July Newsletter
YESSSSS……..!
Hector Gonzalez from Wolthers Vittrup & Associates – Guatemala is “World Cup Tasters Champion” at the SCAE Event”Caffe’ Culture” in London last June 27th.
Don Hector is the Quality Director at our office in Guatemala since 2008 when we opened the Green Coffee Export Quality Assurance laboratory For Guatemalan and other Central American coffees. In 2009, Gonzalez became a Certified “Q” grader and during the same year, he won the ANACAFE National Cupping Competition. As Guatemalan Champ Don Hector qualified to represent his country this year in London, where he competed against another 37 nationals.
While Don Hector was in London winning cupping heats, I was in Costa Rica looking into the potential of the upcoming crop.
While there is practically no coffee left from the current crop and differentials are hitting + 50 + 55 FOB for SHB’s EP’s on any rare eventual current crop availability, the incoming crop shows signs of better volume and great quality.
In fact it is still too early to talk about quality as the new crop harvest is still 3 to 4 months away, what I can certainly say is that the weather has contributed very positively to the flowering fixation, fruit development and bean size.
The plantations in the Heredia and Alajuela zones are super well leafed and carrying quite a lot of fruit from top to bottom on the plants. The fruit size is very uniform and all they seem to need is more rain and heat to become full developed and sound for the maturation period. An earlier harvest might happen this year in the lower plantations, this became my impression as I toured the coffee belt early this week.
ICAFE is expecting an 8% larger volume for this next crop totaling 2.1 million 46 Kilo bags providing about 1.680 million for export and another 420 thousand Bags for the internal consumption. Costa Rica seems like a safe bet regarding the output and quality this year, I will now work to learn more about the Guatemalan and Nicaraguan potential as I will tour those countries in August.
Brazil has now harvested about 30% of its expected 50 to 55 million 60 kilo bags, the first impressions are that the screen size is still low and that there are too many unripe/green/grassy beans at this stage. Although the initial impressions are of a lower than expected yield, we must wait until at least 60% is harvested and the bolder bean areas/newer areas produce volume of prepared green beans. It will be another 30 days before we see volume of naturals from the South of Minas Gerais fill the warehouses and another 50 days before the same happens in the Cerrado Zone.
June was the driest month in the last couple of years. This is “Excellent “news, with tons of coffee pouring onto patios from the harvest fields, the last thing we and the farmers want is rain. The weather is supposed to maintain this dry pattern until late September, maybe even later, by then, Brazil will have harvested over 95% of its coffee belt. Another positive weather sign in Brazil is that the frost season over the coffee areas is over. No cold fronts are expected to cover the Central East areas of the country for the next 10 days. If by mid July, no ” powerful ” cold fronts appear on the forecasts for the 2nd half of July, we can all put our gloves away and go to the beach.
Although some early new crop low screen commercial/tenderable grade coffees are already being shipped out of Brazil, we should only expect the Fine and Specialty grade lots to arrive by next October, the harvest logistics and selection process are very challenging this season.
While the Finest new crop Brazilian coffees don’t arrive, take a look at the available ” Ipanema Estate ” and ” Nucoffee Micro Lots ” listed on the Spot position of our Offer List below.
From Hawaii, I have noted increasing reports of serious reduction for the next crop. This is due to a prolonged drought last winter.
The new crop harvest starts in another 4 weeks and by my next report. I will be able to report “on the spot “about the reality. Very little State Certified coffee from the current crop is available and prices for current and future Extra Fancy, Fancy and Primes are rising.
Bear in Mind that Wolthers America offers spot San francisco, the only Top Quality ” Rain Forest ” certified Kona coffee, the ” Gold Coffee Parry Estate “.
For now, enjoy summer and keep an eye on how much and which green coffees you need, October/November are still 90 days away!
Christian Wolthers
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