Recession Drives Coffee Sales Down in Europe
Recession drives coffee sales down in Europe if figures from Starbucks are an indication. Not only did worldwide sales for the coffee shop giant fall, but sales in Europe fell by one percent. As recession drives coffee sales down in Europe it is same store sales that suffered for Starbucks. Considering that austerity measures are likely to cause a recession this year in the Euro Zone and countries like Spain have unemployment of a quarter of their work force it is not surprising that high end coffee sales are down. But, what is a lover of healthy organic coffee to do in such a situation?
First of all, in Europe or elsewhere, one does not need to go to Starbucks or any other high end coffee shop chain to buy good coffee. Wholesale coffee from Panama, for example, is available through Panamá Natural Organic Coffee by way of www.BuyOrganicCoffee.org. Panamá Natural Organic Coffee can vouch for organic coffee certification of products shipped anywhere on earth. While recession drives coffee sales down in Europe the lower prices of coffee this year may be damaging to small organic coffee operations. Organic coffee farmers need to premium typically paid for organic coffee to pay for their more intensive and sustainable coffee farming operations. A combination of lower prices and a reduced demand could be fatal for some coffee farmers. On the other hand, as recession drives coffee sales down in Europe, organic coffee lovers can go online to www.BuyOrganicCoffee.org for Panama Mountain Grow Organic Coffee shipped directly to their door.
While recession drives coffee sales down in Europe Starbucks and others are putting up more coffee shops in China. The point is that despite the risk of a Chinese real estate collapse and reduced exports from China, the economy there is less dicey than in Europe. Also the market for coffee is not saturated. Starbucks and others are having a fair degree of success selling coffee in a traditionally tea drinking culture. Also, China is right next door to the second largest coffee producer in the world, Vietnam. In fact, the highlands of all of Indochina are ideal for coffee growing. Laotian organic coffee is available through small farm cooperatives right next door to a rapidly expanding coffee market in China.
Despite a fall off in high end coffee sales in Europe there are lots of cheaper sources of good organic coffee. Organic coffee prices may not fall as much as regular coffee prices but organic coffee may become more attractive economically as well as esthetically. For information about selection and shipping please contact Panamá Natural Organic Coffee by way of www.BuyOrganicCoffee.org. Organic coffee cooperatives in Panama are looking for customers. Much of their organic coffee excess goes to local sales for lack of a wider market. Come and join the ranks of Panama Organic Coffee lovers. You will be glad that you did. We ship directly from Panama to you. In addition we offer a variety of non-Panama organic coffee brands via Amazon.com. If you have any questions please feel free to contact us today.
Coffee Shops in China
Who would have thought? There are coffee shops in China. The land of Chairman Mao, the little red book, the Great Cultural Revolution, is home to a growing number of Starbucks, Costa Coffee, Paris Baguette, Tous Les Jours, and Pacific Coffee establishments selling coffee. For anyone who has not been tuned in, China is a land of tea drinkers. However, the impressive economic success of China has put money into the hands of a growing middle class which has a taste for foreign products and flavors. Starbucks already has over five hundred shops in China and plans to triple this number in the next three years. As we wrote in Starbucks Organic Coffee in China, the company opened its first outlet in China in 1999 and now has coffee shops in China in 42 cities.
Coffee Shops in China and Throughout the Orient
Starbucks and other are not limiting their coffee shop expansion to China. Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and India are on the list. Of course the second biggest wholesale coffee producer in the world is Vietnam, second only to Brazil. Starbucks and others do not note how much of their coffee sold in the orient will be healthy organic coffee but Starbucks sells about a seventh of its coffee as certified organic coffee. The competition selling coffee in a tea drinking culture comes from around the world. Costa Coffee is British. The owners of Paris Baguette and Tous Les Jours are South Korean, and Pacific Coffee is from Hong Kong. In addition, MacDonald’s sells coffee in their restaurants as do Dunkin’ Donuts and Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, all of which plan to expand their operations in this fast growing market.
Aiming to Change a Culture
The advent of coffee shops in China is part of another “cultural revolution” in China. However, this one is not dictated from on high and is not accompanied by bands of Mao suited individuals rounding up the educated elite and packing them off to farms in the hinter lands. China’s managed capitalism is succeeding in putting money in the pockets of entrepreneurs in China. This emerging middle class likes Western brand names and will pay more for products and services that imply their nation’s “arrival” as a major player on the world stage. A middle class with expendable income may be an excellent target for selling USDA organic coffee. As China comes to integrate its economy, and its culture, with the rest of the world we can expect to see more coffee shops in China. As this phenomenon spreads we can expect to see Chinese companies enter the battle for consumer attention and sales. However, at the current time, a large part of the attraction of Chinese coffee shops is that they are new. They sell great coffee. And, these outlets provide a level of service and visibility that the newly rich or well to do of China find attractive. The next wave may well be a preference for organic coffee as the culture becomes more environmentally aware.
Is It Really Colombian Coffee?
Colombian coffee buyers are purchasing coffee from Peru to make up for a weak harvest. It turns out that roughly a fifth of Peruvian coffee exports are going to Colombia this year. So, when you see a bag of Juan Valdez organic coffee you might wish to ask yourself, “Is it really Colombian coffee?” Colombia produces more Arabica coffee beans than any country outside of Brazil. But, historic rains damaged coffee plants as they flowered and continuing rains increased the incidence of plant diseases. Thus Colombia expects to see a fall in its harvest of 300,000 bags to 7.5 million. Last year the harvest was 7.8 million bags. This year will mark the lowest production of coffee in Colombia in a quarter of a century as a persistent El Niño has reduced harvests for years. Colombia produced 12.5 million bags of coffee in the 2007 to 2008 growing season. So, when you see the Juan Valdez label, is it really Colombian coffee?
What Does the Juan Valdez Label Mean for Colombian Coffee?
The Juan Valdez name was made up by the Colombian Coffee Growers Association years ago and gives the buyer assurance that what they are getting is 100% Colombian coffee. There is, in fact, a coffee house chain in Colombia called Juan Valdez as well. Regarding the question, is it really Colombian coffee or not, Peru is only selling just under 100,000 bags of coffee to buyers in Colombia. Colombia, even in a historically bad year will produce 7.5 million bags. This is seventy-five times the amount that they are buying from Peru. The Colombian cafetero is still a major coffee producer where growing organic coffee in the shade is tradition and healthy organic coffee is common. It would appear that there is little reason to fear a wholesale replacement of Colombian coffee found under the Juan Valdez label. So, is it really Colombian coffee? It probably is.
Getting Organic Coffee from Colombia
A sad fact is that Colombia has been dealing with a civil war for half a century. The government is winning and the rebellion has been driven out of the cities. However, large parts of the Cafetero are mountainous and jungle. Rebel groups that may have started out with a clear motive of improving the lives of Colombians have resorted to running drugs and kidnapping in order to survive. Thus, Colombia is not only a major producer of coffee but also a producer of cocaine. If you fly out of any airport in Colombia please expect to have the armed agents pin prick any bags of coffee that you are carrying and apply a “sniff” test for drugs. No other nation in the world will allow mailed bags of Colombian coffee to enter. So, if you yearn for organic coffee antioxidants from the land of Juan Valdez you need to find another route. And you still need to ask, is it really Colombian coffee, as Colombia strives to make up for production shortfalls caused by bad weather.
Reduce Skin Cancer Risk with Coffee and Exercise
It may be possible to reduce skin cancer risk with coffee and exercise. If recent research with mice can be applied to humans, a cup of coffee plus exercise each morning could reduce the risk of skin cancer. The research was done on mice. The animals were exposed to high levels of ultraviolet light which increases the incidence of melanoma. The researchers split the mice into four groups. One was given water to drink. Another group was given coffee with water. A third was given coffee with water and allowed to exercise on an exercise wheel. A forth group was allowed to exercise on their exercise wheel as well, but had no coffee. The results were recently reported to a Chicago meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. The report does not mention if the mice got organic whole bean coffee or regular coffee.
The fourteen week study produced a clear indication that one can reduce cancer risk with coffee and exercise, in the mice in the study. Mice that exercised and drank coffee had sixty-two percent fewer skin cancers than the water only group and skin cancers that occurred were nearly ninety percent smaller. By comparison, coffee drinking mice had a quarter fewer cancers and exercise-only mice had a third fewer cancers. Both of these groups also had smaller cancers than the “water only” group of mice. The researchers noted that the coffee and exercise group of mice lost weight and speculate that the reduction fat may be part of the answer to why these animals got fewer and smaller cancers. One might want to look at the beneficial effects of antioxidants in black organic coffee in this regard.
This study needs to be replicated in humans in order to be useful for you and me. However, there is already a large amount of evidence showing beneficial effects of coffee consumption. We know that more coffee or more organic coffee can lead to less diabetes . More organic coffee can lead to less colon cancer as well. The antioxidants in a cup of coffee are known to have a large number of useful effects on the human body. An antioxidant is a molecule that inhibits the cell damage and cell death in human cells. It does this by reducing oxidative breakdown of other molecules in the cell, a factor in sickness and aging. Antioxidants help prevent the damage caused by excessive oxidation and to a degree inhibit the aging process. Organic coffee antioxidants are in the same class of molecules that help reduce oxidation.
In the roasting process of organic coffee methylpyridium is created. This organic coffee antioxidant is a breakdown product of trigonelline. It has been found to increase activity of phase II enzymes. Doctors believe that these enzymes protect against colon cancer, which is the second leading cause of death from cancer in the USA. When comparing healthy organic coffee versus regular coffee remember that while regular coffee offers some of the same benefits regular coffee may have impurities that effectively cancel out the health effects of a good cup of organic coffee. Thus it is not surprising, at least in animal studies, that coffee helps reduce skin cancer in animals that are prone to the disease. The only problems that this writer can see is how I could get a human-sized exercise wheel with attached coffee holder in my home and how to keep the wheel from squeaking and annoying the neighbors!
Lose Weight with Coffee Bean Extract
It appears possible to lose weight with coffee bean extract! This little tidbit was in the news recently. A chemist in Pennsylvania reports that when sixteen volunteers lost weight when they took a gram of green coffee bean extract daily for five months. According to the study report the volunteers were in their twenties and all overweight. These folks did not change their diets or the amount of exercise that they did, or didn’t, engage in. According to researchers there were no ill effects on the volunteers’ blood pressure readings or heart rate. The average weight loss in this study was just over ten pounds. Researchers understand that antioxidants in black organic coffee potentially lessen cellular damage from aging, slow down atherosclerosis related inflammation, and even reduce the likelihood of a number of serious medical conditions such as diabetes and certain types of cancer. At this point no one knows just why you lose weight with coffee bean extract.
Some commentators have remarked that it is probably the caffeine that helps one lose weight with coffee bean extract. However, the study author believes that a chemical called chlorogenic acid in unroasted beans is what does the trick. A next logical step would be to take another group of overweight volunteers and give half of them caffeine pills and the other half coffee bean extract with the same amount of caffeine and compare the results. This author would rather be in a test group that drank healthy organic coffee with the same amount of caffeine. That way the question of caffeine as the reason that one can lose weight with coffee extract could be clarified and this coffee drinker would enjoy the benefits of his favorite cup of Panama organic coffee .
Although it would be nice to lose weight with coffee bean extract it would be nicer to keep the weight off with a proper diet and moderate exercise. Then we coffee drinkers could enjoy the benefits of modified organic coffee antioxidants created during the roasting process. While we are talking about the health benefits of coffee, let’s not forget that more organic coffee can lead to less diabetes and that more organic coffee can lead to less colon cancer . According to researchers it would appear that the natural antioxidants in organic coffee, modified and even created by roasting are responsible for a number of the health benefits.
Lose weight with coffee bean extract if you like, but I, for one, will continue to enjoy my morning cup of Panama mountain grown organic coffee . Drink organic coffee for your health and organic coffee for the environment is a good idea as well. Organic coffee is grown using sustainable agricultural techniques, offers a higher return per bag of coffee produced, and results in a purer product. If it turns out that I can watch my weight with a cup or two or three of organic coffee each day I will be totally satisfied and absolutel willing to forego the chance to lose weight with coffee bean extract.
Not Certified but Still Organic Coffee
A year or more ago the Christian Science Monitor ran an article saying that ten percent of organic coffee producers had given up. For some organic coffee growers the extra care and work just does not pay off. There are a number of possible reasons. One is that a grower must pay for organic coffee certification whereas a regular coffee producer does not. Is it possible that not certified but still organic coffee would be just as good and more profitable for the coffee grower? If the grower does not have “official” certification from an agency such as Bio Latina in Latin America, how does the consumer know that he or she is drinking healthy organic coffee and not imbibing up to 150 unwanted chemicals in every cup? Beside the question of drinking not certified but still organic coffee organic coffee lovers may wish to think about what they are willing to pay and just how much of what they pay for a cup of organic coffee goes to the coffee grower instead of a host of middle men.
Part of our work at Panama Natural Organic Coffee is scouting out organic coffee growers in Panama, Colombia, and other areas of Latin America. One of our contacts is a coffee grower in the province of Chiriquí in Panama. This gentleman is listed on the Bio Latina web site as being a certified organic coffee producer. However, when we spoke with him he said that despite paying $500 a year for inspection and certification that he never saw a profit from his organic coffee operation. To his credit he did not change how he grows and processes his coffee. However, he did quit paying Bio Latina $500 a year for their services. His coffee is not certified but still organic coffee. It still contains organic coffee antioxidants . It is still free of pesticides and insecticides found much of regular coffee. This man grows great organic coffee but cannot put a USDA or Bio Latina seal of approval on his bags of coffee.
We have written recently about how the agricultural system can support coffee growers. Credit unions support organic coffee growers in Mexico . It appears that government supported Brazil coffee storage will raise coffee farmer income . On the other hand, organic coffee growers in Honduras suffer from the lack of dedicated organic processing facilities. The coffee grower may do everything necessary to produce organic coffee beans only to lose his certification when his beans are processed in equipment just used for regular coffee beans. The cost of certification can be a major issue for a small grower whose yearly output is only a few quintales (100 kilogram bags). If the grower is part of a cooperative this can help as the cost of certification is divided among a number of growers. Nevertheless in the same neighborhood as our friend who gave up certification (Veraguas Province, Panama – next door to Chiriquí) there are small growers of wonderful, not certified but still organic coffee who end up selling their coffee at the tienda (local grocery and all-purpose store) down the hill from their farm because no one has found a way of putting them in touch with buyers in North America or Europe.
If you are interested in wholesale coffee , Panama wholesale organic coffee , or not certified but still organic coffee, from Panama especially, contact us at Panama Natural Organic Coffee / https://buyorganiccoffee.org/contact-us/ . We would be pleased to help.
Brazil Coffee Storage Will Raise Coffee Farmer Income
It appears that Brazil is going to copy a practice from United States agriculture, storing excess crop production. It is likely that Brazil coffee storage will raise coffee farmer income. Currently there is not enough storage capacity in the Brazil, the premier coffee producer in the world. The Brazil Ministry of Agriculture expects to increase available monies for coffee storage by nearly a billion dollars. The point is that coffee prices, just like corn prices, soybean prices, and wheat prices, tend to fluctuate. When a coffee farmer has no storage capacity he is forced to sell at harvest time. This is typically when he will get the lowest price for his crop. In the United States farmers are paid to hold corn and soybeans off the market. This helps stabilize crop prices for wholesale coffee and allows farmers to sell their crops at a later time and, usually for a better price. This is what Brazil plans to do. As with the US experience, it is likely that Brazil coffee storage will raise coffee farmer income.
The storage question is especially pertinent at this time. Coffee prices were near all-time highs last year. Since last year Arabica coffee futures have fallen by more than a third. This year is expected to provide a bumper crop in Brazil, which will tend to drive coffee prices even lower. Brazilian Agricultural Ministry estimates are that the country will produce just over fifty-two million bags of coffee in 2012, up from forty-nine million bags in 2011. At one hundred thirty-two pounds a bag that is an increase of four hundred thirty-five million, six hundred thousand pounds of coffee. Brazil coffee storage will raise coffee farmer income because coffee growers will be able to hold a significant part of their crop off the market, keeping prices from falling excessively. Price stability, as well as a good income for coffee growers, is the long term goal in Brazil. Boom and bust years do not lead to prosperous coffee growers. In fact, a boom and bust agricultural cycle tends to drive small farmers out of business and large farm businesses in to bankruptcy. The ability to store a reasonable fraction of each year’s coffee crop will lead to market stability just as Brazil coffee storage will raise coffee farmer income. Programs like this help farmers. Just recently we wrote about how credit unions support organic growers in Mexico . The supply chain, available credit, and government support can make the difference between success and failure for farmers of any crop.
From the viewpoint of the healthy organic coffee producer, storage is also a good idea. Although organic coffee commands a higher price, the market can be spotty. Brazil coffee storage will raise coffee farmer income in the organic market as well. Farmers will be able to wait for not only better prices, but better and more reliable buyers as well. The critical issue for organic coffee is that storage must be sequestered from that for regular coffee. The supply chain for organic coffee from bush to cup is such that regular coffee and organic coffee are never processed together, stored together, or roasted together.
Credit Unions Support Organic Coffee Growers in Mexico
The news tells us that credit unions support organic coffee growers in Mexico. How does this fit into production of healthy organic coffee, sustainable agriculture, and better living standard for coffee growers? In a way growing coffee on a family coffee plantation is an act of faith. Growers trust in the sun, the rain, and soil to produce good coffee year after year. Growers rejuvenate the soil with compost instead of synthetic fertilizers. They space their coffee among other plants in shaded areas of a mountain side. The pickers harvest the coffee just when it is ready and then organic coffee is processed separate from any non-organic coffee which the grower produces. The producer separates and dries the coffee beans and either roasts them himself or sells his crop to a middle man. At this point the act of growing coffee turns into the business of growing coffee. Farmers the world over must deal local and international markets for their products. A coffee drinker in New York, London, Berlin, or Tokyo may be willing to pay $5 for a cup of hot organic coffee on the way to work in the morning. But members of Panama organic coffee cooperatives may only receive two or three dollars a pound for their product if they can sell it at all. Often such coffee farmers will take bags of coffee to the local tienda (small grocery store) to sell or barter for goods. So, what does this have to do with how credit unions support organic coffee growers in Mexico?
If may just take a few dollars, pesos, Bolivares, Colones, or Balboas to buy seed, replace a broken hoe, buy sacks to store coffee, and pay for transport of coffee to a place where the farmer can sell at a better price that on his mountainside. But, all too often, small operation campisinos (farmers) on their fincas (farms) do not have sufficient capital. Many countries and aid agencies sponsor micro loan programs for these farmers. The farmer receives loans of a little as $100 or its equivalent at the start of the growing season and pays it back after selling his harvest. The way that credit unions promote organic coffee growers in Mexico is simply a wider spread and more efficient means of accomplishing the same purpose. Easy credit for credit union members in Mexico translates into better profits for the farmer who is responsible for the aroma of organic coffee coming from your cup every morning. The program in Mexico was started with $4 million in seed money from the US Agency for International Development. The focus is to find out the best means of financing organic coffee farmers and improving their return on investment and way of life.
Now that credit unions promote organic coffee growers in Mexico, coffee farmers in the areas involved can focus on producing the best organic wholesale coffee and not worry so much about finding the extra peso or two needed to fix a broken tool or buy bags into which to pack their coffee. The intent is to stabilize the production system and help farmers achieve a reliably higher return for their work.
How credit unions promote organic coffee growers in Mexico goes to the heart of the organic system of production by rewarding those doing the work of producing a good product and protecting the environment at the same time.
For more useful information about organic coffee please visit www.BuyOrganicCoffee.org .