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Let's go right to coffee country. Let's head to the mountains of Guatemala—where they grow some of the best coffee you can drink.
When we descend the corkscrew road into the village of Santa Clara, the sun's already sinking behind a peak, and farmers are shuffling back down the steep slopes after a whole day picking beans. Some lead pack horses, which sag under the weight of burlap bags. They're mangy animals; you can count their ribs. The farmers tie the reins to trees at the edge of the village, and then they unload their harvest at the village warehouse.
But many farmers can't afford a horse. One man's staggering down the dirt path, bending forward at the waist: He's lugging more than 50 pounds of coffee on his own back. But he says that's nothing. "Sometimes [we carry] 100 pounds or more," he says, through my interpreter. "You see that mountain in front of us? When you're picking beans on those slopes, there's no way you could get a horse in there, even if you had one. So you have to carry the coffee for more than an hour. You come here sweating, really sweating."
You don't have to be an economist to see that growing coffee here doesn't buy much of a life. Picture the farmers' homes on the hillsides: They're shacks. The floors are bare dirt. There's no running water or electricity. The outside walls are thin wooden planks—and it gets cold here up in the mountains.
The world's coffee prices go up and down, depending partly on supply and demand and speculation by international investors. But these farmers are stuck in poverty. They sell their beans to local businessmen whom they derisively call "coyotes," and the coyotes pay them less than 50 cents per pound. At that price, the farmers can barely make a few hundred dollars a year. "To produce coffee, it's expensive," one farmer says. "It's a lot of work, and sometimes we can't even cover our costs."
In fact, one local coyote confirms that "most farmers are losing money" at the prices he pays them. But he says he doesn't have any choice. He says there's too much coffee on the world markets these days, and if he pays the farmers more, he won't make enough profit to feed his own family.
GENEVA, Switzerland (July 6, 2007) - The Tea & Coffee World Cup Geneva Exhibition & Symposium, which was June 3-5 2007 at the Palexpo in Geneva, Switzerland, proved to be a powerful meeting of the tea and coffee minds. It served as a key opportunity to network, in which valuable business relationships were formed and collaborative partnerships were acquired.
The floor of the international tradeshow introduced many new and cutting-edge products and equipments to industry executives looking for new ways to build upon their product lines and expand brand awareness. Meanwhile, the show’s symposiums shed new light on pertinent industry questions, with a wealth of top-notch speakers lecturing on different tea and coffee tracks.
Representatives from the various sectors of the coffee and tea markets converged in cosmopolitan Geneva to share thought on the issues facing their particular part of the world. Equipment manufacturers, growers, importers, exporters, coffee roasters and tea packers all played a distinct role in helping the industry move in evermore profitable directions.
The Espresso Seminar held by the Italian Espresso National Institute (INEI) in cooperation with the International Institute of Coffee Tasters (IIAC) met even more success than at previous shows in Hamburg and Rome. In this interactive seminar, experts lectured in front of a sold-out room, teaching the science and precision behind making a classic cup of espresso through time-honored techniques. Upon completion, participants were awarded valuable industry diplomas.
Also enriching the educational portion of the 2007 Tea & Coffee World Cup Geneva were three informative and entertaining industry events. The Tea Cupping and Tisane Cupping events each, respectively, had an enthusiastic overflow of attendees lined up to taste and learn. The Coffee Roasting Workshop, sponsored by Probat, shed light on a complex part of the coffee industry supply chain.
Tea & Coffee World Cup Geneva was a success, drawing leaders from Europe, South America, North America, Africa and Asia to showcase their high quality goods and services. Following the same model, and that of previous shows, a new event has been designed to bridge ideas between Latin America and North America, and industry professionals who are interested in doing business with these valuable markets. The Tea & Coffee World Cup Americas show will be held in Miami Beach, Florida, on January 9-11, 2008. Don’t miss this exciting opportunity to learn the most up-to-date information on tea and coffee from the source on through up the supply chain. Your chance to make invaluable business contacts and purchases is just months away, with every aspect of tea and coffee technology, packaging, roasting and processing on display.
For further information on upcoming shows, contact Analia Christmas, Tea & Coffee Trade Journal, e-mail a.pereda@lockwoodpublications.com or visit http://www.tcworldcup.com/.
