Central American Coffee Producers Skipping Intermediaries

They are now grinding their own grains and connecting directly with specialty roasters who pay high prices for the product.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Seeking protection from the historical ups and downs in the price of coffee, there are several producers who are trying to transform the drink into an exclusive product, as with fine wines. They want to establish a premium brand and market it directly to roasters worldwide.

Such is the case of the "geisha" grains in Panama, marketed for its jasmine flavour, which reached a record price of $170 a pound in an auction online.

This trend is called "direct trade" and competes directly with other modes of marketing the grain, such as certification of organic produce.

The Costa Rican Coffee Institute said that there is a boom in the country of "micro mills", designed to process coffee beans for individual farms. In this way, producers gain a better quality control, a task made difficult in cooperatives and large mills where beans from several farms are mixed.

An article in Laprensagrafica.com notes: "Buyers of specialty grains such as Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea, based in the United States, who buy coffee in Latin America, East Africa and Indonesia, say their customers want to source their coffee grain to a single farm, and are distancing themselves from the cooperatives.

"You need to ensure that the land is well managed, because you can have a good harvest this year, but if the agricultural management is not good, perhaps the next year will not be so productive," said Sarah Kluth, green coffee buyer for Intelligentsia. "

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