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Coffee plants in an agroforest system. All images courtesy of Soil Symbiotics. Throughout Latin America, coffee-growing regions are quickly becoming hotter and drier while at the same time losing substantial tree cover. Globally, coffee farms cover an estimated 11 million hectares of ecologically sensitive land. Many of these farms are the last bastions of standing

Vera Espíndola Rafael. Courtesy photo. I recently interviewed Vera Espíndola Rafael regarding lead involvement in the Sustainable Coffee Buyers Guide, a grassroots tool designed to appeal to the consciousness of sustainability-minded coffee roasters. Yet the guide is only one of the myriad ways in the past decade in which Espíndola Rafael, a development economist based

Brazilian coffee producer Silvio Leite. All images courtesy of ACE. The nonprofit Alliance for Coffee Excellence and legendary Brazilian coffee expert and entrepreneur Silvio Leite have announced 22 high-quality microlot coffees that will be up for auction at the inaugural Silvio Leite’s Secret Treasures Private Collection Auction. The first Brazilian representative in ACE’s three-year-old Private

Gento Coffee Founder Ashley Prentice roasting coffees in Guatemala City. All images courtesy of Gento Coffee. A new wave of coffee companies is challenging conventional logistical and value-creation paradigms by roasting coffees “at origin” for sales directly to consumers markets such as the United States and Europe. Historically, even in the case of vertically integrated

With a focus on promoting deforestation-free coffee supply chains while rewarding farmers, Dutch tech startup Carble has closed a more than $300,000 funding round. According to an announcement from the Noordwijk-based company this week, the investment will be used to bring Carble’s first product to market. As DCN first reported last year, Carble is taking

The nonprofit International Coffee Organization has released the third iteration of its flagship annual report, urging public and private actors throughout the world to support youth engagement in agricultural production. The 98-page 2021 Coffee Development Report (CDR) pictures a not-too-distant future in which an aging workforce in coffee-producing countries, combined with increased global coffee demand,

The Innovea breeding factory site, located at CATIE. A breeding population of 1,000 genetically unique trees will be planted here in spring 2023. Photo courtesy of WCR. Today marks the official launch of Innovea, a highly anticipated global coffee breeding network led by the nonprofit World Coffee Research and nine participating coffee-producing countries. With funding

As world leaders meet this week in Egypt for the COP27 climate conference, the Specialty Coffee Association is bringing to light its recent report outlining what coffee organizations might do to address their carbon footprints. Called “Coffee and Carbon: GHG Emission Reductions Progress and Strategies Across the Value Chain,” the 47-page report underscores the need

Image courtesy of the Alliance for Coffee Excellence. The Long Miles Coffee Project (LMC) and nonprofit Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE) have teamed up to launch the first Long Miles Burundi Private Collection Auction, an online sale of high-scoring, traceable microlot coffees taking place Thursday, Dec. 8. Sixteen small coffee lots from 12 different hills

The new Covoya logo. United States and UK-based green coffee trading company Olam Specialty Coffee has changed its name to Covoya. The company is introducing the new brand today, unveiling a logo with eye and sun imagery, and a portmanteau of the words collaboration and voyage. “Covoya combines the idea of collaboration, which is the

Inside the new Stemma Craft coffee roastery and cafe in Orlando, Florida. All images courtesy of Stemma Craft Coffee. Beans stemming back to a coffee farm in Jinotega, Nicaragua, are now freshly roasted and brewed in downtown Orlando, Florida, at the colorful roastery cafe of Stemma Craft Coffee. The coffee shop, which held its grand

Antônio de Oliveira Filho and his father Antônio de Oliveira. Courtesy photo. Five coffees scored more than 90 points in the recent Brazil Cup of Excellence (CoE) competition, reinforcing the notion that the world’s largest coffee-growing country by volume is also bringing forth some of the world’s highest-quality coffees. The top-scoring coffee in the 23rd

Green coffee trading company Sucafina has launched a new in-house sustainability program called Impact (styled as “IMPACT” by the company), with shipments of the first Impact-verified coffees expected to arrive next year. In an announcement today, Sucafina said the sustainability scheme builds upon the green coffee company’s existing company-wide commitments to responsible sourcing. The scheme

Sustainable Harvest CEO David Griswold providing opening remarks at Let’s Talk Coffee 2018. All images courtesy of Let’s Talk Coffee. Portland, Oregon-based green coffee trading company Sustainable Harvest is bringing back its flagship annual global event, Let’s Talk Coffee, taking place next Feb. 20-25 in Copan Ruinas, Honduras. The invite-only event brings together leaders from

The new Kribi Coffee bar in Oak Park, Illinois. All images courtesy of Kribi Coffee. With coffee operations in Cameroon, a vertically integrated coffee company called Kribi Coffee has opened its second roastery and cafe, in Oak Park, Illinois. The new 500-square-foot shop that opened earlier this month on Chicago’s western outskirts follows an original

Coffee in parchment. Daily Coffee News photo by Nick Brown. Fairtrade International has unveiled a living-income reference price for arabica coffee in Uganda, part of a broader effort to boost incomes for smallholder coffee farmers throughout the coffee-growing world. The international nonprofit identified a farmgate price of 11,640 Ugandan shillings per kilo of parchment coffee

Spots indicative of coffee leaf rust disease on a coffee plant in Hawaii. November 2020 photo from the Hawaii Board of Agriculture. The nonprofit Hawaii Agricultural Research Center (HARC) has been awarded a $1.37 million federal grant to combat coffee leaf rust, the leaf-killing disease that has spread throughout the Hawaiian islands. The grant comes

The Macallan Harmony Collection coffee-inspired whiskies. Press photo. While specialty coffee has taken its fair share of inspiration from the worlds of fine wines and spirits, renowned Scottish whiskey maker The Macallan is throwing its full marketing heft behind a pair of new whiskey releases inspired by coffee.  This is not a PBR Hard Coffee

Convivo Café Founders Vivi Lemus and Kristin Lacy at the new coffee shop in Denver. Photo by Brookleigh Photography, courtesy of Convivio Café. A new coffee shop in Denver called Convivio Café is creating clear coffee and cultural connections to Guatemala that extend all the way to the roasts.  Convivio’s coffee program focuses primarily on

The 2022 Best of Thailand ceremony. All images courtesy of the Alliance for Coffee Excellence. Fifteen coffee lots have been identified as winners in a Cup of Excellence (CoE) pilot program for Thailand green coffees called Best of Thailand. CoE sibling nonprofit the Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE) is currently selling sample sets of the

Daily Coffee News Staff | October 19, 2022 Burundi-focused green coffee trading company JNP Coffee is launching its first private specialty coffee auction, called Grand Cru Burundi, to take place online on Wednesday, Nov. 30. According to the Boston-area and Burundi-based company, which was founded by Jeanine Niyonzima-Aroian, net proceeds from the auction will be

Daily Coffee News Staff | October 18, 2022 Winning producer representatives gathered at the Cup of Excellence awards ceremony this month. All images courtesy of the Alliance for Coffee Excellence. Producers of 22 green coffee microlots representing seven different arabica coffee varieties, five different growing regions and four different post-harvest processing methods have won the

Coffee may be a major casualty of a hotter planet. Even if currently declared commitments to reduce emissions are met, our new research suggests coffee production will still rapidly decline in countries accounting for 75% of the world’s Arabica coffee supply. Arabica coffee (Coffea arabica) is one of two main plant species we harvest coffee beans from.

Dutch technology startup Almacena says it has raised €3.5 million ($3.39 USD, as of this writing) for the further development of a digital green coffee platform and marketplace focused on African coffees. The investment was led by the Bulgarian firm Eleven with participation from Greece-based VentureFriends and United States-based Acequia Capital. According to an announcement

Stock photo of roasted coffee beans. A United States District Court judge last week approved a preliminary settlement agreement between L&K Coffee Co. LLC and a group of coffee farmers from the Kona region of Hawaii. L&K is a Michigan and Las Vegas, Nevada-based company that owns the company Magnum Coffee Roastery and its sub-brands.

2019 photo by Russell Powell for Heifer International. Used with permission. Esteban, 28, sprays coffee plants using organic fertilizer in Lagunas Community, Honduras. [Note: This column is part of an ongoing editorial collaboration with Cory Gilman of Heifer International that is deconstructing the subject of sustainability in coffee. Follow the full series here.] As we

Photo courtesy of the authors. Labor is the single largest component of most coffee farmers’ costs of production. In Latin America, for example, labor accounts for the majority of production costs.  When external pressures negatively affect farmers’ profit margins, farmers naturally tend to reduce costs in any way possible. As the cost of labor is

A coffee farm in Urrao, Antioquia, Colombia, participating in Verve’s Farmlevel Nursery Project. All images courtesy of Verve Coffee Roasters. This month, the California-born roasting and retail company Verve Coffee Roasters took its direct-trade operations to a whole new level as it unveiled its inaugural Farmlevel Nursery Project coffee. The coffee bags that hit Verve’s

Coffee in Minova, on the shores of Lake Kivu. Photo by MNKF Creatives, courtesy of Mighty Peace Coffee. The coffee industry and its supply chains are complex.  The SCA’s coffee systems map identifies 27 stakeholders scattered across continents that make our industry run. Each participant has its own needs, incentives and challenges, including navigating the

The new Bravo IT grinder from Brazil’s Bravo. Photo by @ourcoffeeshelter. Brazilian specialized coffee equipment maker Bravo has released its third manual grinder, the Bravo IT. The São Paulo-based company, which conducts small production rounds twice per year, said new Bravo grinders will become available to customers overseas this month, with sales to the United