Sintercafe 2009 – Costa Rica

Playa Conchal in the Guanacaste region at the North Western tip of Costa Rica became the coffee industry epicenter this past weekend. Congratulations to Arnoldo Leiva, Sintercafe’s President, and his collaborators for an outstanding program and organization. The quality of the presentations was mostly excellent!

Not to mention that the Playa Conchal Resort offered a unique opportunity for speakers and attendees to stay in contact for three whole days and enjoy the tropical scenario while still staying focused about the current coffee Industry issues.

The highlights of the program were many: Keynote Speaker Massimo Zanetti spoke from his hart about his life as 5the 2nd generation coffee trader in his family and how his business conglomerate operates today. Mr. Zanetti also made clear to the audience that the Zanetti Beverage Group is not done growing yet, further expansion is on the way.

The presentation by Fabian Echeverria on hybrid coffee plants developed through cloning techniques at the CICAFE of Costa Rica was very ambitious, he claimed that these plants are far superior in the various attributes such as Quality, Body, Sweetness, Resistance, Yield and Longevity than all known varieties in production today.

What he did not explain is if these plants are classified as GMO’s and if these they are sterile or can produce seeds. Another unexplained issue was; under which standards has de CICAFE measured quality in cup? Whatever this miracle plant performs in fact is still to be seen as tests migrate to commercial agriculture in the near future.

An outstanding presentation was made by Farmer Brothers President and CEO, Mr. Roger Laverty, we learned a lot about the strategy behind the recent acquisitions, the commercial and logistic plan supporting this renewed Company and the vision towards the future.

Mr. Olav A. Munch, President of Kaffehuset Friele in Norway, made another memorable presentation about the oldest operating roasting Company in the world. Frielle is also the top roaster in Norway and the distributor of Illy Coffee in that country.

Fair Trade Coffees were represented by Paul Rice, President and CEO of Transfair USA. Paul delivered a very clear presentation about the growing presence of the FT label in North America and the amazing positive impact of this trade to the producing communities. Another interesting fact is that the Fair Trade label that already certifies other agricultural products such as fruits. FT is also certifying textiles and is launching FT transformed products such as clothing.

UTZ Certified was also present with their Marketing and Communication Manager, Elena Mihaylova, who made a clear presentation about the UTZ mission and current state of volume in USA and Europe. It seems to me that Certification programs are either getting old or lacking sexiness, their almost all about the same and present almost everywhere, what’s next??

Why not have the transformation Industry (the roasters) start a movement for an added quality protocol to the current certification programs. Shouldn’t the producers be able to produce better quality more of it and add value??

To produce better quality and fill in all the spaces in the quality triangle, producers should be incentivated to learn about how to identify quality, thereafter, they will learn to improve their own production and raise the quality bar and value through the entire supply chain.

Dub Hay, Senior VP for Coffee and Tea at Starbucks, talked about the recent inspirational program driven at the 10 thousand leading Company employees. Dub also introduced the new product Starbucks is launching, VIA, a soluble coffee sache that produces the exact same quality in taste their regular roasted coffee brew produces, VIA was produced for the convenience of the Starbucks customers and also has the mission to expand sales revenue due to its flavor profile and practical handling .

Michel Vellucci, Senior VP at Brown Brothers & Harriman & Co., drove us through the horror tour of why and how the current economic crises happened. He also told us that if we look out through the “near future window”, green sprouts are beginning to appear.

These green sprouts seem to signal that the end of this recession is underway and that we should expect a ” turtle speed ” economic growth scenario. The big challenge will be dealing with an also surfacing inflation weed.

I can’t remember if I wimped or cried at the end of Mr.Vellucci’s presentation, nevertheless, it was just to the point and confirmed my own feeling of what’s to come, don’t forget I spent a good part of my life in Brazil when inflation there reached 110%/per year in the 80’s and 90’s !

When we look to green coffee trading, inflation above 30% per year could force importers to only sell on cash X delivery condition, another model could be the use of other stable currencies for pricing, these could be the Euro, Japans’ Yen or even the Brazilian Real as that country has now a strong and stable economy and is by far the biggest player in the coffee industry with average 45 million bags produced and 19million consumed internally every year.

Many other presentations toped the list in audience and context, within those, Mr Arnoldo Leiva, President of Sintercafe on his welcoming and introduction speech, Mr. Christian Rash, President of Anacafe on the situation for the next crop in Guatemala and Mr. Robert F. Nelson, President and CEO of the NCA.

Towards the end of the program a very educational and interesting lecture was presented by ICO’s Executive Director Nestor Osorio, he spoke about the ICO’s history and the actual mission as a quality development center and Industry information and statistic source.

Then came the big frustrating closure to the Seminar when Mr. Ramon Vargas Hernandez from Inversiones Vargas Rubio, a Colombian Exporter took over the entire last slot time showing tedious graphs trying to explain why Colombian exporters did not perform in price and volume against the commitments during 2009.
Mr Vargas tried in vain to convince the tired, hungry and in part angry audience that the excess of rains or the lack of them was to blame for the millions of Dollars importers and roasters lost this year on the late, overpriced and even short deliveries of Colombian coffees.

The so much expected opportunity to have questions and answers on “What happened in Colombia and can it happen again?” – was totally neutralized by Mr. Hernandez dragging presentation.

Even the follow up closing presentation by the also much expected Mr. Carlos Alberto Arboleda, Commercial Director of the FNC was compromised due to a forceful cut in time on his presentation. Maybe this was just meant to be and Q & A was only in the Sintercafes plans and program but not in the presenter priority list.

On another note about the Sintercafe, John Parry from the Parry Estate in Kona Hawaii was an attraction apart from the official program, there was lots of interest from European and North American attendees on his new crop samples and information CD’s about the Estate, Costa Rican Coffees Rock but the Konas Roll !!.

From Wolthers, Vittrup & Associates Guatemala, we are proud to inform that our local Head Cupper and Quality Manager Hector Gonzalez, was awarded the 1rst place in Anacafe’s National “Coffee Fest Competition “.
W, V & A Guatemala and Colombia provide quality control and assurance on exported coffees for various roasters and importers in Europe and in North America, Mr. Gonzalez outstanding victory says a lot about the quality of our collaborators and staff.

Wolthers, Vittrup & Associates Bogota informs that Coffee producers are facing financial ruin due to the sharp production decline caused by the plantation renewal program rolled out by the Government these last couple of years.

Key producing regions as Antioquia and Talima are specially affected by this situation, many properties are being bought by “dubious moneys” and will probably be used for other crop production. Unless the Government steps in very quickly to assist these producers, the overall production volume of these departments is certain to fall dramatically.

Today, Antioquia represents 18% of Colombia’s green coffee output! This past Monday, the FNC reduced its current 2009 crop estimate for the 5th time this year bringing it from the last figure of 9.3 million down to 8.3 million bags.

“What happened in Colombia in 2009 and can it happen again ? “….Seems likely.

Christian Wolthers

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