I thought I'd share the write up that I sent to Counter Culture staff last week about my experience at the Summit. But, before I get to that, I'll add just a little bit more of a personal narrative, because, what is a blog for?!
Overall - it was incredible to see what a diverse group of stakeholders were at the table. Granted, it often takes an emergency to get people there, but, getting them there and getting them on the same page is no small feat. A great deal of credit for that goes to folks from World Coffee Research and SCAA working behind the scenes. My only critique would be the fact that there were too few seats occupied by producers. We can talk all day long about the best research, the funding, the need for the extension services needed - but if the solutions can't efficaciously be applied by those working in coffee production every day, we all lose. There were folks there representing this demographic and I felt appeased the moments in break-out sessions when there were mumblings of "what will make sense for the producer?"
Given that the message seems to be that the true crisis will be in 2014, and it seems the writing has been on the wall for some time, I feel more confident that the solutions, the resources, and the unified message will ultimately arrive at the producers' door.
Also - NPR did a great job during coffee week touching on the subject.
And, as always, Michael Sheridan's synthesis in the last four entries on his blog goes above and beyond what us mere mortals could put together.
Recap of First International Coffee Leaf Rust Summit
The end of last week I found myself in Guatemala city alongside multiple stakeholders in the coffee industry to discuss the impact of and way forward dealing with leaf rust. Here is a quick link to learn more about the disease. The summit was initially expected to have about fifty participants but quickly grew to almost two hundred given the amount of traction the topic has currently. If there was ever any doubt that coffee was truly a multi-sector, international industry that was cleared up immediately. The goal of the summit was to bring together the science community, national coffee institutions, roasters, and finance entities to work together on behalf of the industry.
As noted in their press release: “The coffee leaf rust disease has devastated Central American coffee production this year affecting the livelihoods of over two million people and causing a loss of nearly 500,000 jobs. Guatemala and other countries have declared a national state of emergency. Total coffee loss for the region is predicted at 20-30 percent and could increase to near 50 percent next year unless a focused, coordinated strategy is put into place soon.”
Presentations over the last three days were initially descriptive of the problem and then moved quickly into solution-based strategies – everything from the need for more scientific research to more streamlined extension services to funnel information back to the producers. Financing and overall international project coordination was also on the table for discussion. Promecafe – a conglomeration of seven producer countries – will oversee the initiative and an idea that came out of the summit was to hire one person whose sole capacity would be to respond to the needs of this crisis as part of Promecafe’s team.
Other themes that emerged were that leaf rust, while currently the most visible issue, is merely a symptom of multiple challenges facing the industry. These challenges include everything from climate change to a need to engage the entire supply chain – from producer to consumer – in discussions about structuring an economic solution that works for everyone. In this sense, the other theme was that these challenges are also an opportunity. Having individuals from so many different backgrounds at the table, all discussing some of the most pressing needs of the industry and how to solve them in the short, medium, and long term was unprecedented. This approach can’t help but leave one feeling hopeful about the future of collaborative work.
The group reached consensus that leaf rust is not just a trade issue where we are concerned about the global supply of coffee – it is also an issue that could have grave socioeconomic implications for producers and producer countries. As Ric Rinehart of the SCAA said “how can trade make the highest impact?” There was a clear ask for coffee roasters to continue to make long term purchase agreements and structure pricing with awareness of the situation to maintain optimism for producers. Here I felt confident that we are already a part of the solution as Counter Culture intentionally prices coffees with this mindset, crisis or no crisis.
All presentations from the summit will be put on WCR’s website (http://worldcoffeeresearch.org/) and I encourage you all to take a look at the variety of topics and approaches that were covered the last few days.
Monday, April 29, 2013
First Annual Leaf Rust Summit, Guatemala
I thought I'd share the write up that I sent to Counter Culture staff last week about my experience at the Summit. But, before I get to that, I'll add just a little bit more of a personal narrative, because, what is a blog for?!
Overall - it was incredible to see what a diverse group of stakeholders were at the table. Granted, it often takes an emergency to get people there, but, getting them there and getting them on the same page is no small feat. A great deal of credit for that goes to folks from World Coffee Research and SCAA working behind the scenes. My only critique would be the fact that there were too few seats occupied by producers. We can talk all day long about the best research, the funding, the need for the extension services needed - but if the solutions can't efficaciously be applied by those working in coffee production every day, we all lose. There were folks there representing this demographic and I felt appeased the moments in break-out sessions when there were mumblings of "what will make sense for the producer?"
Given that the message seems to be that the true crisis will be in 2014, and it seems the writing has been on the wall for some time, I feel more confident that the solutions, the resources, and the unified message will ultimately arrive at the producers' door.
Also - NPR did a great job during coffee week touching on the subject.
And, as always, Michael Sheridan's synthesis in the last four entries on his blog goes above and beyond what us mere mortals could put together.
Recap of First International Coffee Leaf Rust Summit
The end of last week I found myself in Guatemala city alongside multiple stakeholders in the coffee industry to discuss the impact of and way forward dealing with leaf rust. Here is a quick link to learn more about the disease. The summit was initially expected to have about fifty participants but quickly grew to almost two hundred given the amount of traction the topic has currently. If there was ever any doubt that coffee was truly a multi-sector, international industry that was cleared up immediately. The goal of the summit was to bring together the science community, national coffee institutions, roasters, and finance entities to work together on behalf of the industry.
As noted in their press release: “The coffee leaf rust disease has devastated Central American coffee production this year affecting the livelihoods of over two million people and causing a loss of nearly 500,000 jobs. Guatemala and other countries have declared a national state of emergency. Total coffee loss for the region is predicted at 20-30 percent and could increase to near 50 percent next year unless a focused, coordinated strategy is put into place soon.”
Presentations over the last three days were initially descriptive of the problem and then moved quickly into solution-based strategies – everything from the need for more scientific research to more streamlined extension services to funnel information back to the producers. Financing and overall international project coordination was also on the table for discussion. Promecafe – a conglomeration of seven producer countries – will oversee the initiative and an idea that came out of the summit was to hire one person whose sole capacity would be to respond to the needs of this crisis as part of Promecafe’s team.
Other themes that emerged were that leaf rust, while currently the most visible issue, is merely a symptom of multiple challenges facing the industry. These challenges include everything from climate change to a need to engage the entire supply chain – from producer to consumer – in discussions about structuring an economic solution that works for everyone. In this sense, the other theme was that these challenges are also an opportunity. Having individuals from so many different backgrounds at the table, all discussing some of the most pressing needs of the industry and how to solve them in the short, medium, and long term was unprecedented. This approach can’t help but leave one feeling hopeful about the future of collaborative work.
The group reached consensus that leaf rust is not just a trade issue where we are concerned about the global supply of coffee – it is also an issue that could have grave socioeconomic implications for producers and producer countries. As Ric Rinehart of the SCAA said “how can trade make the highest impact?” There was a clear ask for coffee roasters to continue to make long term purchase agreements and structure pricing with awareness of the situation to maintain optimism for producers. Here I felt confident that we are already a part of the solution as Counter Culture intentionally prices coffees with this mindset, crisis or no crisis.
All presentations from the summit will be put on WCR’s website (http://worldcoffeeresearch.org/) and I encourage you all to take a look at the variety of topics and approaches that were covered the last few days.
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