Sofie Nys, Sustainable Purchasing Manager for Sucafina EU and Veronique Heylen, Green Coffee Trader for Sucafina EU update us about the current green coffee market.
What’s the golden rule for buying green coffee in today’s market?
To keep buying great coffee and take a long term perspective on price. In today’s market, availability is a challenge, so our recommendation is to focus on what is available now and to book it for the longer-term instead of waiting until prices drop and risk missing out on availability.
What work is Sucafina doing at the farm level?
Throughout our vast network of sister companies in Origin countries, we directly support smallholder farmers with agricultural training, financial services (such as crop financing) and marketing services to help them access international markets. Thanks to this network, we now work directly with over 170,000 farmers, we have built 50+ washing stations, helped certify more than 83,000 farmers, and we currently participate in various environmental and social projects locally. We are working to expand these activities at quite a fast pace, as well.
How transparent is Sucafina about pricing and why does it matter?
Transparency is a very challenging and complex topic. Although everyone across the supply chain has authority over their own data – and in particular what they want or do not want to share - as a company, we are always happy to engage in conversations about the costs and value addition in every step of the supply chain. We think that price transparency is really important to convey that paying above a certain price for a coffee means that the cost of production is covered and that an income is ensured for every actor in the supply chain.
What developments in coffee are you most excited about?
We are very excited to see an increase in awareness of coffee quality among consumers since the start of the pandemic, especially when it comes to home brewing. On top of that, we are happy that while coffee price increases over the last few months have been challenging, they seem to be moving towards levels that could ensure longer-term sustainability for farmers.
What coffee regions should we keep an eye on for the future?
China is definitely one. In Yunnan, female coffee growers have shown more perseverance in responding to the impact of low prices for the past years, working to improve quality to get better prices. Today, these successful women are involved in more experimental processing and raising cup scores, producing some exciting coffees that we suggest you keep an eye on. In general, we think that women-produced coffees will bring us many surprises in the future – regardless of the Origin.
What are your thoughts on trending coffee fermentation methods such as carbonic maceration?
This is a very difficult one to answer! Veronique: I like to be challenged when it comes to coffee, but these sorts of experimental coffees are not what I consider ‘everyday drinking’ coffee. Sofie: “although tasting different coffee fermentation methods was fun and interesting when I first started out in coffee, I now prefer to go for a more clean and accessible washed coffee as my everyday cup”.
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