Jamaica coffee farmers worry about drop in sales

KINGSTON, Jamaica: Producers of Jamaica's world-famous Blue Mountain coffee say thousands of gourmet beans are piling up after two of their largest buyers withdrew without explanation.

The government-owned Wallenford Coffee Company and privately run Coffee Traders stopped buying more than a week ago, according to Derrick Simon, spokesman for Jamaica's Coffee Growers Association.

"A lot of the buyers are withdrawing at this time," Simon said Friday. "It's absolutely unprecedented."
Agriculture Minister Christopher Tufton said Wallenford would resume buying next week, but declined to explain what he says is a temporary halt in purchases.
Coffee Traders, a Kingston-based company, did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

The withdrawals come amid a global financial crisis that has driven down prices of raw material exports and slashed income at exporting companies across Latin America, a commodity-rich region.
Norman Grant, president of Jamaica's Agriculture Society, said Wallenford is facing "challenges" but declined to provide specifics.

Grant also is manager of Mavis Bank Central Factory, a top local purchaser of Blue Mountain coffee that he said has not lowered purchasing in recent weeks.
"We have remained in the market," he said. "We're still buying, and the product has not gone to waste."
Jamaica exported some 16,200 tons (15,000 metric tons) of Blue Mountain coffee last year. Mavis Bank and Wallenford account for 45 percent of exports, of which 85 percent is shipped to Japan.
Britain and the U.S. are the next biggest markets for the popular bean, which earns Jamaica US$30 million annually.
Christopher Gentles, executive director at the Coffee Industries Board, said farmers have nothing to fear.
"It's certainly not a crisis," he said. "Everything should be back to normal very soon."
An estimated 7,000 farmers sell Blue Mountain coffee to eight companies, including Wallenford, one of the largest purchasers along with Mavis Bank.

Farmers produce about 3,000 boxes of coffee a day, at a cost of US$46 a box. Blue Mountain is one of the most expensive coffee beans worldwide, selling for roughly US$30 a pound.
"If Wallenford does not start buying by next week, it is going to be hard for the farmers to find another buyer," Simon said.
The halt in purchases comes at the height of harvesting, which runs September through December.
Jamaica's coffee industry is still recovering from Hurricane Ivan, which devastated coffee fields in the Blue Mountain region in 2004.

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Region: Indonesia, Vietnam reeling from downturn

The global economic uncertainty is having a detrimental impact on the coffee industry in Southeast Asia - particularly in Indonesia and Vietnam.

The worst affected growers are those planting Robusta coffee, who tend to be the poorest of the region's farmers. According to reports, while prices have been slumped, stockpiles have been building up - meaning that even if there is a rise in demand, prices are likely to remain low. The director of the Central Queensland University's Centre for Plant and Water Science, David Midmore, told Radio Australia's Connect Asia program, that this could be an opportunity for farmers."The price of coffee's probably gone down about 20 per cent over the last six weeks," he said."But on the other hand, it may open up some opportunities because over the last year or so, the price of other agricultural commodities such as cereals has more than doubled."

Associate head of the Purdue University Agricultural Economics Department, Gerald Shively, has studied the impact of falling coffee prices on Vietnamese smallholders.He explains though, that it is not always easy for farmers to switch."One of the fundamental problems with perennial crops is that they often go through boom and bust cycles because farmers who are responding to higher prices plant the crops," he said."But in a case of coffee, it takes two to three years for the crop to begin producing and then when the coffee prices decline, farmers are somewhat locked in to the fact that they have coffee plants in production."

Professor Shively says these farmers had been attracted by high prices in the mid-90s, which transformed rural life in parts of Vietnam.However, because of seasonal differences, in Indonesia, the poorest farmers are being shielded from some of the impact. "In Indonesia, we have so far Arabica and Robusta and the harvest seasons are inverted, so fortunately the Robusta farmers, who are the ones producing the cheaper coffee, their main crop was when the price were at the highest," said coffee exporter Olivier Tichit from IndoCafe."Fortunately for them they could sell most of their products, maybe 85, 90 per cent of their coffee at very good prices."You can find the full story at the Connect Asia website: http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/connectasia

Is coffee a connection to good health?

Harvard Heart Letter

October 14, 2008

Some coffee drinkers worry that theirs is a bad habit - not nearly on a par with smoking but in that general direction. Those worries are groundless. In the past few years, coffee drinking has been shown to be safe for heart attack survivors. It offers some protection against type 2 diabetes and gallstones. It is not linked to the development of heart disease.

Now, in the largest, longest and most comprehensive study to date, overall death rates among nonsmoking coffee drinkers were no higher than they were among nonsmokers who didn't drink coffee, and may even have been a touch lower (Annals of Internal Medicine, June 17, 2008).

When drunk black and bitter, coffee is a calorie-free beverage brimming with antioxidants. It eases artery-damaging inflammation and delivers a host of substances that help the body regulate blood sugar and dissolve gallstones.

Of course, coffee isn't a health food. The caffeine it contains is addictive. In some people, it causes the occasional missed or extra heartbeat or a speedup in the heart's rhythm. Espresso and other unfiltered coffee can slightly increase the level of harmful LDL cholesterol. But up to a few cups a day of regular coffee - we don't include Frappuccinos or other coffee-flavored sweets in this category - is fine for you.

...so come on in: shop, let us roast for you, and enjoy a fresh cup of Caffe-Amante Gourmet Coffee!!!

Region & Commodities: Int'l coffee prices have continued to fall

Business Daily Africa

Prices of coffee are expected to remain on the low as leading traders continued to feel the pinch of restricted credit flows triggered by the current global economic turmoil.

The International Coffee Organisation (ICO) said, like other commodities, the crop had come under the heat of the crisis sending its prices in key international markets plummeting for a third consecutive month.

A market report by the organisation said coffee prices fell further during the month of September, with its own composite indicator price settling at US cents 126.69 per pound compared to US cents 131.14 landed in August.

“The crisis in the global financial markets is having a direct effect on commodities in general, including coffee, despite the fact that the coffee supply and demand fundamentals remain unchanged,” ICO executive director, Nestor Osorio said.

He said the credit shortage caused by the financial crunch was also affecting producers, who are likely to be forced to reduce their expenditures on investment and maintenance, with a possible reduced supply in the medium term.

“Inflation levels are also going up in exporting and importing countries....The US dollar has continued to strengthen in relation to the currencies of many exporting countries while commodity prices in general are falling,” the official said.

The Kenyan coffee industry has not been spared the pinch and prices have kept on a nosedive in the last two months, prompting officials of the weekly Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE) to try and appease disillusioned growers.

In a rare show last week, the Kenya Coffee Planters and Traders Association (KCPTA) that runs the auction moved to explain why prices had dipped sharply following protests from growers.

It linked the woes being witnessed locally to instability in leading global markets as a result of the economic turmoil.
The ICO, however, maintained that the economic turmoil may not have a huge impact on the global production of the commodity.

“In the absence of any new information, I am maintaining my estimate of world production in crop year 2008/09 at around 131 million bags,” said Mr Osorio.

Statistics showed that exports by all producers during August reached 7.4 million bags, compared to 8.1 million bags in July while exports during the first 11 months of the coffee year 2007/08 (October 2007 –August 2008) fell by 4.5 per cent to 86.6 million bags for the same period in coffee year 2006/07.

“Credit restrictions and lack of liquidity caused by the crisis could lead to a reduction in supply,” he said.

ALERT: Coffee Drinking Does Not Raise Breast Cancer Risk

By Crystal Phend, Staff Writer, MedPage TodayPublished: October 13, 2008Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco

BOSTON, Oct. 13 -- Several cups of coffee a day do not seem to pose an overall breast cancer risk, researchers here found in a large cohort study, confirming other research.

Breast cancer risk was not significantly elevated overall by drinking four or more cups of coffee a day (relative risk 1.08, 95% confidence interval 0.89 to 1.30), reported Shumin M. Zhang, M.D., of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard, and colleagues in the Oct. 13 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Nor did women with even the highest level of caffeine consumption appear to be at elevated risk (RR 1.02, 95% CI 0.84 to 1.22) in the analysis of the prospective Women's Health Study.
But as in some previous studies, high caffeine consumption appeared to increase risk for women with a history of benign breast disease. Risk was also elevated for developing hormone receptor-negative or larger tumors.
The researchers cautioned though, that these subgroup findings may be due to chance.

You can read the rest HERE

Tanzenia: Coffee factory mulls higher Green tea farmer prices

Factory mulls raising producer tea prices By Joas Kaijage.

Bukoba Kagera Tea Company (KTC) Ltd mulls raising producer prices for green tea in order to motivate farmers. The move comes amidst fears of slumped processing at the KTC factory.

With capacity for two million kilogrammes, the factory is projected to process about 890,000 kilogrammes only this year. According to KTC Executive Director Dr Peter Mgimba, the factory would not meet its target of at least processing one million kilogrammes this year because of low farmer morale.

Currently, the factory pays farmers Sh100 per kilogramme of green tea leaves without deducting transportation charges as in other regions but farmers are apparently still disenchanted. Dr Mgimba said training for farmers and higher producer price were in line with a number of other KTC interventions to boost production. Recently, KTC in collaboration with the Tanzania Small Hawkers Tea Development Association organised a course for tea extension officers and farmers at the UYOLE Agricultural Institute in Mbeya.

The chairperson of the Kagera Tea Farmers Association (KATEA) Mr James Rwegoshora said Kagera Region had only 178 hectares under tea cultivation after farmers abandoned about 100 hectares. Mr Rwegoshora said tea farms formerly covered 1225 hectares but most farms were abandoned after the factory was privatised in 2000. As a result Mr Rwegoshora said the farms have attracted both local and foreign investors under increasing attention also of local authorities that have started reallocating some of them.

HOW COME?: Loose tea leaves gather in a cup's center

Kathy Wollard
October 13, 2008

If you make a cup of tea using loose tea, and then stir it, why do the leaves gather in the center at the bottom of the mug? asks a reader.Albert Einstein is perhaps best known for the Theory of Relativity, which explained the puzzle of space, time, and gravity. But in 1926, he also discovered the Tea Leaf Paradox, explaining the puzzling behavior of leaves in a tea cup.If you've ever ridden a swiftly moving merry-go-round, or gone around a curve too fast in a car, you're familiar with centrifugal force. Centrifugal force throws objects outward from the center; it's why a washer's spin cycle leaves clothes plastered to the wall of the washer basket.

So when we stir loose tea in a cup of hot water, the leaves "should" end up in an outward-flung ring around the bottom.Instead, they group obediently in the center. How come?According to Einstein, the leaves' motion reveals the circulation of water in the cup. Stirring makes the water spin around a central axis, and spiral out from the center. But the water down below is slowed by friction with the cup's bottom; its spin is weakened.

The rotation difference creates a circulation system in the cup: Water at the top, strongly spun outward, travels down the wall and across the cup's bottom, and then flows back up the central axis. It's this current that ferries tea leaves to the center bottom of the cup.But Cleveland State University physicist Jearl Walker says that there is one thing Einstein failed to notice in his cup of tea. Just after the spoon is removed, before the leaves settle, they form a central ring. Tea leaves outside the ring are dragged inward by the current.

Tea leaves inside the ring are pulled out to join it. As the spinning water slows, the ring contracts in size. Finally, the leaves come to rest in a central heap.Some 80 years after Einstein wrote his paper, the Tea Leaf Paradox has inspired one scientist to invent a new way of "reading" blood cells. At the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., scientist Leslie Yeo was using an electric field to spray drops of liquid from a needle. When one drop landed in the wrong place, he found that small bits of solid material were spinning around in the drop. The liquid was being stirred by a "wind" of charged particles created near the electrified needle. So Yeo decided to do some experiments in a tiny cylinder. He discovered that the liquid's swirling particles always settled in the center on the cylinder's bottom. But why?Puzzled, Yeo found the answer in Einstein's paper on the tea paradox.

Yeo, now based in Australia, realized that the effect could be used to spin blood cells out of whole blood. Using a credit-card sized kit, he says, doctors could do blood tests in the office, with no waiting for outside lab results. Reading the tea leaves, Yeo expects that it might take up to 10 years to develop a working device.

Papua New Guinea students to learn the trade...

Students in Papua New Guinea will be taught the skills of coffee production under a program to be introduced this week.

Pacific correspondent, Nasya Bahfen, reports the so-called coffee curriculum will be offered to primary and secondary schools in provinces such as East Sepik, and the Eastern and Western Highlands. It was developed by the Coffee Industry Corporation (CIC), together with the PNG Department of Education, Ausaid and the UNDP. CIC Deputy chairman James Koimo, says the coffee curriculum will give PNG students who choose not continue their studies after high school practical skills."They have a fallback situation where they can go back and farm their land, produce coffee, look after themselves, all on their land," he said. The PNG coffee industry makes around $US100 million a year.