Photo courtesy Specialty Coffee Association
SCA Tackles Coffee Pricing Crisis
Yannis Apostolopoulos, SCA’s new executive director
The Specialty Coffee Association launched a new initiative in December to investigate and address coffee prices and the effects on farmers around the world.
The Coffee Price Crisis Response Initiative will be led by Ric Rhinehart, who is leaving his role as SCA’s executive director for the new responsibility. Yannis Apostolopoulos steps up from deputy executive director is oversee the international coffee association.
The Coffee Price Response Initiative “is critical to the future of the industry and in keeping with our purpose as an association: to foster a global coffee community and support activity to make specialty coffee a thriving, equitable and sustainable activity for the entire value chain,” the association said in a statement.
At the direction of the SCA board of directors, the SCA created the price crisis initiative and established four key objectives for its first year. According to the SCA, the objectives are:
- Increase funding and resources to better understand the pricing situation. The initiative will work with the SCA’s Advocacy and Sustainability Centers.
- Research the coffee price crisis and its effect on producers and the full value chain.
- Bring together experts in both the industry and academia to find alternative “price discovery tools” for the specialty coffee industry.
- Develop new economic models for specialty coffee and ways for the private sector to deal with risks in the supply chain.
“The coffee value chain is long and most coffee producers are not paid enough for their coffee to maintain profitable farming operations,” the SCA said in a statement announcing the initiative. “This should not be news to anyone who has been paying attention in the coffee industry; we have been hearing about this problem from coffee farmers, producing country institutions, and producer advocates for a long time.”
The organization cited its own 2017 review on coffee farm profitability that set a price threshold at $2.50 per pound to reach profitability. Recent prices have dropped below $1 per pound.
SCA Elects Board Members
In another move, the SCA announced six new members to its Board of Directors. Each term began Jan. 1, 2019.
The six new members are Asli Yaman of KiMMA Coffee Roasters; Pamela Chng of Bettr Barista; Vava Angwenyi of Vava Coffee; Vera Espindola Rafael of the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food in Mexico (SAGARPA); Mbula Musau of Utake Coffee Limited; and Choi Seongil of Choi Coffee Company.
Meanwhile, Heather Perry of Klatch Coffee Roasting becomes the board’s new president. Other officers include Christina Meinl of Julius Meinl as vice president, Tracy Ging of S&D Coffee & Tea as second vice president, and Nils Erichsen of WAVE Investments as treasurer.