Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Quality the Niche for Costa Rican Coffee
Experts agree that quality is the only way for Costa Rican coffee to compete in the world market. Low quality, high quantity conventional coffee is dominated by Brazil and Vietnam – which just replaced Colombia as the world’s second biggest producer. The price drop and
global oversupply sparked by Vietnam’s onslaught of production through massive government subsidy programs will only get worse, as the country continues planting new trees that will bear even more fruit in the next five years.
Yet, while the purchasers and peddlers of the lowest quality canned coffee celebrate the never-ending price downslide, the world’s specialty coffee gurus say there must be a better way. But
forging new markets is never easy, and for many, creating specialty niches, such as fair trade, organic, sustainable and even "bird-friendly" coffees can be a complex matter.
The problems are numerous. Universal certification and enforcement standards are lacking, corners can be cut, and switching from a conventional to a niche farm can be expensive.
The bottom line is quality. Specialty coffee buyers are not interested if the quality is low.
global oversupply sparked by Vietnam’s onslaught of production through massive government subsidy programs will only get worse, as the country continues planting new trees that will bear even more fruit in the next five years.
Yet, while the purchasers and peddlers of the lowest quality canned coffee celebrate the never-ending price downslide, the world’s specialty coffee gurus say there must be a better way. But
forging new markets is never easy, and for many, creating specialty niches, such as fair trade, organic, sustainable and even "bird-friendly" coffees can be a complex matter.
The problems are numerous. Universal certification and enforcement standards are lacking, corners can be cut, and switching from a conventional to a niche farm can be expensive.
The bottom line is quality. Specialty coffee buyers are not interested if the quality is low.
# posted by Buck @ 6:14 AM 
