Reflections on the Expo Especiales
This past September I joined a group of roasters and green coffee buyers from the United States and attended the 2nd annual Expo Especiales, a national conference funded by the Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia (FNC). It's taken me some time to reflect on the conference, a venue that through discussing the current trends in production and consumption in one of the world's leading coffee exporting countries, essentially sets the stage for determining coffee futures globally. Here are some of my thoughts...
This year's conference focus was Quality. The FNC regards quality
as "[resembling] the relationship and commitment of those who play part
in the
coffee trading chain, to preserve the unique conditions of the bean
from the moment it is picked to the time when it is shipped across the
globe." Indeed, every presentation from the FNC's Commercial Director,
to the US Ambassador to Colombia, to the Coffee Quality
Institute (CQI) focused on the fundamentals of producing, supporting
and marketing quality coffee. Needless to say, this conference was for los productores de café.
There was a showroom, of course, with vendors exhibiting any and all tools that, without which, the overall quality of a given lot could suffer. There were FNC supported cooperatives representing almost every department in Colombia, although given that Colombia has a vast coffee growing region and that the exposition was held in Tolima, I met more producers from Cauca, Huila and Tolima than from other departments. The draw to the expo, however, was less about the exhibitors, more about how Colombian coffees fit the niche of Specialty Coffee.
And just how do Colombian coffees fit that niche? Well, that depends on your definition of what exactly Specialty Coffee is. Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the conference was this: What had prevented a concrete understanding of just why and how a producer should invest in quality was that the concept of Specialty Coffee itself is too ambiguous.
The Federación delivered to the audience that Specialty Coffee is whatever the consumer defines it to be, given that it is the consumer's decision to acquiesce to premiums, thus driving the market. CQI offered that Specialty Coffee seeks to have a common language of unique characteristics, sweetness and flawlessness. Speaking on the broad range of world markets and consumption patterns, panelists from Italy's Illy Caffé, Japan's Mitsubishi International Corporation, and the United States' Intelligentsia Coffee and Tea gave testimonials with little in common but this: each company has a willingness to invest in their own idea of quality.
A specialty coffee is one that is perceived and valued by consumers, one that is of a character that people are willing to pay for, one that has potential. If consumers perceive extra value, they will be willing to pay an extra price, but there is no guarantee a quality coffee will align itself with either a given price point or a sophisticated buyer. If the common themes that the US Specialty Coffee sector are interested in involve traceability, consistency, cleanliness, and uniqueness (and don't we pay for it!), how do we communicate those needs and the need for continued investment of time and innovation on the producer level when Specialty Coffee can also be defined as simply as 'high volume, low defect, and economical'? As a producer, which would you rather invest in?
The Federción explains that at its most basic interpretation, Specialty Coffee represents a sort of 'win-win' situation for both producers and consumers, since the commodity consumption of coffee has not dropped and doesn't seem likely to. Producers work to better their coffee quality, consumers at any level enjoy better coffee. But what happens when the win-win situation effects the premiums for baseline commodity type coffees, driving those prices up and thus narrowing the margin between conventional and specialty? As a producer, which would you rather invest in?
In the end, on the macro level, there was no answer for just how best to safeguard a producer's investment in quality. The most sufficient advice given was also the most hopeful: persevere. If producers abandon their investment in quality practices now, then we will all lose years of work. Given sufficient evidence from organizations such as the FNC and pioneering companies such as Sustainable Harvest, we can be sure that Specialty Coffee trends will continue to grow, open up new markets and new possibilities for higher echelons of quality. Perseverance may then be the first step to achieving that.
There was a showroom, of course, with vendors exhibiting any and all tools that, without which, the overall quality of a given lot could suffer. There were FNC supported cooperatives representing almost every department in Colombia, although given that Colombia has a vast coffee growing region and that the exposition was held in Tolima, I met more producers from Cauca, Huila and Tolima than from other departments. The draw to the expo, however, was less about the exhibitors, more about how Colombian coffees fit the niche of Specialty Coffee.
And just how do Colombian coffees fit that niche? Well, that depends on your definition of what exactly Specialty Coffee is. Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the conference was this: What had prevented a concrete understanding of just why and how a producer should invest in quality was that the concept of Specialty Coffee itself is too ambiguous. The Federación delivered to the audience that Specialty Coffee is whatever the consumer defines it to be, given that it is the consumer's decision to acquiesce to premiums, thus driving the market. CQI offered that Specialty Coffee seeks to have a common language of unique characteristics, sweetness and flawlessness. Speaking on the broad range of world markets and consumption patterns, panelists from Italy's Illy Caffé, Japan's Mitsubishi International Corporation, and the United States' Intelligentsia Coffee and Tea gave testimonials with little in common but this: each company has a willingness to invest in their own idea of quality.
A specialty coffee is one that is perceived and valued by consumers, one that is of a character that people are willing to pay for, one that has potential. If consumers perceive extra value, they will be willing to pay an extra price, but there is no guarantee a quality coffee will align itself with either a given price point or a sophisticated buyer. If the common themes that the US Specialty Coffee sector are interested in involve traceability, consistency, cleanliness, and uniqueness (and don't we pay for it!), how do we communicate those needs and the need for continued investment of time and innovation on the producer level when Specialty Coffee can also be defined as simply as 'high volume, low defect, and economical'? As a producer, which would you rather invest in?
The Federción explains that at its most basic interpretation, Specialty Coffee represents a sort of 'win-win' situation for both producers and consumers, since the commodity consumption of coffee has not dropped and doesn't seem likely to. Producers work to better their coffee quality, consumers at any level enjoy better coffee. But what happens when the win-win situation effects the premiums for baseline commodity type coffees, driving those prices up and thus narrowing the margin between conventional and specialty? As a producer, which would you rather invest in?
In the end, on the macro level, there was no answer for just how best to safeguard a producer's investment in quality. The most sufficient advice given was also the most hopeful: persevere. If producers abandon their investment in quality practices now, then we will all lose years of work. Given sufficient evidence from organizations such as the FNC and pioneering companies such as Sustainable Harvest, we can be sure that Specialty Coffee trends will continue to grow, open up new markets and new possibilities for higher echelons of quality. Perseverance may then be the first step to achieving that.
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