiatives like the GEI and the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, the coffee industry will make significant progress in the next decade.

“I sincerely hope that we move from just selling or marketing women’s coffee, to properly addressing the many critical issues that on a daily basis affect women to make sustainable change,” he says. “We hope the index will be a first step into making gender equity a fundamental priority for all members of the industry and one that will help transform the coffee world into a more equitable and sustainable [place].” G C R For more information, visit www.genderincoffee.org

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ONWARDS and

UPWARDS

THE INTERNATIONAL COFFEE ORGANIZATION ON THE MARKET’S GRADUAL RECOVERY AFTER YEARS OF LOW PRICES.

C

offee prices have received a much-needed jolt since October 2020, after numerous fits and starts in the previous year.

In the first half of coffee year 2020/21, the ICO composite indicator (Figure 1) averaged 114.27 US cents per pound. In April 2021, the monthly average of the indicator surged to 122.03 US cents per pound, its highest level in more than three and a half years.

This trend continued into May 2021, with the daily indicator breaching 140 US cents per pound for the first time in more than four years.

Prices have rallied on signals of tightening supplies in the near future, as well as expectations of a post-COVID-19 recovery in key consuming markets in 2021. These trends will combine for a widely anticipated global deficit in coffee year 2021/22.

Shipping container shortages caused by the pandemic, resulting in soaring freight rates, have also had an impact on international prices. While coffee prices have risen across the board, the increase has been more pronounced in certain groups (Figure 2).

BRAZILIAN NATURALS RACE AHEAD ON EXPECTED SHORTAGES The strongest growth is visible in the price of Brazilian Naturals, which climbed 52.8 per cent between 1 October 2020 and

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In May 2021, the daily indicator breached 140 US cents per pound for the first time in over four years.

31 May 2021 to reach its highest level in more than four years. The bullish sentiment was triggered by a spate of reports on the size of the Brazilian Arabica crop in 2021/22.

The ICO’s estimate of 33 million 60-kilogram bags is under twothirds of the previous year’s level. Not only is 2021/22 an off-year in Brazil’s biennial Arabica crop cycle, but the prolonged drought in Brazil – now reported to be the worst dry spell in the country in nearly a century – will drastically reduce the size of the harvest. Prices could be pushed higher if buyers’ fears about widespread defaults from Brazilian farmers, as reported by Reuters, come to pass.

Prices of Colombian Milds have also increased substantially in coffee year 2020/21, rising 38 per cent by the end of May 2021. Production in Colombia is expected to rise by 2.8 per cent to 14.5 million bags in the current season. Between October 2020 and April 2021, exports grew by 8.6 per cent in comparison to the same period in the previous year. Shipments for the month of May were however stalled due to anti-government protests, lending some support to international prices.

Driven by the high international prices and a relatively weak Colombian peso, prices paid to growers in Colombia also reached a historic peak of almost 1.21 million pesos per load of 125-kilogram dry parchment (equivalent to 149.97 US cents per pound of green beans) in April 2021.

Prices of Other Milds increased by 29.9 per cent over the first eight months of the current season. In Honduras, the largest producer

While coffee prices have risen across the board, the increase has been more pronounced in certain groups.

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and exporter of Other Mild Arabicas, production had fallen by 17.1 per cent to 5.9 million bags in the 2019/20 harvest. Falling prices and climate change, as well as the impact of a prolonged drought and ongoing outbreaks of coffee leaf rust, had led many producers to abandon their farms and migrate northwards in the past few years. While production may recover slightly, the risk of coffee leaf rust, which was exacerbated following hurricanes Eta and Iota, could affect the size of the crop in the current and forthcoming season.

Robusta prices increased by the smallest proportion of 22 per cent at the end of May 2021.

Total exports of coffee from Vietnam, the largest producer and exporter of Robusta coffee, had fallen by 14.3 per cent to 14.8 million bags in the first seven months of coffee year 2020/21. Robusta production for the year is estimated at 27.6 million bags in Vietnam, down 4.9 per cent. The decreased production has led to tight supplies of Robusta, and there are also reports of farmers holding on to their produce in anticipation of higher prices. Shipments of Robusta beans from the next three biggest exporters – Brazil, Indonesia, and Uganda – have however risen substantially in October 2020 to May 2021, by 26.4 per cent, 29.3 per cent, and 27.5 per cent, respectively. These increases have nevertheless been insufficient to counter the fall in exports from Vietnam. As a result, global exports of Robusta beans in the period are lower by 3.5 per cent compared to the previous year.

DEMAND MAY REBOUND TO NEAR PRE-PANDEMIC LEVELS, BUT RECOVERY REMAINS FRAGILE The COVID-19 pandemic and resultant control measures severely constrained the growth of consumption of coffee in the coffee year 2019/20. The year closed with a fall in demand of 2.4 per cent, reflecting in large part the impact of the measures imposed to contain the virus, as well as the fallout from the global economic downturn. While the start of the pandemic was marked by an increase in demand – a result of widespread stockpiling when lockdowns were announced – there was a normalisation and reduced panic-buying by the close of the year.

The biggest drops in consumption in coffee year 2019/20, in absolute terms, were recorded in Europe and North America (Figure 3). The European Union, which is by far the largest consumer

The biggest drops in consumption in coffee year 2019/20, in absolute terms, were recorded in Europe and North America.

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globally, saw its consumption of coffee fall by 4.8 per cent to 39.8 million bags in 2019/20. As lockdowns in the region relax, consumption is expected to gradually recover by 1.8 per cent to an estimated 40.5 million bags in 2020/21. This is, however, still lower than its pre-pandemic consumption of 41.8 million bags in 2018/19.

In the United States, the largest singlecountry consumer of coffee, consumption fell by 4 per cent to 26.7 million bags in 2019/20 as a result of the pandemic. On the back of a strong economic recovery projected by the International Monetary Fund, the ICO estimates a 3.9 per cent increase in demand to 27.7 million bags in the year ending September 2021.

Supporting the projection are signs of improved consumer sentiment in the country, with a February 2021 survey by McKinsey suggesting that more than half of the consumers in the country expect to spend extra by splurging, with some starting immediately and some waiting for the pandemic to subside. Data from the National Coffee Association USA, however, suggests some key changes in consumer habits, with 85 per cent of coffee drinkers having at least one cup at home, setting a record for

TOTAL EXPORTS OF COFFEE FROM VIETNAM, HAD FALLEN BY 14.3 PER CENT TO 14.8 MILLION BAGS IN THE FIRST SEVEN MONTHS OF COFFEE YEAR 2020/21. THE DECREASED PRODUCTION HAS LED TO TIGHT SUPPLIES OF ROBUSTA, AND THERE ARE ALSO REPORTS OF FARMERS HOLDING ON TO THEIR PRODUCE IN ANTICIPATION OF HIGHER PRICES. at-home consumption.

On the whole, demand in coffee year 2020/21 is expected to rise by 2.3 per cent to 117.1 million bags in coffee-consuming countries, and by 1 per cent to 50.5 million bags in coffee-producing countries. Over the year, the recovery is expected to stem from a release of pent-up demand, as lockdowns ease and vaccine coverage improves. It should, however, be noted that many emerging markets are struggling with containing the pandemic, and uncertainty about the new variants makes consumption difficult to predict.

The scale and pace of recovery, especially in countries where coffee is considered a luxury good, is uncertain. Some pandemic-driven changes in consumer patterns, such as a preference for at-home consumption, may become a mainstay in the sector.

Nevertheless, the outlook based on currently available information is one of demand growth in the ongoing season. G C R For more information, visit www.ico.org

ABOUT US

This article was authored by Nikita Sisaudia.

Nikita Sisaudia is a Statistician with the International Coffee Organization (ICO).

Prior to joining the ICO, Nikita was an Urban Data Researcher at The Economist Intelligence Unit. She has previously worked with the Social and Human Sciences Sector at UNESCO, as well as with the Faculty of Management Studies at the University of Delhi. Nikita received her Masters degree from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Warwick.

The ICO is the main intergovernmental organisation for coffee, bringing together exporting and importing governments to tackle the challenges facing the world coffee sector through international cooperation. Its Member Governments represent 98 per cent of world coffee production and 67 per cent of world consumption.

FEATURE World Coffee Research

SEEDS OF CHANGE WORLD COFFEE RESEARCH HAS BROUGHT ATTENTION TO COFFEE’S HIDDEN CRISIS IN THE SEED SECTOR AND IS NOW EXAMINING HOW TO BOLSTER ITS PROFESSIONALISM AND GENETIC PURITY.

‘S

WCR is undergoing work to help professionalise the coffee seed and nursery sectors.

eed to cup’ is a common expression in the coffee industry, usually covering from when the tree is planted or the cherry is picked right up until the coffee is brewed and drunk. But coffee doesn’t begin with the tree, it starts with the seed.

According to World Coffee Research (WCR), the seed sector is an often forgotten, ignored, or misunderstood part of the coffee industry, but one that plays a crucial role.

“Putting new plants in the ground is one of the biggest investments a coffee grower can make. If they make a mistake at that moment, they’ll be feeling the effects for the next 30 years,” says Emilia Umaña Acosta, Nursery Development Program Manager at WCR. “In many cases, because there’s also difficulty accessing credit in many coffee producing countries, growers have to cut corners to afford to put new plants in the ground.”

“What used to happen was people not renovating their plantations and putting it off longer than they should. Due to climate change affecting their farms over the last few years, growers can’t play that card anymore. So, the circumstances are forcing them to renovate, but without credit, they look for the cheapest option instead of the variety that best suits their needs.”

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When it comes to planting new coffee trees, Umaña says most producers either collect seeds from their own fields or those of their neighbour’s, buy seedlings from professional nurseries, or collect free seedlings handed out by government initiatives.

However, in each situation, WCR has discovered issues with the genetic purity and traceability of seeds and seedlings.

“If they’re taking seeds from their own plantations, they’ll go into the field, select a plant that looks vigorous and beautiful, take a seed from that plant, and think those genetics will transfer to seedlings in the nursery, but that doesn’t necessarily happen,” Umaña says.

“Coffee cross pollinates, even if it’s a small percentage compared to other crops.

So when a grower takes seeds from their own farm, there’s uncertainty of the genetics of that plant, which could be contaminated with other varieties.”

Even when it comes to professional nurseries, which often operate on a small or local scale, WCR found that plants are rarely better than what a farmer could grow themselves.

Kraig Kraft, Asia and Africa Director at WCR, says too often, enough thought is not put into the long-term viability of seeds and plants that are given to farmers.

“Governments invest a lot of money into giving plants to farmers, yet, if you don’t pay enough attention to what they’re giving them, there will be knock on effects further down the road,” Kraft says.

“For example, if a plant is too old or large for the container it was planted in, the roots will bend and curve back up, limiting the plant’s ability to fully express later on in life. The farmer won’t realise this until six months later when the plant isn’t growing

Best practices are not always known or followed in the largely unregulated nursery market.

like the others.”

He adds this becomes even more insidious when plants are assumed to have resistances to diseases like coffee leaf rust.

“Given the recent epidemic in Central America, a real emphasis has been put on planting resistant varieties. If farmers are consciously making an effort to plant a rust resistant variety as part of their risk mitigation strategy, they want assurances that what they’re purchasing is what they think it is,” Kraft says.

“Our aim is to find ways we can improve parts of the process so that farmers get better access to higher quality plants. That could mean helping nurseries using better practices to maintain genetic purity or grow plants at their physical optimum, looking at where they’re sourcing seeds, or providing access to better technology and resources.”

In East Africa, WCR has begun countrywide assessments of Arabica seed and nursey sectors, particularly in Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia. While Uganda and Kenya’s coffee industries have smaller footprints, Kraft says an assessment of a country with a crop as large as Ethiopia’s is a huge undertaking. But this research will provide WCR and its national partners with a broad understanding of nursery operations within each country, their current practices, and where interventions and improvements need to be made.

“For all the innovation that comes through breeding, for example, access is often the bottleneck to this technology. It does farmers no good if there is a new rust or climate resistant variety, but they have no access to this,” Kraft says.

“I see our work in nursery development as a natural evolution of our work at WCR when it comes to breeding hybrids and the launch of the Arabica Variety Catalogue. That work has provided producers with more information about the varieties that exist and choices of what they can plant in the ground, now we need to ensure those options are available to them.”

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WCR rolled out its Nursery Development Program in 2018 to help build the capacity of small entrepreneurial and cooperative nurseries to produce adequate volumes of genetically pure and healthy seedlings to small farms and farmers.

WCR began by developing two new manuals of best practices for coffee seed producers and nursery managers, which were released in both English and Spanish 2019. In 2021, they are also being translated into French and Swahili.

These manuals can be used to train nursery staff onsite to produce genetically pure and healthy seedlings, good business practices, as well as training other staff for a lasting impact.

In 2019, WCR also joined the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-funded and Technoserve-led Maximizing Opportunities in Coffee and Cacao in the Americas (MOCCA) initiative. This enabled WCR to expand its seed sector work in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Peru.

Salvador Urrutia Loucel, WCR Latin Through the MOCCA initiative, WCR has expanded its seed sector work throughout Latin America.

American Director, tells Global Coffee Report the work with MOCCA is allowing WCR to improve the seed and nursery sector on two fronts.

“One is the traceability of the material they use. You need to know if the person who produced these plants used good practices during the nine months the plant is still in nursery, from the soil and nutrition to irrigation and even the grafting they use,” Urrutia says.

“The other is to establish policies in each country that can involve the private and public sectors. Nurseries and seed lots are hugely important when the countries want to establish renovation programs or options for farmers, especially smallholders. We need to help them Improper plant breeding can result in a loss in genetic purity and qualities. put their own procedures in place to make sure they are using the planting material they need.”

Urrutia says these five focus countries share a lack of strong regulation of seed systems and have challenges reaching farmers with technical assistance to support the distribution and use of genetically pure seeds. The training and professionalising of seed suppliers is critical for expanding access to pure, high-quality, and healthy seeds and plants.

“In maize, for example, there are a lot of rules around producing certified seeds, so why don’t we have the same in coffee?” Urrutia asks.

“This has meant first assessing what the good practices are in the production of these plants, comparing that to what actually happens in the nursery, and finding what they need to improve.”

Beyond professionalism, a hurdle for seed producers is the cost of verifying the genetic purity of their seeds, pushing the service out

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of reach for many suppliers and nurseries.

Urrutia says this creates situations where nurseries don’t know what varieties they’re selling and farmers don’t know what they’re buying.

“The sustainability of the industry is facing more challenges than it has in the past. The average temperature is about two degrees higher in certain regions, and farms at some altitudes are dealing with pests and problems they didn’t experience one or five years ago,” Urrutia says.

“It’s important for farmers to know when they’re buying plants, they’re the varieties they think they are, have been grown using good practices, and have real genetic resistances to the challenges of the place where they produce.”

To that end, WCR has collaborated with scientists at the USDA Agricultural Research Service to adapt modern DNA testing approaches for coffee varieties, using single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) to enable rapid, accurate, and less expensive genetic verification. Umaña says SNP is a much cheaper, easier, and more accessible than previous forms of genetic testing.

“With SNP markers, a technology used in

many other crops, we can take leaf samples from the field, and run them through DNA analysis which will tell us if the sample matches the variety it should be,” she says.

If it doesn’t, it gives us an idea of the other varieties it’s contaminated with. This is super useful for growers who are looking for a specific variety, with a higher cup quality or disease resistance, and make adjustments before it’s too late.”

Through MOCCA, WCR identified 62 seed lots in the five focus countries in 2020 and began working with them to check the genetic purity of their seeds. Starting at the seed lots allows the research organisation to follow seeds down the supply chain, next training nurseries in how to maintain the traceability and quality of the material. Once the seeds are delivered to farmers, WCR and TechnoServe can educate them on the importance of high-quality and genetically verified coffee trees.

“We’re hoping to expand the SNP technology into many different countries,

including in East Africa in the upcoming months.

We will also start working with governments and national coffee institutions to support decisions in the process of creating policies,” Umaña says.

“We’re not coming into the country and telling them what to do, instead we’re trying to act as a catalyst – supporting initiatives, keeping this conversation going, and creating awareness about why these issues in the seed sector need to be addressed.”

Urrutia says WCR’s Nursery Development Program will not reshape the seed sector overnight, but with industry involvement increasing, it could contribute to the long-term viability and quality of coffee production.

“In the past, seed producers, coffee farmers, and the wider industry may be focused on volume over quality. Now, I see us entering a new age of coffee, with more attention on quality, resilience to climate change, and tolerances to diseases like leaf rust,” Urrutia says.

“But the planets are aligning and most people recognise we need to act quickly and create new ways of doing things.” G C R

Global Coffee Report is the leading business magazine covering the international coffee industry. In‑depth features explore on‑the‑ground developments at origin, coffee pricing issues, technology updates, research breakthroughs and much more.

Changes to the coffee seed sector could ripple improvements through the supply chain.

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FEATURE Pricing Models

Making the price right WITH COFFEE PRICES STILL FALLING BELOW PRODUCTION COSTS IN MANY COUNTRIES, GCR LOOKS AT HOW NEW PRICING MODELS CAN INCREASE EMPHASIS ON THE FARMER’S LIVING INCOME AND SHARE OF THE PROFITS.

D

espite a growing global coffee market valued at US$465.9 billion in 2020 – according to Azoth Analytics – year after year, prices paid to coffee farmers continue to stagnate, if not decline.

“Coffee producers are the backbone of the industry we all work in, but we’ve seen for decades that producers aren’t being paid enough,” says Grayson Caldwell, Senior Sustainability Manager for Bellwether Coffee.

“Coffee is a multi-billion-dollar industry and while there have been calls for higher prices, there’s been no substantial change to how producers are being paid. This has caused prices paid to producers to decline 67 per cent in real terms.”

Bellwether Coffee produces low-emission commercial coffee roasters that allow its customers to roast instore and onsite. The company has also established an online green marketplace, where its customers can purchase green coffee from a list that Bellwether curates.

When Caldwell joined the team in late-2019, despite Bellwether Coffee’s efforts to use

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best practices to purchase coffee sustainably, she found a flaw with the way the industry approaches ethical coffee buying.

“As a company, we purchased coffee with buying principles that emulated industry standards, working with value-aligned coffee importers, travelling to origins, and building relationships with producers,” Caldwell says.

“We purchased coffee with a gut level reasoning that we were paying fair prices. But there wasn’t any actual data to back that up. Bellwether

Grayson Caldwell is the Senior Sustainability Manager for Bellwether Coffee.

Coffee is an advocate for farmer equity and wants to pay fair prices to coffee producers, so it was important to back that up.”

To ensure the validity of its buying practices, Bellwether Coffee began working with coffee trader Sustainable Harvest and development organisation Heifer International to develop a new pricing model, Verified Living Income, to meet coffee farmers’ livelihood needs.

A living income is the amount of money a family needs to ensure a decent standard of living in a particular area. This includes a nutritious diet, adequate housing, basic needs like education and healthcare, and savings for unexpected costs and events.

To develop the Verified Living Income methodology, a pilot study was conducted with 38 smallholders from the Association of Ecological Producers of Planadas (ASOPEP) cooperative in Colombia.

“The model takes the cost of production for a particular cooperative or group of producers, looking at how much they spend on labour, transportation, processing, and all their other expenses, and overlays a living income benchmark for that particular area. It then divides that by the size of farm, yield, or productivity level to determine the necessary pricing,” Caldwell says.

“Completing a pilot study was critical to developing this model so we could understand

the crucial metrics of cost of production. We spent over a year working with ASOPEP to collect cost of production data, covering the two harvests that year, which the cooperative had never actually done in the past.”

The pilot study showed that, with an average cost of production of US$1.33 per pound of green coffee, buyers would need to pay ASOPEP US$1.89 per pound at the farmgate and US$2.24 per pound Free on Board to achieve a living income for farmers.

The pilot study showed that, although Bellwether thought it had been paying a fair price to ASOPEP, a 20 per cent increase was required. The day Bellwether finished analysing the data, Caldwell says the company signed its 2021 contract with ASOPEP, meeting the new benchmark.

“The cooperative manager Camilo said it was the first time a buyer had asked him if they could pay them more,” she says. “Living income is not a new concept, but this is the first contract in the coffee industry signed based on living income pricing.”

With the living income differing from producer to producer, region to region, and country to country, Caldwell says the pilot study has allowed them to develop a tool to measure it with every producer Bellwether Coffee works with. The company aims to pay a verified living income across all of its supply chains in Latin America by 2023. She adds the wider coffee industry can also take advantage of the now clear methodology.

“If we don’t pay coffee producers fair wages, we’re going to see more farmers leaving the coffee industry all together,” Caldwell says.

“It’s hard work and time consuming, but the pilot shows it is possible to determine and pay a living income.”

In the United Kingdom, the International Trade Centre (ITC) has launched a different business model where the profits of coffee farmers are also put first.

Farm to Home is a consumer-focused eCommerce website where profits from the sale of coffee go directly back to the farmers.

Sensible Development was commissioned to develop the platform. Managing Director Alan Newman tells Global Coffee Report the key to Farm to Coffee is that farmers maintain possession of the coffee until the final point of sale.

“Under normal circumstances, a trader or roaster would buy coffee from the farmer at a set price, then take care of the shipping, roasting, and taking it to market. They take on the risk, but benefit from all of the profits,” Newman says.

“In this model, we’re not buying the coffee from the farmer. They receive the profit of the sale, rather than being paid according to how we value the green coffee. It means the farmers are sharing some of the risk but are getting all of the rewards.”

The ITC has selected a handful of producers and cooperatives in Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, and Burundi for the initial phase of Farm to Home. The agency pre-finances coffee after it has left the farm, then organises shipping, storage, and contract roasting of the coffee.

Sensible Development, which primarily works in online private auctions, developed the platform, packaging design, marketing, and messaging around the coffee. It also handles the end transaction through the platform, then passes that money back to the producer.

“The coffee is sold on the basis of the farmer receiving the profits of all the value addition introduced throughout the supply chain,” Farm to Home provides producers with a Newman says. greater share of the profits from coffee sales.

“In theory, this will see their income rise

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and they’ll be able to reinvest in their coffee farming and the quality of life of their families and employees.”

Newman says by receiving the retail price for their coffee, farmers stand to earn 10 times more profit for their coffee than they would at the farm gate.

“The challenge will be to educate more people on the reality of the supply chain,” he says.

“It appeals to a certain type of buyer that is invested in the idea of farmers being rewarded.

In the traditional sense, the farmer has already sold their coffee. The advantage to the consumer here is they know they’re paying the farmers directly, at a sustainable and ethical rate for that coffee.”

Farm to Home is still in its infancy, though Newman sees great potential in expanding its reach beyond the UK and in other channels, such as wholesale to cafés, physical retail in ethically minded supermarkets, and through other online operations like Amazon.

“There are a lot of people selling coffee online and it’s very competitive. But with COVID-19, people are drinking more coffee at home and ordering it online, so it’s a good channel to grow in,” Newman says.

“The trick will be achieving mass adoption, building a base of customers, by sharing the message that Farm to Home is a great way of buying coffee that actually helps farmers.”

As Farm to Home grows, Newman says it could provide farmers more opportunities to claim greater autonomy over their coffee and inspire other businesses to take up similar models.

“I can see a platform like Farm to Home catching on the coffee industry, being of particular In 2021, Bellwether Coffee signed the first green coffee sourcing contract in the coffee industry based on living income methodology.

Credit: ASOPEP

FEATURE Pricing Models

ASOPEP in Colombia was the focus of a pilot study to develop the Verified Living Income pricing model.

interest to a lot of producers who like the idea of potentially controlling the income or price for their coffee,” Newman says.

“If something works and becomes commercially viable, all of its competitors will begin to look at the way they do business.

Like B Corp and Fairtrade certifications, or other established markers of ethical business, if a company sees the benefit, they see a reason to get involved.”

There’s a myriad of factors affecting coffee producers, from climate changes and increased production costs to COVID-19 fallout and shocks like back-to-back hurricanes in Central America in 2020.

As such, Bellwether Coffee’s Caldwell says implementing farmer-centric and livingincome-based pricing models could stabilise the coffee industry for years to come.

“Farmer-centric pricing shifts the power dynamic within the coffee industry. It levels the playing field, so a cooperative or producer understands the value of the product they’re selling and can be better negotiators when signing contracts,” Caldwell says.

“Sustainable buying principles without data isn’t going far enough. As an industry, we need the proof to back up our buying decisions.” G C R For more information visit www.verifiedlivingincome.com or www.farmtohome.coffee

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FEATURE Coffea Stenophylla

THE REDISCOVERED COFFEE SPECIES COFFEA STENOPHYLLA, WITH A FLAVOUR QUALITY THAT MATCHES ARABICA, COULD PROVIDE AN IMPORTANT RESOURCE FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF CLIMATE-RESILIENT COFFEE CROP PLANTS.

D

espite there being 124 identified coffee species in the world, Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora (Robusta) are the only two are cultivated at large scale.

While other species are experimented with or grown in smaller levels, like Coffea liberica and Coffea eugenioides, this makes up less than 1 per cent of production. Dr Aaron Davis, Head of Coffee Research the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (RBG Kew) says whilst the above two species have potential, most species struggle to match the quality of Arabica or productivity and resilience of Robusta.

“There was a lot of interest in several coffee species up until the beginning of 1900s. But that declined when Robusta came in as the ‘new kid on the block’ and was widely disseminated to counter the coffee leaf rust crisis,” Davis says.

“It was coffee leaf rust resistant, fast growing, and had a yield that could be much higher than the dominant Arabica. Robusta was almost unknown at the beginning of the 1900s, now it’s a multibillion-dollar crop species. It’s had a rapid ascendence from nothing to global commodity in less than 120 years.”

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With climate change threatening coffee production, Davis and co-workers have suggested that other species or hybrids between species could provide a more sustainable alternative to the especially vulnerable Arabica.

By looking at the past, RBG Kew and partners at the University of Greenwich, French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), and Sierra Leone may have found a species that offers considerable potential.

Coffea stenophylla originates in West Africa, particularly the hills of Sierra Leone.

In Sierra Leone, the species had not been seen

Gardens, Trinidad, in 1898 described the flavour of C. stenophylla as “excellent, and equal to the finest Coffea arabica”. Scottish explorer and botanist, George Don, went one step further and commented that for some the flavour even surpassed Arabica. Such comments peaked Davis’ interest in the plant, as well as that of many other others in the coffee sector.

Obtaining a small sample from partners in Sierra Leone, RBG Kew and University of Greenwich carried out an assessment of C. stenophylla with an expert tasting panel at Union Hand-Roasted Coffee in London in mid-2020. The panel awarded the coffee a cupping score of 80.25 out of 100, based on Specialty Coffee Association protocols and identified Arabica-like qualities in the coffee.

To reach ‘specialty’ status, a coffee needs a score of 80 points or higher. Jeremy Torz from Union Coffee told RGB Kew that “Arabica is currently our only specialty coffee species, and so this score, particularly from such a small sample, was surprising and remarkable”. Davis adds the C. stenophylla sample only underwent rudimentary processing, making the specialty grade all the more impressive.

While C. stenophylla was not found on farms or in the wild for many decades, a few samples exist in coffee research collections, such as CIRAD’s Coffea Biological Resources Center on Reunion Island.

Not long after RBG Kew’s initial tasting, CIRAD carried out one of its own with a much more substantial sample of C. stenophylla in late-2020 and early 2021. This sample came from the Coffea Biological Resources Center but originated from forest in Ivory Coast.

A panel of judges and coffee experts from companies including Jacobs Douwe Egberts, Nespresso, and Belco evaluated the sample at CIRAD’s sensorial analysis laboratory in Montpellier, Credit: CIRAD

in the wild since 1954, until Davis, Professor Jeremy Haggar of the University of Greenwich and Daniel Sarmu, Development Specialist from Sierra Leone, rediscovered it in late 2018.

Davis tells Global Coffee Report that C. stenophylla used to be grown commercially but was abandoned long ago, probably due to its low productivity compared to Robusta.

“In that era, the focus on flavour wasn’t as strong as it is now. People just wanted affordable coffee – they still want that to a degree, of course – but for species like C. stenophylla, Robusta was probably the death knell,” he says.

“When we went back to Sierra Leone in 2018, we couldn’t find a single farm growing C. stenophylla and none of the farmers, government officials, or agronomists were familiar with it outside of historical records.”

One such record, a report from J H Hart, the superintendent of the Royal Botanic

Coffea Stenophylla coffee cherries have a small and black appearance that differentiates them to Arabica and Robusta.

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France, and at other locations. The 15-strong panel blind tested two Arabica samples (one high quality and one low grade), one high-quality Robusta sample, and the Ivory Coast C. stenophylla.

The evaluation revealed that C. stenophylla has a complex flavour profile, with judges noting its “natural sweetness, medium-high acidity, fruitiness, and good body”. Desirable tasting notes included peach, blackcurrant, mandarin, honey, light black tea, jasmine, spice, floral, chocolate, caramel, nuts, and elderflower syrup, as found in high-quality Arabica.

When asked if the C. stenophylla sample was an Arabica, 81 per cent of the judges said ‘yes’, compared to 98 per cent and 44 per cent for the two Arabica samples, and 7 per cent for the Robusta sample). Despite the high ‘Arabica-like’ score for C. stenophylla, 47 per cent of the judges identified the sample as ‘something new’, suggesting a market niche for the rediscovered coffee.

“These results provide the first credible sensory evaluation for C. stenophylla coffee, from which we are able to corroborate historical reports of a superior taste,” said Dr Delphine Mieulet, the scientist at CIRAD who led the tasting, in a statement on the research.

“The sensory analysis of C. stenophylla reveals a complex and unusual flavour profile that the judges unanimously found worthy of interest. For me, as a breeder, this new species is full of hope and allows us to imagine a bright future for quality coffee, despite climate change.”

The results of both tastings, as well as RBG Kew’s work on climate profiling, was published in a paper in Nature Plants in April 2021. Not only does the paper discuss the flavour and quality potential of C. stenophylla as a crop, it also reveals the results of the key climatic conditions the under which it grows.

“The ground rule for high quality coffee is that it’s Arabica grown at high elevation in good climatic conditions. This is a coffee that has an Arabica-like flavour, but originates from the other side of the African continent, some 5000 kilometres away from Arabica, and in a very different environment,” Davis says.

“Arabica is a cool tropical species whereas C. stenophylla is a hot tropical species. When you go to Sierra Leone, it’s very different to Ethiopia. It’s much hotter and you think, ‘are we really going to find a good quality coffee here?’”

Endemic to Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Ivory Coast, C. stenophylla grows wild in hot-tropical areas at low elevation, only 400 metres above sea level. The Nature Plants research paper states that C. stenophylla grows and crops under similar climatic conditions to Robusta, but with a

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higher mean annual temperature requirement of 24.9⁰C, which is 1.9⁰C higher than that of Robusta and a substantial 6.2⁰C to 6.8⁰C higher than Arabica.

“It is widely known that our beloved Arabica coffee is being impacted by climate change, and so the results of the study are extremely exciting,” says Dr Justin Moat, the RBG Kew scientist who led the climate analysis. “Our analysis shows that C. stenophylla coffee grows at substantially higher temperatures than Arabica, providing the sort of robust differences we need if we are to have any chance of a sustainable coffee sector under climate change.”

Davis says with these results, C. stenophylla has potential to help futureproof the coffee industry against climate change.

“In terms of tackling climate change, it’s all very well going for incremental changes and small improvements, but what we really need is a step change, a robust difference in how we grow coffee crops,” he says.

“Even if we achieve net zero emissions by 2050, climate change will still have a substantial impact, particularly if we’re unable to keeping global warming under Credit: RBG Kew

CIRAD conducted a tasting panel of the rediscovered species with a panel of 15 coffee experts in early 2021.

Credit: CIRAD

FEATURE Coffea Stenophylla

A flowering Coffea Stenophylla plant.

Desirable tasting notes of Coffea Stenophylla include peach, blackcurrant, and mandarin, among others.

Credit: CIRAD

1.5⁰C. We need new coffees that can, for example, survive many degrees of warmer temperatures, and much lower rainfall. We don’t know yet how C. stenophylla will pan out in terms of farming potential, but we know it can grow in places where Arabica can’t, like Sierra Leone.”

C. stenophylla coffee is also reported to be quite drought tolerant, although Davis says this attribute needs greater investigation.

“So far, the data shows that C. stenophylla appears to have a tolerance of a broad range of rainfall patterns. It grows in quite dry environments in parts of the Ivory Coast as well as wetter environments in Sierra Leone,” Davis says. “I’ve seen reports in old coffee books that say it will grow in ‘desert like’ conditions. I doubt that very much, but drought tolerance and agronomic suitability certainly requires further research.”

While C. stenophylla may seem to many like a panacea for coffee production, the plant is not necessarily ready for cultivation and more work is needed to verify its climate and disease resilience, and to address its lower productivity.

“Imagine if we were at the beginning of Arabica or Robusta cultivation; now think about the decades of dedicated research, and many thousands of research papers on those two species, since they were brought into widescale cultivation. We’re pretty much trying to restart a crop species from scratch and at this early stage, there are still a lot of unknowns, but the early indications are really positive,” Davis says.

“Since the release of the paper, we’ve received several hundred emails and other correspondence from coffee farmers and producer wanting to try C. stenophylla from across the tropical belt and even southern Europe. The majority are encountering issues with Arabica production, but want something of a higher quality than Robusta to replace it, so clearly there’s a demand for more coffee crop species.”

Dr Haggar of the University of Greenwich, and a co-author of the paper, suggests the coffee species could offer producers, particularly countries with lower production levels like Sierra Leone, a point of difference in the global market.

“On average, smallholder farmers in Sierra Leone earn less than £100 (about US$140) per year from coffee production, so the rediscovery of this native coffee species might finally offer an opportunity for some of the world’s poorest farmers to grow a crop that commands a decent price,” he says.

Daniel Sarmu, co-author of the paper, says with Sierra Leone tied to Stenohphylla’s history, it will serve as a fitting starting point to reintroduce the species.

“We hope that C. stenophylla coffee will become a flagship export crop for our beloved Sierra Leone, providing wealth creation for our country’s coffee farmers. It would be wonderful to see this coffee reinstated as part of our cultural heritage,” Sarmu says.

While C. stenophylla could be used as a crop in its own right, Davis and colleagues see great potential in using it to breed and develop new great tasting, climate resistant coffee.

“We can produce coffees that are disease resistant or drought tolerant, but if they don’t taste good, no one will buy them,” Davis says. “One of the issues so far with breeding rust resistant Arabica varieties has been that we do it using the Timor hybrid [of Arabica and Robusta], but those have struggled with marketing, because a lot of buyers don’t want the negative flavour notes that come from Robusta.

“You can backcross those cultivars with Arabica to bring the taste back, but in doing so, you risk losing the resistance those coffees were developed for in the first place. Imagine if you could bring C. stenophylla into that mix for the flavour rather than Arabica? C. stenophylla possesses the desired taste as well as the temperature resilience and resistances you’re looking for, so it’s exciting to think about how it could be used from a breeding perspective.”

For the next stage of their research, the institutes involved in the paper plan to plant C. stenophylla seedlings in Sierra Leone and with CIRAD at Reunion Island in France to start assessing its agronomic potential under a range of environmental conditions.

“Generally, there isn’t an immediate issue with production. There’s plenty of Arabica and Robusta on the market, probably too much, which is one of the drivers of low prices. However, there are already a lot of farmers experiencing the impacts of climate change, and in the longer term this will become a major issue for global supply,” Davis says.

“Even if we do something drastic to address greenhouse gas emissions, temperature rises won’t just stop immediately. We’ll still need to improve the variety of coffee crops we grow, with those that are much more climate resilient. We need to be thinking mid-century, and over the next few decades what the situation might be, and how to prepare for it.” G C R

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ORIGIN Nicaragua

Remarkable resilience THE PAST COUPLE YEARS HAVE BEEN CHALLENGING FOR THE NICARAGUAN COFFEE INDUSTRY AND ITS PLAYERS, BUT WITH THE TRANSFER OF KNOWLEDGE, RENEWED ENERGY AND QUALITY IN SIGHT, MANY SEE HOPE.

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n 14 May, Abner Samuel Zavala and his family celebrated as the Alliance for Coffee Excellence’s 17th annual Cup of Excellence (CoE) competition announced results, placing his honey-processed Maracaturra in second position at 90.75 points. Although he’s been managing four small family farms in the Nueva Segovia region of Nicaragua since his dad passed away three years ago, his family has participated in the annual competition and auction for more than a decade.

“I have been among the winners in the past three CoE events,” Zavala says. “Although it’s challenging, my family strives to be in the competition year after year. As a result, we have already achieved 13 CoE Nicaragua awards since 2005.”

While the Zavalas are no stranger to the competition – as well as placing among the winners – this is far from the norm for the average producer in Nicaragua, a country long challenged by political strife, civil war, widespread poverty, climate change, coffee disease, natural disasters, plummeting commodity prices, and a global pandemic. Those challenges still exist for farmers today, the Zavalas included.

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FINANCIAL STRUGGLES FOR FARMERS Coffee first arrived in Nicaragua in the late 1700s, and by 1870 it was the largest export crop. Today, Nicaragua is the 11th-largest coffee exporter in the world, according to the International Coffee Organization (ICO) , yet it is the second-poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, largely due to an ongoing sociopolitical crisis. This has had a ripple effect on the local coffee industry, exacerbated by low coffee prices at the farm level.

Most Nicaraguan farmers have little to no access to credit as many banks and other creditors, often representing foreign capital,

have pulled their lending programs from the country as tensions have mounted since the start of political protests in early 2018. The severe lack of funding and support has made it difficult for farmers to simply maintain their plantations, let alone invest in them to improve yield or quality.

Compounding the challenging financial environment are increasing production costs.

In 2019, for example, agrochemical costs increased 10 to 20 per cent due to government tax reform.

Alexis Vallejos has seen the gap between production costs and coffee sales expanding over his 30 years in the industry. He grew up helping on his father’s farm near Matagalpa, and now owns a coffee roasting company, Brilla Coffee, in Massachusetts with his wife.

“Thirty years ago, the cost to produce green coffee was US$60 to 70 per bag, but today it’s around US$140 to 150,” he explains.

“Yet, the cost to sell the coffee has truly not changed in 30 years, so it leaves very little to no profit for most coffee farmers.”

This fact is the main impetus behind his roasting business’s direct trade model. For the majority of the coffees Brilla Coffee sources, Vallejos tries to use one key trader who works directly with the producers in country to minimise intermediaries and get more money to the producers. “We have our mission of direct trade and community to provide them a sustainable supply chain,” he says. “I saw my dad struggle, so am very sensitive to that and don’t just buy the cheapest coffee.”

the farm for a few weeks, many people were unemployed, and there was uncertainty around whether our coffee would be commercialised and sold to our roaster clients,” Zavala recalls.

Coffee supplies stacked up at origin or elsewhere along the supply chain as travel and trade halted to reduce the spread of the virus. “There were a lot of delays exporting the coffee because most countries were trying to navigate the COVID-19 impact and borders were closed,” says Vallejos. “In the end, coffee was able to be exported, but it took longer than expected.”

Throughout the coffee value chain operations resumed and coffee shops opened back up.

Like the rest of the world, producers and other coffee actors got used to the new normal of COVID-19 protocol as the pandemic dragged on over the summer.

But then in November, Nicaragua’s coffee industry was dealt another blow: back-to-back hurricanes pummelled the country’s Atlantic Coast. On 3 and 16 November, Hurricanes Eta and Iota, respectively, struck land as category 4 storms just 25 kilometres apart.

“This [is all] unfolding in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic,” noted a report from humanitarian nonprofit Church World Service. “Families are living in makeshift shelters with little distancing and few hygiene protections. The risk of virus transmission is high among displaced families and humanitarian workers alike.”

The coffee-growing areas most affected by the storms were the departments of Jinotega, Matagalpa, Boaco, Estelí, Madriz, and Nueva Segovia, spanning 23,000 square kilometres, according to early reports from the ICO. Heavy rainfall, landslides, and flooding damaged more than 3400 hectares of coffee farms and related infrastructure. “Despite this, small-scale

COMPOUNDED BY 2020’S CHALLENGES Although world coffee prices reached a twoyear high in December 2020, they plummeted 30 per cent in February 2021 as major buyers halted operations and coffee shops were shuttered amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

While most of Nicaragua’s coffee had been picked before the pandemic truly hit Central America due to the harvest season ending

by April, a new low in prices dealt a blow to farmers who still had to offload cherries and green coffee. Some farmers had to temporarily close operations and implement greater health and safety measures before being able to resume work.

“At the beginning of the pandemic it was very difficult for us, because we had to close

Nicaragua produced nearly 2.9 million 60-kilogram bags of Arabica coffee in the 2019/20 harvest season.

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ORIGIN Nicaragua

An estimated 95 per cent of Nicaragua’s coffee farmers are micro and small-scale producers.

coffee farmers in the affected areas, thousands of whom have lost or had their homes damaged, have joined the country’s efforts to rescue their crops and clear roads of debris, demonstrating remarkable resilience,” ICO reported.

For both COVID-19 and the double hurricanes, numerous humanitarian organisations stepped in to help. The Inter-American Foundation, contributed US$45,232 to help address issues related to the pandemic, including providing aid packages with personal protective equipment and food to coffee farming families to support their immediate needs during quarantine and reduce the pressure to leave their communities in search of work. The funds were in addition to a substantial grant the nonprofit had issued major Nicaraguan cooperative CAFENICA back in 2015 to support farmer training and technical assistance.

The Seeds for Progress Foundation and Mercon Coffee Group joined efforts to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 in the most vulnerable coffee-growing regions of Nicaragua during the 2020-2021 harvest, aided by a US$117,000 relief fund from the Dutch Development Bank. Seeds for Progress and Mercon also raised more than $178,000 for coffee land relief efforts following the hurricanes, specifically repairing and rebuilding roads and transportation infrastructure.

CoE winners this year and last. “The climate is one of the fundamental parameters in the quality of the coffee and contributes to a better maturation and denser grains with more flavours.”

Nicaragua has the foundation for exceptional coffee, so not unlike other coffeegrowing countries around the world, some producers have been increasingly focusing on

A SHIFT TOWARD QUALITY Placed near the centre of the coffee belt and along the Pacific Ring of Fire, Nicaragua is characterised by high altitudes, rich volcanic soil, and humid tropical climates.

“Our coffee is produced at average heights of 1200 metres above sea level and temperatures from 18 to 22°C,” explains Germán Odorico Cortéz, a producer from the Jinotega region who placed among the

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Jesus Mountain Coffee Company won first place in this year’s Cup of Excellence with a score of 90.96.

High altitude, rich volcanic soil, and favourable climate are largely responsible for Nicaragua’s high-quality coffee.

“THE CLIMATE IS ONE OF THE FUNDAMENTAL PARAMETERS IN THE QUALITY OF THE COFFEE AND CONTRIBUTES TO A BETTER MATURATION AND DENSER GRAINS WITH MORE FLAVOURS.” Germán Odorico Cortéz

A producer from the Jinotega region

their quality and even venturing into specialty coffee. For small farmers in particular, this shift has been made possible by organisations like the Alliance for Coffee Excellence and its local CoE partner the Nicaraguan National Coffee Commission, as well as the Nicaraguan Specialty Coffee Association (ACEN) and export-oriented cooperatives that have formed in the past 25 years, like CAFENICA. ACEN formed in 1995 with the very mission of improving quality and establishing a specialty market in Nicaragua in order to generate higher earnings at the farm level.

The quality programs out of organisations like these have “come to create an expectation about quality,” says 2020 CoE first-place winner Luís Alberto Balladarez Moncada, “and that has motivated many producers to study on the subject of specialty coffees more in depth.”

Historically, Nicaragua has produced coffee with a focus on quantity over quality, which has helped it become the 12th-largest coffee producer in the world. According to the ICO, Nicaragua produced nearly 2.9 million 60-kilogram bags of Arabica coffee in the 2019/20 harvest season. In 2013, the government even permitted the cultivation of

Robusta in non-traditional coffee regions along the coast, but its total production is negligible and very little is exported.

Though volumes of specialty coffee out of Nicaragua are also small, they are increasing.

They’re also achieving higher earnings as hoped, particularly for farmers engaged in direct trade, like those working with Brilla Coffee and CoE buyers.

The 2020 Nicaragua CoE auction set a record-high average price for the country at US$12.08 per pound. Balladarez Moncada’s coffee, a natural-processed Maracaturra from the Nueva Segovia region, scored a 91.2 and received the third-highest Nicaragua CoE competition price ever paid. A handful of global roasters paid US$36.90 per pound for half of the lot, and Takamura Coffee Roasters in Japan paid US$30.30 per pound for the other half.

“The quality of each Nicaraguan producer’s coffee is becoming known around the world through increased coffee in coffee shops, organisation of producers in cooperatives, [support from] public and private organisations, creation of brands and added value to coffee,” says Cortéz.

Balladarez Moncada recalls that 30 years ago specialty coffee didn’t yet exist, “but the industry has matured in such a way that today we see small producers, some of them very young with a lot of knowledge of the subject, with a lot of energy to investigate and produce better quality coffee,” he explains. “Obtaining new differentiated markets for coffee has been a reality for many. Nicaragua has begun to appear on the map of high-quality coffee-producing countries and that is very positive.” G C R

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SUCCESS IN ASIA EVERSYS

The one to watch EVERSYS EXPLAINS WHY IT’S THE BRAND OF CHOICE WHEN IT COMES TO ROBOTIC COFFEE SOLUTIONS AND HOW IT EMBRACES INNOVATION AND PERFECTION IN THE CUP.

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hen Eversys Regional Business Development Director Claudio Maschietto moved to Hong Kong in 2018 to help grow the presence of Eversys coffee machines, he quickly identified the different needs and wants of the Asian market.

“Asia is where coffee consumption is growing the most around the world. I consider it to have two types of coffee markets. Korea is a very mature market with lots of coffee chains, and many companies using Eversys products,” Maschietto says. “We have developed lots of key accounts in Korea and are trying to do the same in China – adding credibility to the brand and positioning Eversys as an alternative automatic solution that can attack the specialty market, and I think it’s working.”

According to market intelligence company Mordor Intelligence, in 2020 an average of one new coffee shop opened in China’s Chengdu city every day. That pushed the total number of coffee shops in the city to more than 4000 – just after Shanghai and Beijing. Data from the China Coffee Association Beijing says China’s coffee consumption is increasing at an annual rate of 15 per cent.

“China is 100 per cent the most exciting Asian market for Eversys at the moment. Pre-COVID the market was growing 30 per cent each year, and even in COVID times it’s still evolving. As a result, Eversys has been doubling growth there every year for the past five years, and it’s only going to continue,” Maschietto says.

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“China celebrates innovation. It looks for solutions and that’s what we like to do at Eversys too. We don’t just sell automatic machines, we look for ways to provide our customers with support, services, and solutions that will help them grow in the market,” Maschietto says.

“Coffee is still a relatively new concept for China, considering its history as a tea-drinking country, but in my opinion, it’s a faster growing market than in Europe. What we know is that baristas in China strive for perfection. They look for details to replicate, measure, and optimise each cup – they take a very theoretical and analytical approach to their coffee making.”

One such example is FishEye Café, which became the first specialty coffee chain in China to use Eversys machines. Established in 2010 and now with more than 10 outlets across Shanghai

and Beijing, the chain uses Eversys automatic machines to maintain efficiency and consistency across its stores.

Maschietto says the most popular Eversys machines for the Chinese market are the Eversys Cameo super traditional machine for specialty coffee consumers, thanks to its productivity and price point, and Enigma E’4 for large coffee chains. With China’s economy recovering well post COVID-19, Maschietto says more companies are investing in equipment and opening new stores. Eversys is currently working with the largest food and coffee chains in the country to deliver a machine that replicates coffee consistency at high volumes as the company expands.

The Korean coffee market on the other hand, Maschietto says, is curious and more mature, with many more established Eversys clients and good brand visibility. The Eversys machine of choice for this market is the E’line or Enigma range, with most coffee chains preferring a large machine with high productivity.

“When I was in Gangham, South Korea, I remember walking around the streets and looking at the coffee shops. I spotted six Eversys coffee machines in the one block. That was a proud moment,” Maschietto says.

In terms of market trends, Maschietto says automation, Internet of Things, and use of robotics are no longer novelties but established forms of café operation that are fast gaining momentum.

“The use of robotic solutions became even stronger during COVID because of its convenience and safe practices. You can use it to order from an app when the kitchen or café prints a QR code to stick onto a cup. When the QR code is scanned, the coffee recipe is recognised by our machines and made. A notification is then sent to the customer for collection, in which they simply scan their QR code for the right match. You don’t need to touch anything. That’s a big step forward in the use of automation,” Maschietto says.

“In fact, we have a few coffee chain clients in Singapore and in Thailand where they have established a business that only allows customers to order from an app.”

To date, more than 10 customers use Eversys machines for their robotic coffee solutions, including companies in Korea, Japan, China, Singapore and Taiwan.

Know Coffee in Beijing is one coffee shop

FishEye Café was the first specialty coffee chain in China to use Eversys machines.

that uses the Eversys Cameo with 1.5 step milk system with its dual robot arm. Thanks to an inBot OS tracking device placed on the arm of a barista, like an iPhone tracks your daily steps, the robot arm mimics the barista’s hand movements to accurately reproduce latte art.

“For the moment, I think the Asian market is more open and curious about receiving a coffee from a robot, compared to say Europe, which still craves a personal connection with the barista. Is it sustainable long-term? It could be,” Maschietto says. “I had initial concerns about whether the business model would work, but a robotic arm is not so expensive anymore, its operational costs are cheaper, and if you’re going to replicate or better the quality coffee you get from Starbucks with an automated barista arm, why not?”

Businesses that have proved to be successful with the use of robotics and supporting Eversys machines include Crown Coffee in Singapore, Café + and Megarobo in China, Happy Bones and Alibaba Coffee in Korea, and Spazekøf in Thailand.

“The stigma that coffee from a vending machine is average and at a very cheap price point is shifting. These businesses have proven that you don’t need to visit a barista to receive quality coffee.

Robotics are helping close the gap and Eversys is aiding that shift with its high-end technology and module machines that consistently deliver quality. That’s what people care about at the end of the day,” Maschietto says.

The other advantage of using Eversys machines is its telemetry connectivity for remote control access in real-time thanks to its API and e’API solutions. This system allows users to control and change recipes or blends across multiple stores.

“If you’re a big brand with thousands of stores, can you imagine going around to each store and manually changing the recipe? That would be a full-time job for a few people for a month, not to mention the cost involved. With Eversys machines, we can simply update a recipe overnight and have the change recognised by all machines by the morning, ready to go,” Maschietto says. “It’s a big plus in terms of efficiency, consistency, and the level of support we can offer our customers.”

Across Asia, the Maschietto says the most demanding challenging is keeping up with different coffee preferences from the North to the South. He says American culture heavily influences Japan, creating a penchant for black coffee, Korea favours milk-based products, China is diverse and open to new coffee methods in addition to its Booboo tea craze, while Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore are largely driven by cold coffee beverages thanks to their hot climate.

“Eversys has a solution and machine to suit every market need. At the end of the day, everyone wants to gain efficiency and produce a better quality coffee at a fast pace, and that’s what Eversys does best,” he says. G C R For more information, visit www.eversys.com/en/

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SUCCESS IN ASIA FRANKE

Franke focused on Asia FRANKE COFFEE SYSTEMS IS ACTIVELY EVOLVING IN ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST DESIRABLE TRADE REGIONS. ANNOUNCING MASTER DISTRIBUTOR LICENCES IN BOTH JAPAN AND CHINA, THE SWISS MANUFACTURER IS CONTINUING TO DELVE INTO LOCAL NEEDS AND TRENDING CONSUMER DEMANDS IN ASIA. The Franke A300 is a compact plug-and-play coffee machine.

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hen Franke Coffee Systems first broke into the Asian market in the late 1990s, it could not have foretold the growth that awaited. With the introduction of global coffee brands like Starbucks alongside the growing millennial age group, demand for specialty coffee is skyrocketing in Asia.

“Asia has been a focus region for Franke for more than 10 years,” says Roman Probst, Head of Global Sales at Franke Coffee Systems.

“At Franke, we began working in the region very early on, investing in hiring our own people and establishing our own local structures.”

According to Probst, Franke’s interest in Asia was always part of its overarching plan for global growth. “Our commercial and technical employees have been strategically placed on the ground throughout the region, from Oceania through to Southeast Asia and Japan,” he says. “For us then, and still now, it is one of Franke’s main strategies to have our own people in the region, to be closer to the market and really have that proximity.”

To achieve this intrinsic connection, Franke introduced new positions within its hierarchy, including a new marketing manager for the Asian region. It is also cultivating a network of industry experts, influencers, as well as press and trade journals.

“We realised that for vital functions like marketing, proximity is essential to truly understand the needs of a specific group of customers, in a specific segment, within a specific country,” Probst says. “We are building a greater wealth of knowledge so our local and headquarter teams can come together and effectively figure out how to meet Asia’s growing need for premium coffee and beverage customisation.”

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Franke has operated in China through its sister divisions for many years, building its knowledge on the local culture and market demands. In early 2021, Franke Coffee Systems officially registered its own company in China.

“We developed strong partners and trained our own people on the ground, supporting our larger customers in China,” Probst says. “It was only logical that the next move would be registering our own company, to secure further growth in China.”

Fernando Menendez, Franke Sales Director of Asia, says Franke’s end-customers and partners are now able to experience even greater service, support, and direct access to comprehensive local solutions.

“Having great support from our local partners gives us the guarantee and confidence that our coffee business owners will receive reliable, prompt, and outstanding local service,” Menendez says.

FRANKE A300: IDEAL FOR ASIAN MARKETS To cater to the Asian market’s growing demand for customisable premium coffee, Menendez says Franke Coffee Systems is excited to launch its A300 fully automatic coffee machine. Having received full certification across Asia, the A300 is a highly compact machine that fits in any location. Ready to prepare more than 100 specialty coffees, it relies on Franke’s proprietary coffee technologies that also include precision grinding by ceramic disks.

“I would say our A300 is the ideal machine that has been missing in the Asian market until now,” Menendez says. “The A300 has such a compact and sleek footprint and yet it is still a professional, fully automatic coffee machine that prepares coffee to the highest quality.”

volumes of steam into the milk to create customisable textures and beverage recipe layers.

“Now with milk beverages growing ever-stronger in popularity in Asia, our A300 gives cafés the potential to provide customers with barista-style hot milk and foam,” says Menendez.

For Franke, versatility is about providing operators with the tools to meet any customer demand.

The A300 also features a patented descaling and heating cartridge system, alongside Franke’s EasyClean system. The automated descaling system alerts users of descaling and cleaning programs to ensure high hygiene levels as well as an efficient use of resources.

“This innovation is a great tool in Asia, because the water hardness, or calcium levels, can be quite high, which can cause blockages in the system if it’s not rinsed out,” says Menendez.

The A300 is manufactured in Switzerland and shipped across the globe already fitted according to specific country electricity norms. Voltages are available for 240 volts in the Philippines, 220 volts in China where it is registered according to household appliance standards, and 100 volts in Japan.

The A300 is also ready as a household appliance in Japan. Roman Probst says the A300’s compact footprint is well suited to the Japanese coffee market where shop saturation and space is valuable.

“Japan is a region where our A300 can shine. What space there is, is rare and expensive, so, what occupies space must have meaning, must be efficient, and must definitely be productive,” says Probst.

Roman Probst, Head of Global Sales at Franke Coffee Systems.

Featuring an eight-inch (about 20 centimetres) interactive touch screen, the A300 is designed for intuitive and easy use.

Menendez explains, “We’ve designed our A300 with images on the beverage menu, so it is clear which coffee is selected for preparation.

This makes it easy for operators and doesn’t require much training to use.”

The compact Franke A300 is purposedesigned as a modular machine, letting customers choose options, like using a water tank or connecting directly with the water supply.

“This could benefit, for example, a convenience store in South Korea, who has minimal space,” says Menendez. “The A300 does not have to be situated next to a water connection, it can be placed anywhere.”

This is a key to the A300’s modular design.

It has been designed to be “plug and play”, providing users with an easy way to deliver premium coffee.

“For Asian customers that want to meet this demand for premium coffee within their stores, it’s a great model because the investment is minimal, it’s a compact size, and it still serves a great cup of coffee – consistently,” Menendez says.

Other Franke A300 features include the option to have two bean hoppers for multiple bean varieties, and the capacity to store flavoured powders or powdered and fresh milk.

Franke’s FoamMaster technology produces barista-style foam through incorporating varying

AWARD-WINNING DESIGN, READY TO USE Japan’s vibrancy embraces trends as well as the exclusivity born of customisation. Probst says the A300 gives café owners the flexibility to react to current trends and consumer demands quickly and profitably. At the same time, the A300’s plug-and-play advantages, especially the 100-volt configuration, make the compact machine ideally suited for offices and shared workspaces.

The Franke A300 design has also been recognised on the international market, winning two prestigious design awards in 2021, iF Design Award and Red Dot Design Award, for its aesthetic design and ability to deliver premium coffee quality from its compact footprint.

“These awards provide the proof of credibility and the guarantee for performance that our partners in Japan are looking for,” says Probst.

Awards are always well received, but Probst says Franke maintains an ongoing commitment to improving its product range to suit the needs of one of the world’s fastest growing markets.

Probst asserts, “In Asia, we expect the premium coffee market to continue on its growth trajectory while even higher levels of customisable and modular machines will be expected.” G C R For more information, visit coffee.franke.com

The A300 won two prestigious design awards in 2021.

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SUCCESS IN ASIA NEUHAUS NEOTEC

COMBINED FORCES NEUHAUS NEOTEC AND DEVEX SUCCEED AS TEAM PLAYERS, OFFERING COMPLETE ROASTING AND INSTANT COFFEE PLANT SOLUTIONS TO GROWING MARKETS ACROSS ASIA.

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he success of Neuhaus Neotec has always come from the combination of different capabilities to offer an unparalleled product or service in the coffee market.

When Neuhaus, a German regional manufacturer of products for handling raw materials in the agricultural sector, and Neotec, a licensee of an American roasting machine manufacturer, merged in 1987, it allowed them to offer a turnkey solution for the entire coffee processing plant. Incorporation into the Kahl Group in 1991 increased the scope of what Neuhaus Neotec could accomplish and a breakthrough in the development of its in-house rotational flex batch (RFB) technology soon followed. Lars Henkel, Head of Marketing and Area Sales Director for Neuhaus Neotec, says these events served as turning points for the company, increasing its capacity and ability to open itself to the An installation in Vietnam of two freeze dryers with transfer booming international coffee market. system for the tray carts, which is already in operation.

“We were already successful in the United States and, being based in Germany, were quite strong in Europe. So, like many companies do now, we saw Asia as a new market for growth,” Henkel says. “Its coffee markets were not as developed in the Vietnamese coffee roasting industry. back then, but Neuhaus Neotec knew the need for technology would increase as these traditionally “While persuasion was still needed when the tea drinking countries shifted to instant coffee consumption.” first RFB was sold in Vietnam, today, almost the Asia has been a core coffee market to Neuhaus Neotec since the early 1990s, first delivering entire national large-scale coffee industry relies industrial grinders to Japan and South Korea. Henkel says this success in Asia is in large part due to on RFB technology,” Henkel says. the work of Gustav Lührs, the now retired Managing Director of Neuhaus Neotec, and former sales “The Vietnamese coffee production sector team member – now Director of the Coffee Division – Ralf Torenz. has changed massively in recent years. While “Lührs and Torenz pushed the business, starting in Korea, quite successfully. They spent quite in the past the focus was on building up green a lot of time in Southeast Asia, building relationships with customers and establishing agents in the coffee production for export, today the industry country,” Henkel says. “Once you have a few big successes, ‘lighthouse cases’, they show the benefits is trying to create value by producing instant of your systems and technology and the business begins to accelerate naturally from there.” coffee domestically and exporting the finished From the turn of the millennium, Henkel says Neuhaus Neotec’s Asian business developed faster product to the Russian and Asian regions. And and faster, and customer confidence in the technology was rewarded with large orders for highthe trend is clearly towards continuously growing performance RFB roasters. As globally active coffee companies increasingly entered Asian markets, quality demands of the coffee product.” they brought with them preferences for technology they use at home. Henkel says with RFB technology Even the larger Vietnamese green coffee already widely established in Europe and America, the companies normalised its use in Asia, making traders have joined established coffee producers local industries more familiar with the technology. in the production of spray-dried and freeze-dried “Significantly more possibilities in flavour profile design, production reliability, high availability, coffee. Henkel says there is no end in sight to the lower cleaning expenses, and lower shrinkage loss compared to traditional roasting processes, were increasing production capacity of instant coffee and still are the decisive factors for the increasing interest in RFB technology with high convective in Vietnam, even if the coronavirus pandemic energy input,” Henkel says. “Due to the roasting physics of RFB, the significantly more homogeneous briefly delayed some expansion plans. Much like roasting result is achieved for all kinds of green coffee qualities used in instant coffee production.”

Neuhaus and Neotec combined their resources Henkel says the reduced shrinkage loss used to be the primary selling point of Neuhaus Neotec’s in the 1980s to offer a service greater than the technology in Asian markets, more than offsetting the initial investment. Now, coffee companies are sum of their parts, Neuhaus Neotec now owes more open to the economic and environmental advantages of RFB’s reduced energy usage. All of these much of its growth in Asia to collaboration with factors have helped Neuhaus Neotec spread throughout Asia, developing an especially firm foothold sister company Devex. A provider of system

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solutions for the extraction and production of instant products, Devex was founded in 2015, but its team members can look back on several decades of experience in the field of soluble coffee solutions. Henkel says Devex has quickly made a name for itself in the market with its special extraction and freeze-drying technology.

“The unique partnership of Neuhaus Neotec and Devex within the Kahl Group offers its customers joint turnkey plant solutions from a single source, from green coffee intake to the finished coffee granulate,” Henkel says.

“This cooperation under one company roof, which is unique in plant engineering for the coffee industry, has resulted in several orders for complete factories in recent years. Currently, another complete factory with RFB roasting technology and Devex extraction technology is being built in Vietnam with great charisma for the entire regional industry.”

As the second largest green coffee producer in the world, Vietnam is as an important market for Neuhaus Neotec and Devex, however, it is not the only market where they are finding success. Business is also developing in the other Southeast Asian countries, as well as in the ‘Middle Kingdom’.

“As in so many countries around the world, one of China’s highest-quality national coffee refiners is relying on RFB technology to give its coffee the appreciation it demands,” Henkel says.

He adds, while small to medium-sized roasters still dominate in China, Western global companies are increasingly developing expansion plans in the country to meet the growing demand for coffee. For example, in the coming months an established global coffee chain with growing presence in China will begin building “one of the most modern and energy-efficient production facilities for best roast and ground coffee qualities” near Shanghai.

“Neuhaus Neotec will supply almost the complete plant technology including the RFB roasting technology with many innovative features that both further minimise the already standard good energy consumption values and radically reduce the carbon footprint,” Henkel says. “Similar to the entry into the Vietnamese business with large roasters, Neuhaus Neotec expects the new plant to have a strong impact on the Chinese market.”

Despite the special challenges COVID-19 has posed in recent months, Neuhaus Neotec has also

successfully managed to commission another large-scale roasting plant in southern India, and thanks to technological advances, it was able to offer remote commissioning to circumvent closed borders.

Despite great competitive pressure, Henkel says Neuhaus Neotec again convinced the customer with RFB’s high energy efficiency and the lower shrinkage loss than traditional systems.

“Each coffee roasting plant is an individual business that will have different needs to each other.

For us, it’s important each customer receives a customised plant with the right range of equipment.

Yet, cost reduction and environment impact are important aspects to all businesses,” Henkel says.

“These arguments are decisive success factors and competitive advantages for the coffee producer in a market characterised by price pressure.”

Neuhaus Neotec is also committed to environmentally conscious equipment, such as regenerative thermal oxidation, Low NOx catalytic converter technology or the heat pre-treatment of coffee beans.

“Neuhaus Neotec is proud to deliver and advance the latest technologies low in energy consumption.

As an innovation driver in the field of energy recovery and exhaust gas treatment,” Henkel says.

Considering the rapidly increasing population of already populous countries like China, India, and Indonesia, and the accompanying rise in coffee consumption, Henkel sees no end in sight to the investment boom in coffee plants across Asia.

“Neuhaus Neotec has succeeded in continuously expanding its position in the Asian market over the past 20 years and has built up a good reputation through efficient technology and qualified local supports,” Henkel says.

“Together with Devex, both companies are looking forward to a positive business development and the expansion of the partnership cooperation with their customers.” G C R For more information, visit www.neuhaus-neotec.de/en and www.devex-gmbh.de

Ralf Torenz, Director Coffee Division, was instrumental in developing the business in Asia from the very beginning.

J U LY /A U G U S T 2 0 2 1 | GCR

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TECH & INNOVATION FLOW

GO WITH THE FLOW THE NEW FLOW TELEMETRY SYSTEM IS DESIGNED TO DELIVER FEEDBACK ON COFFEE QUALITY, EVEN BEFORE IT TOUCHES THE CUSTOMERS’ LIPS. FLOW’S HEAD OF INNOVATION SCOTT NIGHTINGALE AND CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER DAVE FLOYD, EXPLAIN HOW.

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hen Scott Nightingale first opened his own café, he realised he had no way to measure the quality and consistency of coffee leaving his store daily.

“I realised in a home environment I could take all the time in the world to control my parameters and what I was producing, creating a great result every time, but that became really difficult in the commercial environment because it was so busy,” says Nightingale, Head of Innovation at Flow.

As a basic necessity, Nightingale realised he needed a “shot clock”, an espresso shot timer that measured extraction time.

After a failed attempt to acquire a coffee machine with an in-built shot clock, Nightingale turned to his own IT background to solve the problem.

“The idea for Flow was born in my spare bedroom,” says Nightingale. “I started thinking ‘what’s it going to take for me to retrofit a shot clock?’ When I realised that I could extract data from coffee machines flow sensors, I knew I’d tapped into a very rich data source.”

It was here the Flow telemetry system was born: an integrated system which provides café owners with data on their coffee machine’s set recipe and espresso execution accuracy.

“Originally, I was just producing [Flow] for myself. I had this big screen up on a wall in my café so our customers and my baristas could see it,” says Nightingale. “Having these results up there for the world to see was pretty scary at first, but I very quickly discovered my customer loved being included in the process of making their coffee.”

Flow’s dashboard provides an overview of how each site is performing.

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Working closely with his team in New Zealand and with Australian re-seller Barista Technology Australia, Nightingale worked to bring Flow to market in early 2020.

The Flow system can be connected directly to an espresso machine from any major manufacturer. The system comprises of three parts: the Flow device itself, real-time gauges, and a cloud dashboard.

“The Flow device integrates with the flow sensors in the machine and measures the flow rate of the espresso extraction which can tell us an amazing amount,” Nightingale explains.

“It calculates the speed and volume of each shot poured through measuring the pulse counts as the shot passes through at different stages of the extraction.”

The Flow real-time gauges give baristas immediate feedback on whether they’ve hit the set recipe.

“We developed the real-time gauges working closely with New Zealand roaster Altura so that the barista knows from a glance if the shot clock goes red, they’ve missed the recipe parameters or green if they’ve hit,” says Floyd.

The bottom of the gauge also features a grind suggestion that informs the barista whether the grinds are too coarse or fine based on the shot time.

The third aspect, the dashboard, provides an overview of how well each site is performing.

This gives all owners, whether one or 500 sites, the ability to assess the performance of each location remotely. This allows management to direct resources to the sites that need it the most, diagnosing issues remotely and saving call out times and costs.

“Especially from an owners’ point of view, you’re sometimes very removed, so this device helps them to understand what is going on

in their own café and what is causing these inconsistencies,” says Nightingale.

With Flow launching just before the COVID-19 pandemic, Nightingale and Flow Chief Operating Officer Dave Floyd say they have seen a positive shift in the way cafés operate using Flow.

“Café owners during COVID began to realise they needed to nail down their competitive edge and we could offer this through Flow’s objective feedback,” explains Nightingale.

Floyd stresses that the Flow system isn’t designed to micromanage baristas at every step, like the video surveillance program Big Brother.

“We want to get across that it’s a valuable tool designed to benefit baristas and once they use it and feel the benefit of having live data and feedback, it becomes hard to live without,” Floyd says. “Receiving that feedback from the real-time gauges or dashboard becomes really empowering. You feel proud when you see it flash green.”

With this data, café owners are encouraged to be more proactive, not only with regularly cleaning and maintaining their machines, but with equipment choices and training programs.

“By having clear data, clients can assess machinery against how it affects their performance. For example, does this new grinder actually improve the execution of the recipe?” says Floyd.

“It can also show management where training needs to be focused. Rather than trying to make an assessment in a five-minute site visit, training can now be based on the last months’

Customers gain a competitive advantage through Flow’s objective feedback.

worth of data and organisations can direct their resources to the sites within their network that need the most help.”

Flow creates a competitive edge through creating visibility. Nightingale and Floyd pride themselves in creating a customer-centric product, and say since Flow’s integration to the café market, it’s become an extra talking-point for customer interaction.

“The hardest aspect is getting people through the door, so once you’ve got them, you want to maximise that opportunity,” Floyd says.

“If the customer is receiving great coffee, that creates loyalty, which produces good word of mouth, brand protection for the roaster, and increased sales since customers keep coming back.”

For Floyd, what differentiates the Flow system from other telemetry systems on the market is its focus on execution of recipe and coffee quality, over machine functionality.

“To us, a lot of other systems are focused on equipment and its maintenance,” says Floyd. “With Flow, we’re 100 per cent concentrating on the recipe and coffee quality, because we believe it is the consistency of coffee quality that will create customer loyalty and increased sales.”

Flow isn’t just for specialty, high-end coffee shops. Nightingale says he wants to see Flow raise the standard for coffee quality across all sectors of the market.

“If you live in great coffee areas, you’ve got many great options, but as soon as you are outside of those areas, getting a consistent coffee can be really challenging. So that’s what we’re looking to do: create great coffee everywhere and that’s absolutely achievable.”

With the world emerging post-COVID-19, Floyd and Nightingale are in the process of setting up an international reseller network and already have resellers aligned in the United Kingdom, Canada, United States, and Australia.

“We hope that our Flow system will have a big impact on consistency and trust from the customers, and can move the industry towards a more standardised model for making coffee,” Floyd says. G C R Flow’s real-time gauge features grind suggestions based on espresso shot time.

For more information, visit flowcoffee.co.nz

J U LY /A U G U S T 2 0 2 1 | GCR

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TECH & INNOVATION HEMRO

RISE OF THE HOME BARISTA THE MAHLKÖNIG X54 GRINDER FROM HEMRO GROUP IS AN ALL-INONE GRINDER WITH CUTTING EDGE BURR TECHNOLOGY, DESIGNED TO MEET THE NEEDS OF A NEW TARGET AUDIENCE.

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he COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of connectivity and resilience of the retail coffee market, but one area that can still be improved is access to high quality domestic grinding equipment.

As such, premium grinder manufacturer Mahlkönig has launched its multipurpose X54 Allround Home Grinder that produces optimal grind sizes for a comprehensive range of brewing methods, including espresso, AeroPress, v60, Chemex, or French Press.

Anne Krahmer, Head of Global Marketing at Hemro Group, parent company of internationally recognised brands Mahlkönig, Ditting, Anfim, and HeyCafé, says the X54 is designed to meet the needs of a new demographic.

“As an one-in-all grinder, it meets the home barista’s needs by allowing them to experiment with all brewing methods,” Krahmer says.

For Hemro, designing the X54 came from the realisation its target audience no longer remains only in the commercial sector, but has expanded into the domestic market.

“The home barista is someone who is curious and quality aware. They can encompass a lot of different personas,” says Krahmer. “It could be someone within the coffee industry who loves their craft that much that compromising on coffee quality at home is not an option. It could also be someone new to coffee, or someone who wants to experiment with different brewing methods.

“I believe everyone within the coffee industry can benefit from this rising demand for [retail] beans and gear.”

For home baristas that want to experiment with high quality beans and brewing techniques, but don’t want to buy separate grinders for each brewing method, Krahmer says the X54 is the answer.

In responding to consumer demands to consolidate the grinder into a single unit, the Mahlkönig design team started with the burrs – the revolving discs responsible for cutting the beans into the desired particle size.

Hemro’s Global Grinding Solution factory in Hamburg, Germany.

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“THE HOME BARISTA IS SOMEONE WHO IS CURIOUS AND QUALITY AWARE. THEY CAN ENCOMPASS A LOT OF DIFFERENT PERSONAS.” Anne Krahmer

Head of Global Marketing at Hemro Group

Mahlkönig has one of the longest histories in designing burrs, with each burr undergoing seven stages of production at its Germany-based facility.

The X54’s burrs are 54 millimetres in size and made of individually conceived alloy and “special steel”.

To Mahlkönig, burr design is a combination of technical knowledge in size, teeth and material, mixed with sensory skills such as smell and taste.

“To design [the X54], we defined the burr size and teeth geometrics then narrowed it down to 10 versions. From there, we had our sensory team conduct testing to determine the best product,” Krahmer explains.

“Having this sensorics testing is so important because you can never calculate sensorics. You can come close with mathematics, but it won’t match human taste.”

The motor size was also key in determining the optimal burr size in the compact grinder.

“It was also one of the key challenges,

finetuning the size, depth, and angles of the burrs’ metal teeth to get the perfect espresso shot as well as the perfect cup of pour over,” says Krahmer.

With intuitive design always a bonus for customers, the X54 comes with four pre-settings to allow customisation of grind size, and two “swappable fronts” to collect the grinds. Baristas can use a portafilter support to collect the grinds or alternatively, can remove the front completely, swapping it for a stainless steel Mahlkönig cup placed beneath the grinder chute.

The ability to move the dial in between pre-selected grind settings is another feature of the all-in-one approach.

“Having the possibility to adjust the grind size without the limitations of fixed steps is important to any brewing method,” Krahmer says.

“Since the X54 is meant to be perfect for any brewing method, going for a stepless grind size adjustment was a given when we created its very first draft.”

This feature gives experienced baristas a level of control but also caters to newer baristas

The X54 comes with four pre-settings to allow customisation of grind size.

who need more guidance. Considering the home environment, the X54 grinder has been designed with noise reduction, grinding below 70 a-weighted decibels. The housing of the X54 itself is made completely of aluminium which helps to absorb higher frequencies.

“And even though it’s one or two seconds slower than perhaps a commercial coffee grinder, it has more gentle grinding,” Krahmer says. “Also, too fast grinding heats up the motor and we don’t want to overheat the grinds, causing aroma loss.”

“Quality equals reliability. So, if you are using your equipment frequently, you do not want to worry about whether your gear might let you down,” Krahmer says. “We believe that the target market, which is people who appreciate high quality coffee, are looking for products to last, and not just the latest market trends.”

“With the new product category Mahlkönig Home, we have the opportunity to keep providing more products targeted at this consistently growing market.”

Krahmer adds that the X54 has already launched in Germany and is receiving an overwhelming amount of positive feedback. “We expect to expand the grinder across Europe, United States, Australia, and more over the course of 2021, with pre-orders across Europe and Asia already exceeding expectations,” Krahmer says.

Mahlkönig is still in the process of designing online instructional videos to accompany the X54’s international launch. Local representatives will also make the video in their national languages.

“We understand with the home barista, English might not always be the first or commonly spoken language. We want to cater to our new demographic and provide the best assistance through these resources, our Mahlkönig dealers and trained technical network,” Krahmer says.

While the at-home barista market found its voice in 2020 and will continue to evolve, Krahmer is confident coffee shops will remain a community hub and have a place and purpose in the heart of the consumer. G C R Anne Krahmer, Head of Global Marketing at Hemro Group.

For more information, visit www.mahlkoenig.de

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TECH & INNOVATION MARCO

POUR’D your heart out THE POUR’D SOLUTION FROM MARCO BEVERAGE SYSTEMS ALLOWS CAFÉS TO ADD NEW LEVELS OF VARIETY TO THEIR OFFERINGS WITH COLD AND CONCENTRATED COFFEE OR HOT WATER ALL SERVED FROM A SINGLE TAP.

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here are many ways to brew or drink cold coffee, and across the globe, customers are coming to expect a range of options when they visit a coffee shop. Under-counter water system and coffee brewing specialist Marco Beverage Systems saw this demand and set out to create a solution that would allow cafés to seamlessly introduce new cold coffee options to their menus.

Releasing across July and August 2021, the POUR’D cold coffee dispense system allows a venue to serve ready-to-drink (RTD) cold coffee and cold coffee from concentrate, which can be mixed from a single font. In addition, customers have the option of adding a separate cold or hot water stream to produce anything from chilled drinks and teas to Americanos and hot chocolates.

“The true innovation behind POUR’D is the flexibility it allows. We did extensive research on cold coffee – how it’s brewed, how it’s delivered, et cetera – and we found that different sites and different roasters had different POUR’D can deliver up to three different needs,” says Gemma Kiernan, Head of Marketing at Marco Beverage Systems. types of beverages or volumes.

“The POUR’D meets all of these. It moves cold brew service to front of house, meaning baristas don’t need to go to the fridge or manually mix their concentrate at the start of the day. It also means that one system can deliver cold coffee, a shot of source, counter-top font, and POUR’D control coffee, and hot or cold water. This means that operators can serve multiple beverages from one system.” box. Regular maintenance is as easy as running a The RTD option is very straightforward. It can be dispensed straight from a bag-in-box, urn, or cleaning cycle at the end of the day and usage is container kept in the fridge, and gives the user a choice of push and hold or hands-free operation. as simple as pressing a button after programming The concentrate version allows operators to pre-program their beverage choices, volumes, and beverage types, volume, and ratio at install. dilution ratio. Kiernan says using coffee concentrate provides greater versatility than standard “POUR’D marks our first venture into cold cold brew. coffee dispense solutions and builds on the sleek “It takes around 10 to 14 hours to make cold brew using traditional methods. It can also be a messy counter-top aesthetic you would have seen in our and wasteful exercise, not to mention how much space a cold brewer can take up back of house. By MIX hot water and FRIIA cold water ranges,” introducing coffee concentrate, a site eliminates the need for brewing, and this saves time, energy, Gemma says. “It also gives our customers more and mess. It also means that different drinks can be made from the same concentrate, for example choice on their beverage offering. Our purpose iced mochas, cold brew, and frappes,” she says. “Concentrate is also a more stable liquid, meaning is to re-imagine beverage excellence everywhere. that it will last longer in the shop – reducing waste. Finally, when brewing RTD on-site, each batch This means any beverage in any site is made in may taste slightly different depending on the skill and attention of the brewer. Concentrate ensures the best possible way, for the roaster, the barista, consistency in cold coffee service.” and the customer.

An operator can set POUR’D to deliver up to three different types of beverages or volumes.

“POUR’D enables us to deliver on this POUR’D automates beverage volumes and dilution, so baristas don’t need to take on these tasks. purpose by offering consistent, stylish, and Kiernan says there are many configurations available depending on the site’s needs. flexible beverage solutions that create a better “We’ve seen a big demand from our customers for multi-purpose systems. After such a difficult experience for everyone when it comes to cold year, retailers and roasters need to keep an eye on their expenses. This means streamlining speed coffee service.” G C R of service, labour costs, and equipment investment, as well as optimising their space for maximum output and efficiency,” Kiernan says.

For more information, visit Installation can be customised to the site’s needs, but at its most basic, simply includes a coffee www.marcobeveragesystems.com

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POUR STEADY TECH & INNOVATION

GOING STEADY

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THE POURSTEADY AUTOMATIC BREWER MAKES POUR OVER COFFEE AN EFFICIENT OPTION FOR BUSY CAFÉS – MAKING A CONSISTENT CUP AS QUICKLY AS A BARISTA CAN MAKE ESPRESSO.

t was while waiting for their own pour over coffees, watching a barista struggle to brew three at once as the line continued to grow, that robotics engineers Stuart Heys and Mark Sibenac realised they could build something that would help the process.

Their first prototype of the Poursteady automatic pour over coffee machine debuted at the New York City Maker Faire in 2013. Stephan von Muehlen, a friend of Heys with a background in product design and the current CEO of Poursteady, assisted at the debut where the brewer made more than 800 cups of coffee across the weekend event.

“We received tonnes of press and went home from the faire with several ribbons. After that raging success, we agreed to see if we could turn Poursteady into something more than just a science fair project,” von Muehlen says.

“The basic architecture and technology were already there, but the prototype looked like a box of spaghetti that had exploded, with wires and tubes uncovered and coming out the sides. It was plugged into a water heater under the table, and we controlled the flow rate by lifting it to go faster and lowering it to go slower. So, our focus moving forward was looking at it from the customer’s perspective and developing a solution that would work for the specialty market.”

This included creating a more sleek and elegant design, and, realising counter space is precious in many cafés, a three-cup system that requires less space than that standard five-cup model.

The refined Poursteady was launched at the 2015 Specialty Coffee Expo in the United States, where it took home the Best New Product award in its category. Since then, von Muehlen says Poursteady has slowly built an international audience, adding distributors in South Korea, the Middle East, Europe, and Australia.

“When we launched, there was a lot of excitement around pour over and bringing it into coffee shops, but cafés were finding they either needed additional staff, were unable to serve it at peak The Poursteady automatic brewer is available in three-cup and five-cup models.

times, or drifted back to batch brew to deal with volume,” he says.

“Customers are usually willing to wait for a freshly brewed pour over, but they are seldom willing to wait for somebody else’s. With a pour over taking three to five minutes to brew, and Poursteady brewing three to five at a time, they can easily turnover one coffee per minute.”

Poursteady is internet enabled and can be set up in a number of ways from the Poursteady app, which is accessible through any smart device.

Some cafés will stick to the settings programmed on installation, others will alter these as they bring new coffees into rotation. Von Muehlen says there are coffee shops with Poursteadydedicated tablets set up so they can adjust recipes for each coffee they brew.

The barista then just needs to grind and dose the coffee, serve the end cup to the customer, and at the touch of a button, Poursteady handles the rest.

“Really balancing automation and craft is important to us. Brewing coffee, especially pour over, is a ritual and the barista brings a lot to it, and we don’t want to bring any more automation to the process than is necessary,” he says. “For the shop owner and coffee roaster, Poursteady is about making sure they’re selling a consistent cup of coffee, which they can do without altering the training needed in a specialty café where staff is more attuned to making espresso.

“But what Mark and Stuart saw in that coffee shop almost 10 years ago was this overworked barista who had to focus in on weighing and timing all these coffees, all without interacting with customers. Poursteady was designed to lift that pressure on the barista, so that everyone can have a better coffee experience.” G C R For more information, visit www.poursteady.com

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TECH & INNOVATION RANCILIO GROUP

Rancilio Group’s Connect system helps businesses become data-driven.

CONNECTING THE DOTS

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RANCILIO GROUP’S CONNECT TELEMETRY SYSTEM IS A FLEXIBLE AND CUSTOMISABLE TECHNOLOGY THAT IS CHANGING THE WAY CUSTOMERS INTERACT WITH AND UTILISE MACHINE DATA.

talian espresso and coffee machine manufacturer Rancilio Group is pushing boundaries with its Connect telemetry system that puts the customer’s needs first.

As a powerful IoT solution, the Connect system helps customers gather and easily analyse value-relevant data and key performance parameters. This data can be generated by a single coffee machine or an entire fleet via an online gateway, such as a wireless or local area network, or Global System for Mobile Communications network.

The data is then combined into an easily operated dashboard, supporting Rancilio Group’s customers on their journey to becoming a data-driven business.

To develop the system, Christian Schmid, Project Leader of Rancilio Group Connect Telemetry, says the Rancilio Group team started years ago by looking at the sensors already in the coffee machine.

From there, they worked out a method to collect the data and send it to a cloud-based platform.

When conducting research on the Connect Telemetry system, Schmid says flexibility in the dashboard display was one of the biggest consumer requests.

As such, the Connect System offers more than 20 different dashboard views and gives operators the flexibility to organise data such as extraction parameters. This encourages Rancilio Group’s clients to easily control and access their own data.

The biggest challenge in the development stage was learning how to implement the Connect system across both Rancilio Group’s traditional and fully automatic machines. Today, the Connect system can support any of Rancilio Group’s coffee machines produced after 2016. This includes traditional

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espresso machines under the brands Rancilio Specialty and Rancilio, and fully automatic machines under Egro.

Rancilio Group says it was important for its clients to connect all their devices to one telemetry system. Identified as an “open architecture” design, Schmid says this gives the customer the possibility to manage their whole business in the Connect dashboard and the ability to integrate it with outside platforms.

The first challenge was understanding what recorded data would improve overall machine performance. To Schmid, a key aspect was understanding the different drink parameters from a telemetry point of view.

The Connect telemetry system makes use of the sensors built into each coffee machine.

It returns key parameters including quantity, pressure, and brewing time to determine the

“BECOMING DATA DRIVEN IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE IT SAVES THE CLIENT COSTS AND THEY ARE BETTER PREPARED TO PROVIDE A SERVICE BECAUSE THEY KNOW THE CONDITION OF THE MACHINE.”

Frequently checked coffee machines result in higher-quality coffees.

quality of every drink produced.

Already, Schmid says telemetry is changing the way one interacts with coffee machines.

Owners are shifting from a “reactive” to “proactive” stance with machines being checked at a greater frequently resulting in less breakdowns and more consistent highquality coffee.

“For the fully automatic machines, to manage recipes across different locations is not always simple, because the recipe is slightly different,” Schmid explains.

“Imagine you have a Cappuccino in one location; the recipe won’t be the same in another location, so how do you measure this? Is it the same or a different product?”

Through gaining control over brewing key parameters, customers can ensure product consistency and maintain a high level of incup quality for all beverages produced from a coffee machine.

“Becoming data driven is important because it saves the client costs and they are better prepared to provide a service because they know the condition of the machine,” Schmid says.

By remotely checking the machine’s health, customers know exactly how it is performing and can quickly identify the causes of any faults, prevent machine downtime, and anticipate spare part requirements.

“Connect helps customers to increase their First Time Fix rate, or ability to solve machine issues when they first arise. This minimises onsite interventions and allows most problems to be solved with phone calls, reducing costs and saving time,” Schmid says.

Thanks to the calendar alert and e-mail notification function in Rancilio’s traditional

Christian Schmid

Project Leader of Rancilio Group Connect Telemetry

machines, managers can schedule maintenance programs, such as cleaning cycles, to be carried out periodically. This helps maintain the coffee equipment properly.

Data can also inform clients of trends or consumer preferences, from alternative milk choices to the most popular coffee recipes at different store locations.

“Rancilio Group customers can use this to understand what their particular customers like better, and in what combination they like better. They can also compare information to previous years, or correlate results with other data,” Schmid says.

When the Connect system’s bi-directional abilities are combined with Rancilio Group’s newest fully automatic machines, under the Egro brand, Rancilio clients can share videos, screensavers, backgrounds, and images on the touchscreens. Titled the Egro Next and Next Touch Coffee, the machines also have the ability to change recipes and transfer a new icon for the menu. On the touchscreen, customers can also run advertising and display promotions across multiple locations.

Schmid says the true innovation, however, is how Rancilio Group’s clients will use the Connect Telemetry system.

“Especially if our customers are a big chain or have many devices connected to their own platform, we want this system to help them,” says Schmid. “There are many systems that force the customer to use the manufacturer’s own portal, and with ours, that is not the case. We offer different configurations, and can also design tailor-made solutions for every business.” G C R For more information, visit www.ranciliogroup.com/connect

Connect clients can remotely check their coffee machine’s health to know how it is performing.

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TECH & INNOVATION SIMONELLI

A NEW WAVE NUOVA SIMONELLI UNVEILS THE AURELIA WAVE UX WITH A NEW ENGINE AND TECHNOLOGY THAT’S SET TO IMPROVE THE WORKFLOW AND USER EXPERIENCE WHILE MAINTAINING PEAK PERFORMANCE IN A SUSTAINABLE, SIMPLE WAY.

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hen Nuova Simonelli first introduced the Aurelia espresso machine in 2004, the flagship model represented the beginning of a new era of innovation for the Italian-based espresso machine manufacturer.

The model has received a series of facelifts over the years, resulting in the launch of the Aurelia II in 2012 and Aurelia Wave in 2017 with the introduction of new materials and T3 technology. And now, the model has evolved one step further with the unveiling of the Aurelia Wave UX. “We call the new Aurelia Wave UX, ‘the workflow optimiser’, because it really does improve the user experience of our customers,” says Lauro Fioretti, Simonelli Group Project Manager. “It is very flexible, adapts to busy environments, allows the barista to have great consistency in an easy and fast way, focuses on their interaction with the customer, and lets the machine take care of the rest.”

Fioretti says it’s in the DNA of Nuova Simonelli to continue to improve its products, and with the company evolving and growing very fast, it was time to work on the next model Aurelia Wave.

“We understand that the world is changing, globalisation is increasing, there is more desire for interconnection with people, a greater volume of coffee chains on the market, and they each have new needs and requirements,” Fioretti says.

Post-pandemic, Fioretti says high volume chain outlets are looking for a machine that’s solid, stable, powerful, made with long-lasting materials and technology, is easy to operate and maintain, and ergonomic.

With this in mind, the Nuova Simonelli team developed a new machine to improve the overall user workflow, experience, and coffee and milk-based drinks menu.

The result is a model that retains the same wave-shaped design of the Aurelia Wave, but with a completely new engine and technology called the ITC – independent temperature control. The ITC, in the UX model, independently controls the temperature of each group in a simple way.

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From a technical standpoint, the ITC uses single boiler technology with a heat exchanger.

A thermostatical mixer with shape memory alloy stabilises the inlet water. When it comes in the group, the water is further stabilised and refined thanks to a thermostatic probe managed by PID (Proportional Integral Derivative) controllers.

“With this new ‘less is more’ approach, we were able to drastically reduce the total power of the machine – minus one kilowatt for each group. At the same time, we reduced the CO2 emissions compared than the previous model,” Fioretti says.

“The beauty of UX is that it grants high performance, efficiency and power, but with less energy consumption. It’s a bit like when the automotive industry moved from Euro 5 to Euro 6 standards on automotive engines – it reduced the pollution the car extracts but not the power in the engine.”

Fioretti says this is a great result to meet the new needs and standards of large coffee, non-coffee oriented chains, and the Horeca sector: a fluid and harmonious workflow and

a consistent widespread quality at any time of the day with lower impact.

He adds that the main reason for launching the UX was to make the machine more efficient for mainstream chains to operate.

“With the Aurelia Wave T3, the main target audience is coffee professionals who want to deep dive into the machine and explore its parameters, inner workings, and have complete control themselves,” Fioretti says. “But given the high volume and working demands of mainstream coffee chains, you also need a machine that still controls the temperature of each group, sets parameters, takes advantage of the machine’s ultimate power, but can be used in a simple way.”

As such, Fioretti says the UX is more inviting for the chain market because they don’t need extended period of trainings to learn how to operate the machine, meaning anyone can use it to its full capacity.

The European Institute of Psychology and Ergonomics certified the original Aurelia Wave as ergonomic for Baristas. Simonelli has worked with the institute for the past several years since and says the UX version will also adapt the same ergonomic principles. This includes a new user interface that is simple to use and set, easy-touse steam controls, push/pull levers, auto-purge system, light sensors on the steam wands which can manoeuvre 360-degrees, and the option for Cool Touch steam wands. The portafilter handles are also inclined downwards in line with a barista’s natural hand position, and the

The Aurelia Wave UX uses less energy and reduces CO2 emissions compared to the original model.

The ITC independently controls the temperature of each group in the Aurelia Wave UX.

brew groups allow for smooth locking and unlocking of portafilters to ease hand and wrist pressure.

The ITC model can be fully connected to Wi-Fi, enabling operators to connect with Simonelli’s telemetry system via ‘the cloud’. This way, they can control and read parameters such as internal group temperatures remotely, and across multiple sites. The telemetry system, which will be available in the coming months, can even be used to assess workflow at peak times, compare the volume of beverages sold, and overall coffee shop performance.

“The more we can monitor the performance of the machine and of the barista, the more the operator will save costs on call-out fees and maintenance work,” Fioretti says. “It’s simplified technology, solid engine and use of long-lasting materials will also reduce maintenance by up to 50 per cent compared to other traditional models.”

Fioretti says the development of the Aurelia UX was accelerated during COVID-19. While other companies stopped work or relied on government stimulus, Simonelli Group didn’t accept any financial assistance and decided to work on new projects.

“We never stopped working and have continuously worked every single day and every hour of the week to maintain production. And because we couldn’t travel, it gave us the ability to focus on new products, plan new strategies and focus on the future,” he says.

“We worked very hard, with great teamwork, and had constant communication about the projects we were working on. Thanks to Simonelli Group’s flexibility and ability to adapt to the evolving situation, we are now able to release more new products to the market.”

With the Italian and European market close to reigniting its coffee, office and restaurant operations once more, Fioretti says Simonelli will be ready to meet the needs of the market. G C R For more information, visit www.nuovasimonelli.it/en or www.nuovasimonelli.it/aureliawaveux

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WHAT’S BREWING? Industry appointments COFFEE PEOPLE AROUND ON THE MOVE THE GLOBE

WHAT’S BREWING? A WRAP UP OF THE LATEST APPOINTMENTS IN THE GLOBAL COFFEE INDUSTRY.

Jack Edwards – President of North America, illycaffé Jack Edwards has joined international coffee roaster and B Corp illycaffè as its President of North America, effective from 19 April.

Edwards is a seasoned executive who spent nearly two decades with Diageo, a leader in beverage alcohol with a collection of brands across spirits and beer, where he led a team of 115 people and a distributor network responsible for Guinness, Smirnoff Ice, and other major and emerging brands.

“Jack’s broad and deep skillset, commitment to excellence, comprehensive understanding of consumers, knowledge of the premium beverage industry, and record of leading strategic growth are ideally suited to our North American business, which is poised for expansion among coffee lovers across all channels,” says Massimiliano Pogliani, CEO of illycaffè. “His extensive experience, combined with his sharp leadership acumen, are aligned to successfully realise illy’s long-term plans.”

Santiago Gowland – CEO, Rainforest Alliance Santiago Gowland has joined Rainforest Alliance as its Chief Executive Officer.

Gowland previously served as Executive Vice President for Latin America and Global Innovation at The Nature Conservancy. Before that, he spearheaded sustainability initiatives in the private sector, including at Unilever and Nike. Gowland, a native of Argentina with a passion for conservation and sustainability, brings extensive expertise in organisational innovation and sustainability transformation across multiple sectors, cultures, and continents.

“It’s crucial that we leverage social and market forces to protect nature and improve the lives of farmers and forest communities without delay. Rainforest Alliance is uniquely positioned to bring farmers, forest communities, companies and consumers together to build a more sustainable and resilient future for people and nature,” Gowland says.

Michelle Stacy – Executive Board, Bellwether Coffee Sustainability-focused commercial coffee roaster manufacturer Bellwether Coffee has appointed Michelle Stacy to its Executive Board. Stacy will provide guidance on strategy, marketing and sales, and digital and vertical expansion to support the next phase of Bellwether’s growth.

Bringing more than 30 years of executive experience to Bellwether, Stacy has held a series of executive positions, most notably as the President of Keurig where she grew the company into a US$2 billion brand, making it the number one coffee maker in the United States for 32 consecutive months.

“Bellwether’s mission to transform the coffee industry across the entire coffee supply chain has always resonated with me,” says Stacy. “The company’s forward-thinking approach could not be more of a fit with my personal passion for creating products for a more sustainable future.”

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Sanjiv Razdan – President Americas & India, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Specialty coffee chain The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf has appointed Sanjiv Razdan as the new President of its American and Indian market. The role will see him responsible for growing the brand in high potential markets beyond its native California.

Razdan will bring more than 30 years of chain-restaurant industry experience from international brands such as Sweetgreen, Yum Brands, and Dine Brands. He has held Chief Operations Officer positions at Applebee’s and Sweetgreen’s.

“I’m excited to join this great brand and work closely with the new ownership as we scale and continue to introduce The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf brand to new markets, and in the process, help advance Jollibee Foods Corp’s goal of becoming one of the top five restaurant groups in the world,” says Razdan.

Wim Abbing – Probat CEO, Board of NCA Wim Abbing, CEO of coffee processing plant and machinery manufacturer Probat, has been announced as the new member of the board of directors of the National Coffee Association (NCA) of the United States.

The US is an important market to Probat, where its American subsidiary Probat Inc, responds to the specific needs of its customers. Probat’s Burns brand in particular is currently experiencing a strong demand in America, having been successfully revitalised during the past years.

“Many international coffee professionals consider the NCA to be ‘the voice of coffee’, even referring to its Annual Convention as the industry’s premiere networking and educational event.

I am humbled to have been appointed new board member and feel strongly committed to the NCA’s guiding principles to grow the coffee community through education, advocacy and connection. Together we will strive to make a difference in the industry,” Abbing says.

Dr. Sarada Krishnan – IWCA, Executive Director The International Women’s in Coffee Alliance (IWCA) Global Board of Directors has announced that Dr. Sarada Krishnan will be assuming the role of Executive Director.

Krishnan has an extensive background in coffee research and cultivation and currently serves as the Director of Horticulture and Center for Global Initiatives at the Denver Botanic Gardens. In addition to her research and professional experience, Krishnan also owns coffee plantations in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica and was a founding member of the IWCA Jamaica Chapter.

“Women are the backbone of a family and community. Empowering women will lead to positive change. I am thrilled to lead IWCA and contribute to the empowerment of women in coffee by enabling success throughout the entire value chain through programs and partnerships,” says Krishnan.

DO YOU HAVE CAREER NEWS TO SHARE? EMAIL ETHAN MILLER AT ETHAN.MILLER@PRIMECREATIVE.COM.AU

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DIARY Dashboard COFFEE COFFEE AROUND AROUND THE THE GLOBE GLOBE

GLOBAL COFFEE EVENTS

MELBOURNE

INTERNATIONAL

COFFEE EXPO 2021 MELBOURNE,

AUSTRALIA

9 – 11 S E PTE M B E R 2 02 1 The Melbourne International Coffee Expo (MICE) is known throughout the Asia-Pacific as the largest and most exciting dedicated coffee event. Each year, café owners, roasters, baristas, equipment manufacturers, service providers, and more gather at this tradeoriented event to network and do business. MICE2021 will take place at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. www.internationalcoffeeexpo.com

BANGKOK, THAILAND 2 9 S E PTE M B E R – 3 O CTO B E R 2 02 1 Strong participation from the local community and international businesses from Poland, Indonesia, Italy, the United States, Korea, Norway, and Brazil reaffirms face-to-face interaction as irreplaceable for the F&B industry. www.thaifex-anuga.com

HOST MILANO MILAN, ITALY

CAFÉ SHOW SEOUL

Host Milano is a world-leading trade fair dedicated to the catering and hospitality sector that brings professionals together. It features the latest products and innovation in terms of equipment and raw materials, a busy schedule of events, and a suite of coffee and product competitions and awards. Host Milano will take place at Fieramilano.

Its format combines vertical specialisation with supply chain affinity, offering an international overview of changes, consumption models, and new formats in the hospitality world. The 2021 event will mark the 42nd edition, with technology taking centre stage. host.fieramilano.it/en/

Café Show Seoul is Asia’s largest business platform held annually in November, stimulating and supporting the global coffee and food and beverage industries and culture.

Café Show Seoul presents unique values and opportunities by providing integrated and dynamic experiences in business, knowledge and culture.

Cafe Show Seoul is a “must-attend event” of the industry. www.cafeshow.com

22 – 26 OCTOBER 2021

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SEOUL, KOREA 10 – 13 N OVE M B E R

SPECIALTY COFFEE EXPO

LOUISIANA, UNITED STATES

30 SEPTEMBER – 3 OCTOBER 2021 The Specialty Coffee Expo was designed to be the coffee professional’s one stop shop for everything they need to succeed in the coffee industry. As the industry’s standard setter, the SCA has built a solid reputation over the last 30 years of providing the most up to date, qualified information and providing members the tools to succeed. The 2021 event will feature Design Lab, an interactive exhibit concept, as well as the Best New Product competition, Certified Home Brewer display and Roaster Village, highlighting some of America’s best roasters. www.coffeeexpo.org

ANUGA 2021

COLOGNE, GERMANY 9 – 13 O CTO B E R Anuga’s leading global trade fair for the food and beverage industry, is taking place in Cologne in October. But that’s not all. For the first time, the leading industry get-together is being enhanced with a new digital format, Anuga @home, from 11 to 13 October. Wherever you operate worldwide – Anuga is offering you the opportunity to be part of the hybrid edition of the event, whether on-site in Cologne or in digital form. www.anuga.com

COFFEE SHOP INNOVATION EXPO

TAIWAN INTERNATIONAL COFFEE SHOW

9 – 10 N OVE M B E R

19 – 22 NOVEMBER 2021

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM The Coffee Shop Innovation Expo will transform the ExCeL London into the ultimate destination for coffee innovation, forming the UK’s leading event for coffee shop business owners.

Taking place 9 and 10 November 2021, this free-to-attend event gives visitors the chance to gain exclusive access to all of the hottest new drinks trends, immersing them in the ultimate marketplace for revenue growth and equipping them with all the tools they need to boost their ROI and maximise their profitability. www.coffeeshopexpo.co.uk

TAI PE I, TAIWAN The Taiwan International Coffee Show brings together coffee and related products/services and is the country’s sole international and business-to-business coffee industry exhibition. In 2021, the events will host the World Latte Art Championship, World Coffee In Good Spirits Championship, and World Coffee Roasting Championship. www.chanchao.com.tw/coffee

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PRODUCTS Marketplace

MAHLKÖNIG GUATEMALA Mahlkönig presents a redesigned version of the popular Guatemala shop grinder. The classic model has gone through a face-lift while keeping loved and proven technical specifications. The Guatemala hopper has a capacity of about 900 grams, and is equipped with a further developed set of burrs. The proven vertical positioning of the grinding chamber ensures almost residue-free grinding. As a result, the grinder contributes to an outstanding taste experience with every single cup.

The grinder also has a fresh new look with its modern shape and black colour. It fits into any kind of ambience where the grinder becomes a quality promise and a visual highlight at the same time.

With the new Mahlkönig Guatemala, users can select first-class premium grinding, with the upmost userfriendliness. It is ideal for brew bars, for pre-ground coffee retail, as well as cuppings and laboratory analysis.

For more information, visit www.mahlkoenig.de

POURSTEADY The Poursteady serves as an extra hand for a coffee bar.

Poursteady automatic pour over coffee machines bring unprecedented speed, precision, and reliability to commercial coffee retailers and better coffee to their customers – by combining automation, information technology, and design.

When continuously running, a barista can make around one cup per minute when all stations are in use. Pour over orders are a simple button press instead of a time intensive task.

For more information, visit www.poursteady.com or follow @poursteady

EVERSYS SHOTMASTER Introducing the latest Shotmaster m-pro/ST, the top of the Shotmaster range. This machine is capable of producing up to 700 espressos per hour, eight shots at a time. The milk module located in the middle of the machine can be configured with various milk calibration options (1.5-Step, Steam wand with Everfoam), alongside four different dairy or plant-based milks.

The machine also possesses four bean hoppers and grinders allowing four potential coffee bean choices. Lastly, two separate baristas can operate the Shotmaster pro at the same time, optimising the use and cost of space.

For more information, visit www.eversys.com

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CAFETTO MFC BLUE Cafetto MFC Blue is an alkaline milk frother cleaner suitable for daily use. This high performance product provides excellent milk fat removal along with descaling of automatic milk frothers. Designed for machines that are used at high frequency. MFC Blue is listed with the NSF and is safe for all machine parts. It has been tested, evaluated, and passed the most stringent toxicology and corrosivity standard. Cafetto MFC Blue comes in a convenient chamber bottle packaging for a measured dose every use.

For more information, visit cafetto.com

MARCO POUR’D By delivering cold coffee from either a ready-to-drink or concentrate source, the Marco POUR’D is the quickest, most stylish, and flexible solution for cold coffee service.

Save barista’s time, improve speed of service, and eliminate inconsistencies in cold brew by automating concentrate dilution and/or volume control and dispense cold coffee from a single point of service.

POUR’D also has the option to add a separate hot water stream from the same font for added value. POUR’D is the ideal solution for any office or coffee shop that wants to improve their cold coffee service.

For more information, visit www.marcobeveragesystems.com

VA EAGLE ONE Eagle One, the coffee machine born in response to the new generation of coffee shops where design, performance, and sustainability are determining factors to create a pleasant and memorable experience.

Eagle One is extraordinarily compact and adaptable to many different locations.

The ergonomic research of the Eagle One makes it remarkably user-friendly, so the barista can work smoothly and provide an excellent coffee time for the client.

Its NEO (New Engine Optimization) engine uses an instant heating system in which only the necessary volume of water for the extraction is heated, thus reducing energy-related expenses. The smaller boilers are insulated with a new material that avoids heat dispersion. This way, less energy is consumed.

Eagle One is perfectly balanced with design, innovation, and sustainability to provide a memorable experience for the user and customer. With Eagle One, future begins.

For more information, visit www.victoriaarduino.com/eagleone J U LY /A U G U S T 2 0 2 1 | GCR

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LAST WORD AirXCoffee

GROUNDED IN SUSTAINABILITY VIETNAMESE SUSTAINABLE MANUFACTURER AIRXCOFFEE HAS REPLACED SINGLE-USE PLASTICS WITH A MATERIAL ABUNDANT: COFFEE GROUNDS. GCR EXPLORES HOW.

W

ith single-use plastics on a global downtrend and Vietnam currently the world’s second largest producer of coffee, AirXCoffee saw an opportunity.

Through mixing locally sourced coffee grounds with recycled materials such as plastic, starch, cellulose, wood, natural resins, waxes, and oils, the company realised they were able to create one of the world’s first coffee-ground face masks.

Thanh Le, Founder of AirXCoffee, says this is where the brand first shot to fame. “We saw that many people in Vietnam were using single-use masks at the start of the pandemic. Since Vietnam is already very polluted, we wanted to fix this,” Le tells Global Coffee Report.

To create the coffee-based material, AirXCoffee dries spent coffee grounds at low humidity and crushes them into small particles. The recycled materials are also pre-crushed before being mixed with the grounds and melted together at a high temperature. The product is then left to harden and broken into small bullet shaped pieces. The first mask prototype uses a formula of recycled materials, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic and coffee grounds.

Working around the clock, AirXCoffee’s research team were able to replicate the formula and successfully bring it to market in early 2020.

“We didn’t have a lot of time to think how to market [the masks] properly. When we first made them, the product sold itself and then through word of mouth, our business continued to grow,” says Le. AirXCoffee now sells its coffee masks to more than 50 countries worldwide, with a list of international recognised sponsors such as Starbucks, Mercedes, and Dekra.

From here, AirXCoffee has announced a new Bio Composite line consisting of household products such as chairs, toiletries, cutleries, and mugs that will be made using a similar formula to the face masks.

Due to the different density and hardness of the products, Le says the new Bio Composite products will utilise recycled Polyphenylene plastic as one of the key materials in addition to 40 per cent The new Bio Composite line is made of 40 per cent spent coffee grounds. coffee grounds To create the Bio Composite line at a faster rate, AirXCoffee uses empty product moulds filled with coffee grounds that are set to harden. Le says providing the ground material to factories in moulds or enlisting equipment manufacturers to build the moulds, has increased the scalability and sustainability of the Bio Composite line.

“It is ecologically friendly because it stops plastics ending up in landfill or being burned in factories and releasing large amounts of carbon dioxide,” Le says. “It also provides our partners with a green solution.”

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AirXCoffee’s Bio Composite line consists of household products.

To Le, this line is also about helping AirXCoffee’s long list of supporters from international partners such as Nestlé to local vendors in Vietnam.

The production of coffee-based materials has the potential to create jobs for Vietnamese communities, from collecting the coffee grounds to processing of the material and building the final product.

“We want to help our partners reduce costs by offering them a competitively priced material to plastic,” Le says.

“For all customers, in Vietnam and around the world, we provide a unique, eco-friendly product. By turning these coffee grounds into a usable product, it has a second life, and will contribute to the growth of the Vietnamese coffee industry.”

Le believes the main barrier preventing sustainable practices is habit. Through creating products, which are easy for the customers to access, he hopes consumers will be motivated to act sustainably.

AirXCoffee is expected to start producing the Bio Composite line in June 2021. G C R

remove up to 99.9% of caffeine