It appears that once again the media are quick to fire pointless stories about coffee which does nothing to help educate the consumer, rather write a story for the sake of writing a story. I owe Massimo an apology for the comment I directed at him in my last post, it wasnt intended to be personal, so I apologise for the lack of judgement Mass. It more echos a sentiment regarding how I feel toward a particular approach to roasting. Alberto - Your comment struck a cord with me. I was asked to write an opinion article for the Dom Post (nothing came of it and it wasnt printed for various reasons), but here it is, hopefully it will spark some educated, informed discussion about coffee prices, coffee quality and the medias approach to reporting stories for the sake of reporting stories: ______ It seems that most people have something to say when it comes to the price of coffee, and rightly so I think, as a cup of coffee is something the majority of kiwis include as a ritualistic part of their daily lives. Words like ‘ Fairtrade’, ‘organic’ and ‘shade grown’ have now become synonymous with the consumer psyche and a growing number of caffeine lovers are now more consciously aware of where their coffee comes from and where their dollar is going. But what happens when jargon, platitudes and personal opinions about a popular topic such as coffee prices become mixed and convoluted? In recent months I’ve heard a lot of myths masqueraded as facts around coffee prices and how much it ‘really’ costs to produce our beloved flat white or long black. From media articles, to the obligatory commentators of blog posts, it appears that though we may well be more aware about where our coffee comes from, there is still a fundamental lack of understanding about the true cost of producing a coffee; it does not cost us $0.50 to produce a cup of coffee and not all coffee is equal. I’ve recently returned from Colombia where myself and my business partner, Matt Graylee, purchased approximately 17 tonnes of coffee. Working with 30 coffee farmers from across the region we paid $25,000.00 USD above the market rate for these. We did this because we believe it’s important that we offer farmers the same relative margins we offer when selling our coffees in the café between 40% - 60%. Weve also invested heavily in time and resources to add value to the entire coffee value chain, this being: farming/producing, exporting, importing, roasting, brewing, and communicating this to consumers. By being involved intimately with these steps weve improved our understanding of the complexities and challenges faced by the coffee industry at large. These are as varied as they are ingrained and encompass cultural, political and generational boundaries. In the instance of Colombia, because of its history and that infact it is still in a state of civil war, there is an inherant nature of distrust toward outsiders. Gaining the trust from the farmers we work with and getting them to understand that we will pay very good prices for their coffee, provided they can achieve a high quality, is one such example. In order for farmers to achieve quality it most often it requires farmers to adopt better farming practises, from picking to processing, having them understand that such improvements can result in greater renumeration verses what has been the status quo of yeilding as much wieght and selling into the volitile comodity market will probably remain one of the many challenges with working in this environment. Regardless of how you prefer your caffeine fix, whether it’s from a tin of instant coffee, a trendy Nespresso capsule, a bag of Fairtrade organic dark roast plunger from the supermarket or the flat white to go which you collect religiously every morning, each one represents an entirely different attitude toward coffee and each a completely different market. To catergorise coffee simply as ‘coffee’ is the same as saying a 99c hamburger from McDonalds is the same thing as a Wellington on a Plate award winning burger from Ti Kouka. Commentators that find a cheap cup of coffee somewhere in New Zealand and go on to conclude that all coffee should thusly be a similar price are saying so irresponsibly. I wouldnt expect a person who drinks and prefers the cheapest 2L box of wine from the supermarket to publically articulate their ‘facts’ about wine, and nobody expects Château La Tour Carnet to be $10 a bottle. Yet here we are, and I suppose it’s understandable to a degree. The distance between coffee producers and final consumer are worlds apart and there is little understanding of the realities of growing, processing, importing, roasting and making quality coffee. It’s something that until travelling to Colombia for the first time last month that I only began to fully understand. It’s also important to remember that cafés and coffee companies are businesses and as such need to make a profit. Through the tone of some of the things I’ve read and watched that ‘profit’ is always insinuated with greed and personal individual gain. Profit to a business is what oxygen is to the human body. It’s what enables a business to grow, service debt, pay tax, give pay rises to employees and contribute to society. Sir Francis Bacon said it best; ‘Knowledge is power.’ Platitudes and sweeping statements are often inaccurate and don’t help with spreading facts and truth.
Posted on: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 22:48:01 +0000
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