Bar a handful of peaks and troughs, the Nigerian coffee sector has been on a steady downward trajectory since the mid-1960s. From producing nearly 100,000 bags of fresh beans in 1964, the West African country has exported less and less year on year. Hope sprung eternal in the late-1980s and through into the early-1990s when harvests began to rally, but soon the rot set in and the descending path opened up once more.
“Quite honestly, we were wrong.”
With those words Keurig’s Brian Kelly confirmed what consumers and some industry experts had known for months: Keurig’s relationship with DRM coffee would only end in tears.
Unfortunately for the company it hasn’t been a brief fling. It’s been a protracted affair where logic went flying out of the window, followed by money, dignity and then the trust of those most important to them. …continue reading Keurig to drop DRM: “We were wrong”
Another day, another lawsuit, another person trying to extract a dollar from a well-known coffee chain over a hot coffee spill: The world keeps on turning.
Normally we don’t mention majority of the ones that get forwarded our way, but sometimes we do, and that’s because they’re newsworthy for a variety of reasons. Such as this one lodged by a serving North Carolina police officer who wants a minimum of $50,000 from Starbucks.
USAID’s substantial investment into the Ugandan coffee sector is something that we at World Coffee Press towers have been keeping a close eye upon since the funding was initially announced.
It’s no secret that coffee is an extremely important commercial commodity to many nations that inhabit the bean belt, none more so that Uganda where the crop is the nation’s major foreign exchange earner. And so when harvests decrease or market prices fall, it isn’t just the coffee farmers that suffer – it’s the entire country.
…continue reading Gender diversity policy laid out in Uganda
After months of deliberation, the European Commission has approved the impending merger between D.E Master Blenders and Mondelez International.
The new company will be officially entitled Jacobs Douwe Egberts and will become a kingpin of the coffee and beverage sector, holding well-known lines of confectionery and beverages as Piazza d’Oro, Oreo, Douwe Egberts and Jacobs coffee within their portfolio, not to mention a myriad of other retail favourites.
…continue reading D.E. Master Blenders and Mondelez International get the green light to merge
You might remember that last year Starbucks stopped buying coffee.
With arabica prices spiralling upwards and threatening to break through the proverbial roof, the coffee giant pulled out of the market all together and left everybody else to squabble over the bean reserves that were going for $2.25 per pound.
The warm weather that Tanzania is currently experiencing could negatively affect the nation’s coffee harvest later this year, a South African university has determined.
Despite stating the obvious in their conclusion, the methodology that the research team from the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, used was actually quite interesting.
…continue reading Rising night time temperatures are affecting Tanzania’s coffee farmers
Some protests in Kenya have taken a fiery turn after a number of incensed coffee farmers based in the Othaya district of the country burnt around 100 bags of freshly harvested coffee.
The reason?
Police and other officials were trying to force them to sell the coffee to one particular milling and processing company.
…continue reading Fires and blockades: A strange situation for some Kenyan coffee farmers
Could Kopi Luwak be on its way out?
After seven years of experiments and a few field trips to Indonesia, a Taiwanese research team from the National Pingtung University of Technology and Science (NPUTS) believe that they have created their very own, laboratory made Kopi Luwak.
But don’t worry, no civets were caged or trapped to make this product!
…continue reading Taiwanese team develops artifical Kopi Luwak
Some further details have come to light regarding USAID’s substantial investment in the Ugandan coffee industry.
The deposit will be managed by the National Union of Coffee Agribusiness and Farm Enterprises (more commonly known as NUCAFE) and is part of the US Government’s Feed the Future campaign.
…continue reading Funding outlined for USAID’s Ugandan investment
