The price of coffee on the coffee exchange was in free fall on the coffee exchanges for a long time. Since corona, it has been quoted a bit higher, but unfortunately the price is still much too low. That seems good for us consumers, but the opposite is true. Cheap coffee causes a number of perverse effects that influence, among other things, the quality of our coffee and our living environment.
Many coffee farmers receive less money for their beans than it costs them to grow, pick and process them. A coffee farmer cannot keep that up for long. When this continues, they will explore other options. For example, they can choose to replace their Arabica plants with the Robusta variety. They yield better, but have different properties than Arabica. A choice that must therefore be made carefully, if one still wants to achieve the same quality. Or farmers may even stop growing coffee altogether, in favor of other crops. Or, and this is a bad option, they opt for efficiency gains through automatic picking, where both ripe and unripe berries are taken from the bush together, which greatly affects the quality of the coffee.
Even worse, you often see that cultivation methods are preferred that may yield more beans (of lower quality) in total, but usually also damage the zone where they are grown. In the latter case, for example, large areas in the sun are cleared of other vegetation. However, a coffee plant produces better beans under the natural shade cover of higher growing plants. Coffee Arabica originated long ago in the few wooded areas of Ethiopia.
Farmers are therefore cultivating more land, and they do not always do so in a way that is good for the soil or the plants and vegetation around it. This leads to poor land management, soil erosion and forest disappearance and a reduction in biodiversity, which in turn leads to flooding and contributes to climate change. The same climate change that will soon make it impossible to grow coffee in certain places because the circumstances have changed so much. And which therefore threatens the survival of coffee as we know it.
What is also very worrying is that farmers who do not make a profit cannot invest in better machines or the improvement of their production processes. They also usually do not have enough money to pay their workers a fair wage. All this is absurd when you know that coffee is one of the most traded commodities in the world (not the 2nd most, that's a myth). Specialty coffee, the only way in which the farmer receives a fair price for his/her product independent of the coffee exchange, makes up only 1% of the world market.
Our producers are therefore vulnerable, which is why we support them with various initiatives that ensure that these farmers receive a fair price. We also help them set up cooperatives that provide better working conditions, security and representation. Farmers learn about good soil and water management. Women farmers are united in the Women Coffee Producers' program, which is very important because they are even more vulnerable. As a result, they receive further training, their representation in the coffee world is improved and we have better access to healthcare and other important authorities. A comprehensive approach, because that is the only way to protect coffee and growers.
Addendum: the new Coffee Barometer (released in 2021) did not bring better news. The situation has not improved for farmers. On the contrary: covid19 made it even worse. We therefore ask the major coffee companies to follow us and increase the price they pay for their beans. Only then will we be able to improve the working and living conditions of coffee farmers and others around the world, can we help combat climate change and continue to guarantee the quality of the coffee. I'll take it one step further: it's our damn duty as coffee makers. Join the challenge!
