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C
Change is needed!
The spread of COVID-19 presents a
significant additional challenge to the
global coffee sector, which has gone
through a prolonged period of low
producer prices. Many of the 25 million
farmers worldwide, the majority of
which are smallholders, struggle to cover
their operating costs as input prices
continue to rise.
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The Price of Having Borders Closed
As for the next harvest season challenges, the answer from
all the producers was the same. They are extremely concerned
about their workers for one good reason. Coffee pickers in
Costa Rica are for the most part immigrants that come from
Nicaragua or Panama. These coffee pickers have been going to
the same farms for years and they are trained to pick the right
cherries at the best time. They are the ones that know how to
do it and just the thought of having to train new people that
have never picked coffee cherries before becomes sort of a
nightmare.
Due to the current situation with the borders closed and
the high amount of COVID-19 cases both in Panama and Nica-
ragua, Costa Rica is having a rough time not only with coffee
but with many agricultural businesses that depend on immi-
grants. Costa Rica’s Coffee Institute (ICAFE) along with the
Health Ministry have put in place a list of salubrity conditions
to assure public health. However, these conditions are far from
the farmers’ reality and become an added cost, because hiring
a Costa Rican worker is more expensive even though they do
not have the experience of picking the right coffee cherries and
the speed of the most experienced immigrants. When discuss-
ing this topic with Daniela from La Montaña, they don’t even
know yet if it is affordable to hire national workers or if it is
better to harvest only 30% of their production. Also, due to
increased transportation costs, fertilizers and other supplies
prices might go up which will, again, add more production costs.
Coffee demand from their regular buyers is also uncertain,
along with the prices. Despite subscription coffee growing in
a 109% in the United States alone, according to Square x SCA
Coffee Report, this does not mean that companies will buy the
same volume as previous years since acquisition power has
decreased ever since the pandemic crisis started and will con-
tinue like this until the economy gets activated again.
This is just a portrait of some coffee producers from a
country that is widely known for the quality of its coffee, that
can sell the coffee at a higher price due to multiple reasons like
traceability, innovation and working closely with the farmers
to get specific flavor profiles. However, this is not the situation
that other producing countries are in, where they depend on
the C-market prices which are not looking good, and for the
most part they don’t even cover the production costs.
Tough times are ahead for the entire coffee chain but
farmers always take a higher risk. It is now more than ever that
green buyers, roasters, café owners, and consumers have a
protagonist role in supporting the farmers and securing the
coffee for the upcoming years.
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