Good, while it lasts…
Recent research reveals that over half of wild coffee species are at risk of extinction.
A research report predicts some serious extinction risks for wild coffee species around the world and how that will impact the entire coffee sector livelihood.
How many coffees do you know? Arabica, Robusta, check. Maybe you know Bourbons or even Geishas? But did you know there are 124 coffee species of coffee plants known to science? Many of these wild varieties occur naturally (wild) in tropical Africa, the Indian Ocean islands (Madagascar, Comoros Islands, and Mascarene Islands), Asia, and Australasia. Wild is good, its very good.
Why should we care about wild coffees?
Disese.
Climate Change.
Poverty.
Total number of coffee species threatened with extinction by area. Source: ICUN
Here’s the deal— the wider a species’ genetic diversity, the greater its capacity for resilience to meet challenges such as diseases, pests, and changing weather—all problems we can expect to increase dramatically in the coming decades of coffee production.
The chart below from the The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and shows how critical the extinction threat of 60% of all wild coffees are.
Waffle chart, showing the proportion and number of threatened, nonthreatened, and DD coffee species in main blocks, and the proportion and number of coffee species assigned to each IUCN extinction risk category. The total number of species is 124 [CR, 10.5% (13 species); EN, 32.3% (40 species); VU, 17.7% (22 species); NT, 8% (10 species); LC, 21% (26 species); DD, 11.3% (14 species)]. Each square is equal to one species. Source: https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/1/eaav3473
So why as consumers should we ultimately care about the biodiversity of coffee plants?
Well, it’s simple, speciality coffee won’t be special if there’s only one or two to pick from.
While there are factors that are simply too large for individual consumers to change on their own, there is one thing we can all do to help… price. The special coffee industry is booming - but farmers are often paid less than a dollar per pound.
Coffee farmers in effect are subsidizing the coffee industry.
According to one recently published report from Volcafe Importers, nearly 61 percent of producers are selling their coffee at prices under the cost of production.
Today’s global market price of less than US$1 per pound is significantly below what farmers in Colombia, for example, need for a decent income. Central American growers need to get between US$1.20 and US$1.50 a pound simply to break even. Faced with this unsustainable future, many coffee farming families are turning to other crops or even abandoning their plots to migrate north to the United States.
Peter Kettler, Senior Coffee Manager at Fairtrade International published a blog post on Fairtrade’s site, where he lays out the argument for why paying more for coffee is a good thing.
He notes, “the global coffee industry is undergoing an unprecedented price crisis that is mostly unknown to those outside the complicated supply chains that bring coffee from field to cup. The price of coffee changes an average of every three minutes. Usually the volatility in coffee pricing is due to weather events in a producing country, fluctuations in currency valuations or the basic dynamics of supply and demand.”
If farmers can’t get a fair trade deal then they have to look for alternatives to sustain their farms. BUT - the market is continuing to grow on the other side of the purchase funnel, so farmers have to look at other options to to sell their harvests - that creates a perfect opportunity for big multinational corporations to step in. More than 80 percent of global sales are now attributed to just three multinational corporations. The growing popularity of coffee pods and capsules have pushed greater value to roasters and brands with very little making its way back to the farmers. While the global coffee industry now generates more than $200 billion per year, the average farmer’s income has not changed in the past 20 years – or has actually declined when taking into account higher farming costs.
In the same blog post mentioned above, Kettler gives us a sobering metric,
“A living income is the amount a household needs to support a decent standard of living, covering basic housing, food, healthcare, education, transportation and a bit extra for unexpected expenses. The cost of a decent living depends on household size and location. For farmers, it’s the net income that matters, since they also have to cover their farm expenses before taking anything home for the household. For example, a recent study by Andersen and Anker estimated a living income for a four-person household in northern Colombia at around $10,000 per year, which works out to just under $7 per person per day.”
$7 per day. Think about that the next time you order a $4 cappuccino. Hopefully it’s needless to say, Wellborn Coffee is on the fighting side of the farmers. We believe in a farm-first approach through a balanced market where the profit is shared with the farmers so that both sides of the supply chain can keep on bringing you the specialty coffee you love with full transparency and traceability.
Sources:
Davis, Aaron P. , Chadburn, Helen, Moat, Justin, O’Sullivan, Robert, Hargreaves, Serene and Lughadha, Eimear Nic, (2019, January). High extinction risk for wild coffee species and implications for coffee sector sustainability. Retrieved October 16, 2019 from the Science Advances Website: https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/1/eaav3473
Kettler, Peter (2007, March). We love coffee. Are we willing to pay the price? Retrieved October 16, 2019 from the Fairtrade America Website http://fairtradeamerica.org/Media-Center/Blog/2019/June/The-Price-of-Coffee
