Brazil Many Brazilian plantation workers are abandoning their profession in search of better wages in big cities and urban areas. As a result, Brazil’s coffee sector that has found itself in dire need of extra farm hands is turning its sights to a formerly shunned solution – machine harvesters.
As the insufficient number of workers becomes glaringly evident, the costs of labor for Brazil’s coffee farmers is skyrocketing and spending money on mechanized harvesting no longer seems like a prohibitively costly enterprise.
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Honduras Honduras is expected to become the world’s second-largest producer of washed Arabica beans for the first time, according to Honduran coffee sector officials.
The production estimate has been adjusted by 500,000 bags and is now expected to reach a record high of 4.29 million bags prying the number two spot away from Mexico.
One of the reasons is the agreement that Ihcafe is planning to sign with the National Agricultural Development Bank that will release some US$10 million in loans to coffee farmers over the next 6 months.
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Holland UTZ Certified has joined the 4C Association. UTZ Certified and the 4C Association made the news public on the occasion of the SCAE conference in Maastricht. This step follows the announcement by the 4C Association in March to further strengthen its pre-competitive platform function and actively promote all sustainability standards in the market. Both organizations see collaboration within the coffee sector as necessary for getting a significantly larger part of coffee production on the road towards sustainability.
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 Holland
On June 22 at a charity party at Dominikaner during the SCAE exhibition in Maastrricht, Andrea Bianchin, sales director of CMA Astoria handed over a check for US$32,000 to Carolyn Fairman, executive director of Coffee Kids, the non-profit organization devoted to improving the lives and livelihoods of coffee-farming families.
The amount is deduced from the profit made in 2010 by selling Plus 4 You, the Astoria energy-saving coffee machine.
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UK Miko Coffee, a subsidiary of Euronext Brussels listed coffee service and plastic packaging specialist Miko, has just signed an agreement to supply Puro Fairtrade coffee to around 150 National Trust sites. These include the world-famous White Cliffs of Dover and the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland.
The National Trust is a non-governmental organization that looks after more than 350 historic buildings, gardens and monuments, and manages the conservation of a large number of nature reserves and archaeological sites in the United Kingdom. The Trust has 14 million paying visitors a year.
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US A couple in Jacksonville, Florida, who originally grew up on coffee farms in Kenya, have come up with something new that could change the way America drinks coffee.
Kenyan coffee is already regarded as one of the best coffees in the world and it is known for its fruity flavor and aroma. It also has a bright acidity and medium body, with a lot of blueberry and chocolate hints. Martin Kabaki and Purity Gikunju, who grew up poor on coffee farms in Kenya before moving to the US in 1999, have come up with a new and innovative idea of blending their organically grown Kenyan coffee with a USDA Organic certified finely ground extract from Reishi mushrooms that are grown right here in the United States.
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Russia Strauss Coffee, the fifth-largest coffee company in the world in terms of green coffee procurement volumes and subsidiary of Strauss Group, announced its acquisition of the Ambassador brands of freeze-dried instant coffee, roast coffee and ground coffee from Sucafina Group SA.
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Philippines During his visit of the 4,000-hectare coffee farms in Amadeo, Senator Francis Pangilinan said that he was shocked by the fact that the Philippines had to import over 40,000 tons of coffee to meet domestic demand.
The senator said that the Philippines used to be the fourth largest coffee exporter in the world around 30 years before and insisted that the country should ramp up production to rise to the demands of the local market.
Nestle Philippines is the biggest importer of coffee in the country followed by smaller suppliers to retailers and coffee shop chains.
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 Neal Robinson
Bunn-O-Matic Corporation is sad to share that Neal Robinson, senior vice president of global projects, passed away Monday, August 22, 2011.
Neal worked for over 25 years at BUNN, beginning in 1986 as a district sales manager for the Southeastern United States. He was promoted to regional sales manager then regional vice president for the Southeastern United States. In 1993 he served as senior vice president, US sales and customer support. During 1999 he moved to the position of senior vice president, international sales and, most recently, he served as senior vice president, global projects.
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According to a statement by the International Coffee Organization (ICO), world output of coffee in 2011-2012 will be 3.3 million bags lower compared to 2010-2011. Although the world’s robusta crop will grow by 3.9%, Arabica bean output will fall by 6.2% offsetting robusta’s performance. The drop in overall output is largely due to a lower level of coffee production in Africa and South America.
Coffee production in Africa may drop by as much as 18% in 2011-2012 because of a markedly smaller crop yield in Ethiopia, the continent’s largest coffee producer.
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