I wonder how roasters like Graffeo survive. It used to be the bees knees back 20 years ago and has since fallen off most lists.

The LA location (oddly located near Rodeo drive) closed down but the North Beach location has been there forever.

Is there a market segment we are oblivious to?

If the business is still open then there are obviously a sufficient number of customers to pay the bills. Maybe those are the customers who never bought into the coffee for tea drinkers and/or do not like their coffee adulterated with real or ersatz dairy products.

Almico wrote: That said, the coffee industry as a whole is at risk if farmers cannot make a living growing coffee. As much as I believe in Adam Smith, and a free market economy, there must be something that can be done to help. This might be a start: https://www.cafeimports.com/north-ameri ... ion-guide/

I just spoke to a guy today going down to Honduras to help a farmer. Made me wonder how many farms could end up closing before the price goes back up. And then what happens when it goes up too much and the farms have been repurposed to growing other goods. These cycles may last decades I can imagine.

Why does wine get such a premium when the effort is the same or greater for coffee, at least I think it is? Is the reason, that Tom can drive past the vineyards?

My belief is it's hard to get consumers to pay more for coffee when the price goes up, so the businesses selling it need a buffer to survive.

I am not knowledgeable enough about the supply chain to understand how the farmers themselves get help other than supply and demand causing fewer beans to come to market.

I assume a big difference between wine and coffee is that wine has resale value.

Aging wine is considered a plus. Not so much with most agricultural products including coffee.

Since this is the most recent topic on the coffee farmers crisis I just wanted to drop this here;

COFFEE ROASTERS, TRADERS AND RETAILERS SIGN HISTORIC DECLARATION ON ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY
https://www.coffeeandcocoa.net/2019/09/ ... inability/

To date the following private sector representatives have signed a Declaration of Intent to commit to concrete shared and individual time-bound actions: illycaffè, Jacobs Douwe Egberts (JDE), Lavazza, Mercon, Nestlé, Neumann Kaffee Gruppe, Olam, Starbucks, Sucafina, Tchibo and Volcafe.

Referred to as the London Declaration, all signatories and supporting organisations have committed to taking action focusing on four themes:

-promoting competitive and sustainable production
-fostering responsible and equitable growth
-promoting responsible consumption, and
-promoting public-private dialogue regarding policy development.

I sincerely hope the large parties involved in the coffee industry can make a positive change to the livelyhood of the coffee grower.

Thanks for the update Beaniac. I just pulled up the ICO's adopted resolution:
http://www.ico.org/documents/cy2017-18/ ... prices.pdf

THE INTERNATIONAL COFFEE COUNCIL DECIDES:
To launch a global communication plan targeted at consumers, together with producers, the coffee industry, opinion makers, and other stakeholders, using social media and other means of communications in order to show the economic reality of the coffee sector - from the producer to the final consumer - as of the International Coffee Day, October 1st 2018

Reading this and I hope I'm wrong but, what good is this going to do? Hipsters and Social Justice Warriors aside, nobody cares about the story. This consumer-focused communication plan sounds about as stupid as Rock & Republic (bankrupt brand) telling it's customers to spend $130 on a pair of "discounted" jeans back around 2009 because your spending will help spur the economy. They called it the recession-proof jeans or something if I remember. [Cue the post-recession memes of people posting up their $12 purchases and how they contributed 0.00000001% of GDP]

To effect change, action should be taken on the supply side. Consumers will not fund a "feel-good story" and pony up more cash for the same exact daily cup of coffee purely out of good will. Changing consumer behavior is the hardest thing to do in business and marketing. Force the coffee professionals to figure out how to create better operating efficiencies to pass on product to the consumer, given the higher COGS. There's also no incentive for the business to act and pay higher for greens if marketing stories have consumers throwing money at a problem. On the flipside, if we set say $2.50/lbs floor on coffee for producers to help them live a decent lifestyle, they'll demand higher prices if spot price goes to $5. Now they're able to live out lavish lifestyles. Such is the commodities market, but something feels off to be guaranteeing bailouts for these farmers and the supporters getting nothing in return if or when the market rewards them handsomely. Feels like a job for the local governments to subsidize and tax to control that flow of money. Direct trade also sort of works, but it's cherry picking farmers and I imagine it'd be nearly impossible to support the industry as a whole that way.

It also doesn't help that grocery store coffee vs specialty coffees are substitute goods to the mass consumer. As long as Brazilian coffees, keurigs and nespressos are around, I don't see this problem going away. "Price is what you pay, value is what you get." The consumer doesn't really find value in a feel-good story.

This is a step in the right direction.

https://corporate.walmart.com/newsroom/ ... and-coffee

Walmart is working with suppliers to increase supply chain traceability for its private label coffee brands. This effort includes working with one of its coffee suppliers, Westrock Coffee, to obtain visibility into the supply chain back to the coffee farmers at origin.

One of our own Sponsors, Caffe Lusso was interviewed last week for Fox Business News for a brief news bite on the increase in the cost of green coffee. He and I were chatting about it on Friday, and how it's affecting the market.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/c ... s-roasters