1. CONSUMPTION OVERVIEW
PRODUCING AND
EMERGING COUNTRIES
Carlos H. J. Brando
P&A International Marketing
World Coffee Conference - Guatemala
01022072 27 February 2010
OBJECTIVES OF HARVESTING
- Collect all ripe cherries
(maximize quality)
- With as few unripe and over-ripe cherries as
possible
- At a competitive cost
- Without damage to coffee trees
(ensure f
( future production)
d )
TRADITIONAL VIEW
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2. SITUATION TODAY
- Percentage of unripe cherries growing markedly
- Labor factors
• availability falling
• costs growing faster than inflation and coffee
prices
- Need to sort out cherries
after harvesting
• manually
• mechanically
- Cherries with different degrees of ripeness
g p
• mostly processed together
• quality losses
POOR SELECTIVE HARVESTING BECOMING STANDARD
(5 TO 15% UNRIPE CHERRIES)
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HARVESTING SYSTEMS I
- Selective (ripe only)
• washed Arabica
• some Robusta
- Stripping
(some or all coffee in branch)
• natural Arabicas
• most Robustas
- Mechanical
• some Arabicas in Brazil
• other countries experimenting
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3. HARVESTING SYSTEMS II
ITEM SELECTIVE STRIPPING MECHANICAL
Low to
High Low to high
SELECTIVITY intermediate
(Many picking (2 or 3 picking (1, 2 or 3
rounds) rounds) picking rounds)
LABOR
REQUIREMENTS High Intermediate Low
Intermediate
COST Highest to low Lowest
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HOW TO HARVEST MORE VOLUME (V)
WITH LOWER COSTS: FEASIBLE OPTIONS
- Selective harvesting V
- Manual stripping 3 a 5 V
3a5V
- Stripping with hand held harvester 20 V
- Stripping with self propelled harvester 500 V
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4. PICKERS’ PERSPECTIVE UNDER
SELECTIVE HARVESTING
- Limited to picking a given weight of coffee per day
- Prices of all commodities falling in long run
- Real salary tends to grow little if any
- Growing cost of living
- Increasing aspirations
- Poverty will inevitably grow
IS THIS SUSTAINABLE?
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SOLUTION
- Shift to more efficient harvesting systems
- Pick cherries with different degrees of
p
ripeness
- New generation of wet mills
• sort mechanically
• process separately
- Different qualities
- Different uses
- Th
There are markets f cherries th t are not
k t for h i that t
fully ripe
ENABLE SUSTAINABILITY OF PICKERS
(WHO STAY)
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5. BREAKING PARADIGMS:
MYTHS AND TRUTHS
Myth 1. Production of high quality coffee requires
selective picking (of ripe cherries only)
Truth: High
T th Hi h quality coffee comes from 100% ripe
lit ff f i
cherries (picked by any system, manual or
mechanical)
Myth 2. Labor intensive coffee growing (picking)
grants social and economic sustainability
Truth: Romantic approach: selective hand picking
condemns labor to poverty
po ert
Myth 3. There are no markets for coffees coming from
semi-ripe and unripe cherries
Truth: There are already markets and others can be
developed
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SIDE EFFECTS AND EXPECTED NEEDS
- Need to grow more coffee to satisfy quality
g yq y
market
- Need to create markets for lower quality coffees
- Need to create jobs for displaced pickers
- Avoid migration to capital cities and regional
centers
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6. NEED TO GROW MORE COFFEE TO
SATISFY QUALITY MARKET
- Less high quality coffee available
- New markets developed
- More coffee to be planted
- Stronger coffee business
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NEED TO CREATE MARKET FOR
LOWER QUALITY COFFEES
- Soluble
- Consumption in producing countries
- New products
• RTD
• others
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7. NEED TO CREATE JOBS FOR
DISPLACED PICKERS
- Jobs in rural communities and towns
- Develop skills to increase income
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AVOID MIGRATION TO CAPITAL
CITIES AND REGIONAL CENTERS
-P
Poor in coffee fi ld — risk of social unrest and
i ff fields i k f i l t d
manipulation
- Poor in periphery of cities — risk of drugs and
violence
- Pickers as citizens in rural communities — develop
countryside
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8. TENDENCY OR PROPHECY
CHANGE MUST BE MANAGED
OR
MARKET FORCES MAY CAUSE
SOCIAL DAMAGE
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COFFEE WORLD MUST UNDERSTAND
PROCESS TO MANAGE IT
- Who?
• workers
• growers
• traders
• industry
• institutions
• government
- How?
• know technologies available
• face and destroy paradigms
• pave way for change
p y g
• create jobs and develop markets
- When?
• as need develops
• different in each country
• but… it will come… and earlier than expected
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9. REENGINEERING COFFEE COMMUNITIES
- Labor empowering initiatives
- Employment outside farms
- Youth entrepreneurship
- Community service
- The power of local systems —
“what works” for each place
“Half-educated, unemployed youth, with no prospect of
being integrated into a better future is a prescription
for disaster.”
Ismail Serageldin, World Bank
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COUNTER CHALLENGES BEING FACED BY
MOST COFFEE PRODUCING COUNTRIES
- Youth unemployment
- Lack of “sense of” service towards the community
- No “culture of work”
- Younger generations fleeing countryside to work
in cities
- Growth of poverty in urban areas
• underemployment
• slums
• social unrest
• violence
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10. SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
- Manual selective harvesting condemns labor to poverty
- Alternatives exist and must be used
• efficient harvesting
• modern processing
- Need to destroy paradigms
• quality
• social
• markets
- More coffee to be produced
- New markets to be developed
- Labor that remains to be empowered
- Jobs / businesses to be created for labor that leaves
• retain people in countryside
- Manage change because process is unavoidable
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THANK YOU!
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