unionroasted blog

Not an excuse to watch the World Series, late October I attended the first congress for the Global Coffee Quality Research Initiative hosted at the Borlaug Institute, Texas A & M University.

Normal Borlaug (who died in 2009) is credited as the father of the Green Revolution from his research work on wheat genetics; developing disease resistant and high yielding varieties. He is acknowledged with saving over a billion people from starvation. The Borlaug hypothesis;” increasing the productivity of agriculture on the best farmland can help control deforestation by reducing the demand for new farmland”.

 The GCQRI objective is to construct and fund an initiative to act as the industry’s research and development department, to improve, grow and protect the supply of specialty coffees into the market. The expected outcomes to be achieved at the end of the 2½ day congress were clearly mapped out ahead of the event and the congress was skilfully steered towards this point.

The initiative was borne from the passions of “Development” and “coffee” of Dr Tim Schilling. Using the formidable resource of the Borlaug Institute he has conducted a campaign to bring together key individuals who have the capability to address the problem which the specialty coffee industry is facing; a serious shortage of volumes of high quality coffees which are becoming inadequate to meet current and projected needs. The influence of global warming and potential threat of pandemics exacerbate the situation. There has been limited research into addressing these aspects of coffee supply problems

Therefore, the overarching direction of the meeting was creating a platform to set up a programme to direct basic and applied collaborative research that would be beneficial to the specialty coffee industry.

 However, one of the main themes running through all discussions was the lack of a defining measure for quality. There is a demand for research demonstrating an ultimate objective measure of cup quality to give a clear correlation between biochemical data and sensory evaluation. This is appalling in our industry on which our foundation is based on quality.

 From a personal view, a major thrust of developing research has to be at the molecular and genetic level. This is has to be a key hope in mapping the diverse array of phenotypes that could be beneficial in improving yields and cup quality. Relying on only two coffee species to support our daily caffeine habits is a risky strategy because domestic coffee is fragile and threatened by climate change. A remarkable fact that puts this in perspective is that that 96% of the known genetic diversity of coffee is found amongst the tiny uncultivated crops in Ethiopia, all of the coffee traded and consumed from the Americas, Africa and Indonesia account for just 4%.  Using this Ethiopia as the resource to find and use new species may protect the future of our daily cup. One presentation (Dr V Petiard) outlined the need to determine the genetics within the next 20 years. But in reality immediate action is critical; wait 20 years and it will be gone. 

 The aim of this Initiative is to achieve coffee quality improvements that can be directed in part toward improving livelihoods in some of the world’s least food‐secure communities. But the irony is as economic development increases there is more pressure on land leading to a decrease in coffee supply. In addition to economic effects, weather patterns and climates will continue to be unreliable so demand for more stress tolerant germplasm is essential.  

 The strategy many national coffee research programmes have taken in directing farmers has not been in the interest of the specialty market and probably not in the best long term interest of farmers. An example quoted by Counter Cultures Peter Guiliano is the situation in Kenya. We have to remember that coffee is not a basic foodstuff, its specialty trading value is assessed on the basis of flavour –  ”we’re in the flavour business”. But if farmers are directed to plant high yield, disease resistant trees, then particular flavour nuance may disappear.  Ruiru11 var in Kenya was cited several times as an example of this, although most of this is anecdotal evidence and research should be looking at the question of the elusive blackcurrant in Kenya coffee.  It is essential that centres of research link cup quality to diverse factors influencing coffee production; yield, disease resistance, altitude & post-harvest processing.

 So, Schillings Paradigm is that despite the huge actual value of the coffee market, why the lack of solid data available to produce specialty coffee? The answers are varied but probably because it’s still a young industry and too much variability exists at origin to begin to ask basic questions. Origin based research has focussed on yield and resistance but not cup quality. And most critically, research is restricted because current sensory methods are too variable. Biotechnology has to be correlated to sensory. 

 Consumers have demonstrated there is the potential to pay more for perceived quality differentiation. So to achieve these improvements consistently, every step of the supply chain has to be deconstructed. Starting with the genetics and how cup quality is genetically determined. Evaluate this phenotype through research for genetic improvement, how to propagate and distribute improved varietal, demand for extension services at farm level, export/trading, through to Quality Control, traceability and Intellectual Property.

 Some of the concerns at the meeting was to ensure the expectations of everyone within the industry are heard, and that no one gets a raw deal; from the small producer onwards.  There was concern that the strategy of research could influence producers to accept lower pricing, or could lead to increased input costs reducing profit margin for producers. However, the objective for the initiative is to be equitable for all participants.  

 I’ve mentioned genetics several times and there was some naivety, perhaps anxiety, expressed towards the geneticists.  From my discussion with participants of the International Coffee Genome Network (ICGN), this was one of the most positive advancements (coffeegenome.org). ICGN represents scientists from universities, research institutes and industry from Africa, America, Europe and Asia. This collaboration has a goal to advance agricultural research for sustainable coffee production by developing knowledge of the coffee genome at the molecular, biochemical, and physiological levels.

 As already mentioned, despite its economic importance coffee has received limited attention with respect to molecular genetics and genomic research so the brief of ICGN is to develop a strategy to sequence the coffee genome. 

The premise is that sequencing the genome will help decipher the genetic and molecular bases of important biological traits in coffee that are relevant to farmers, roasters, and consumers.  This knowledge is fundamental to allow efficient use and particularly the preservation of coffee genetic resources for the development of improved cultivars in terms of enhanced quality, yield, and resistance with reduced economic and environmental costs. 

Although considerable diversity exists in diploid Coffea species, its use in conventional coffee breeding programmes has been very limited. Coffea arabica is characterized by a very low genetic diversity, reproductive biology, and evolution. It is the narrow genetic base of cultivated C. arabica that has created the bottleneck for coffee breeding and limits the opportunity to develop cultivar improvement.  The strategy to sequence the coffee genome is to examine first the two species that are ancestors of the most cultivated species Coffea arabica. The father species, Coffea canephora (robusta), and the mother; the non-cultivated species Coffea eugenioides. 

 In the future, the ability to capture and manipulate this genetic diversity and effectively utilize germplasm in traditional coffee breeding programmes will be vital for sustainable coffee production. 

But these advances in understanding the coffee genome and its biology must be achieved sooner rather than later in order to get the benefit of increased quality, yield and protection from losses by pests, diseases and stress related to climatic changes. Unravelling the coffee genome will contribute significantly to future coffee improvement.

 A final comment is the proposed funding of the GCQRI is through a “check-off” mechanism, where green coffee buyers / roasters pay USD$0.005/lb as a fundraising tax. There are still questions about managing this mechanism.  Union Hand Roasted Coffee contributed towards the genesis seed-funding of GCQRI and we certainly support the overarching aim of the project and intend to continue our participation.

It is important to state here that although there is indeed a shortage, specialty coffee of the very highest quality is available to those buyers who are prepared to pay for it.  The current turbulent market is a separate although related issue and could make the basis for more comment.   

 Original presentations and transcripts from the initiative can be reviewed on www.gcqri.org

Burundi Road Trip June 2010

Since we first got involved in Rwanda coffee in 2003, we’ve often been asked about sourcing from its southern neighbour Burundi. After the 1994 regional crisis and civil wars, Burundi remained in a state of turmoil with agreements only signed between the last of the rebel groups and the transitional coalition government as late as 2009. Since 2005 however, with increasing political stability, and the support of the international community, fundamental changes have been made to the coffee sector to enable outside investment and remove state ownership and control of the processing and export facilities. It was against this backdrop of liberalisation (thus allowing Union to develop direct contact with growers), our increasing interest in the unique coffees of the Great Lakes region, and their retained heritage Bourbon varietal (same as Rwanda) that I went to find out the breadth and diversity that Burundi coffee has to offer.

On this trip I was travelling with 6 other curious roasters from the USA and Canada and had been invited to tour a number of the producer cooperatives and meet the principal figures in the Burundi coffee scene from the various sectors; government, private enterprise and cooperatives. Whilst Steven and I don’t often go along on group tours, such an organised week of visits and intensive cupping promised to make the most of my time as I was also due to travel on the following week to spend days cupping lots for our 2010 Rwanda Harvest shipments. When you are getting to know a country’s coffee it’s important to cup as many lots as possible from a variety of areas and producers. This way you build up a picture of who is producing good coffee, who might be able to produce VERY good coffee with a bit of partnership and support, and who is talking the talk but not walking!

Our tour began crossing over the border from Rwanda at Kanyaru Haut crossing, accompanied by plus Ben Lentz (director of the US AID funded BAP Burundi Agricultural Project), Anne Ottaway, representing Michigan State University’s programme and various heads of coffee sector taking a ride in a convoy of 4×4’s. My travelling companion during the following days was mostly Adrien Sibomana, CEO of InterCafé , Burundi’s representative organisation for growers and exporters. Adrien is a tall quiet and thoughtful man, keenly aware of the most pressing issues facing Burundi coffee growers and is moving to get a national dialogue going about how to resolve increasing production of quality, value added coffee with the highly compartmentalised approach to family land ownership which inevitably prevents farmers from benefitting from even minor economies of scale. Over this and many other topics that affect coffee production and community development, Adrien told me more about his background and how he came into public office. What he (or anyone else) didn’t tell me, and what I found out two days into the trip, was that I was riding around with a former prime minister, (1988 – 1993).

Over the four following days of cooperative (washing station) visits and cuppings, it was clear that Burundi’s coffee industry is very much in a state of transition, with a well organised government established infrastructure of washing stations and dry mills that were developed with the single rationale of producing quantity, but not necessarily the quality that might be capable of generating added value for the country’s growers or the breakthrough quality that Union look for. In 2009 however the first stages of liberalisation took place with 13 of the country’s 160 washing stations being taken into either public (cooperative) or private enterprises, and we now have the opportunity to work direct with producers and source coffee traceable coffees.

On the first day, we spent the day touring Kayanza Province, a district to the east of the High mountainous forest area and arrived first at Ruhororo washing station. After being welcomed by enthusiastic Burundi ritual drummers we had opportunity to look at the process for receiving cherries and the washing station operation. One immediately apparent difference between Rwanda and Burundi station practices is that when smallholders bring cherry in, before they put the coffee on the sorting tables to screen out any under ripe (partly green) cherries, they have to put their pick into a basket or net which is then dropped into a water tank and the cherries that float (indicating malformed beans inside, insect damaged beans or over-ripe cherries) are skimmed off. The individual farmers then sort for only remaining perfect red (under-ripes sink as well as ripes) on the dry tables before weighing in and taking a chit or getting paid for the amount of coffee delivered. Ruhororo was one of the first of the stations handed back from the state after a group of 20 farmers decided to group together to take on the station and work as a cooperative taking cherries from local growers. BAP has partnered with this group contributing joint venture funding to add waste water processing capabilities to the station and prevent downstream negative impact while also contributing agricultural and organisational capacity building initiatives. This type of collaborative support is vitally important to us at Union Hand Roasted as we recognise that we are not a development agency but depend very closely on these aspects also being supported as well as our commercial support. Local partners can be highly effective and critical in maintaining what often seem like baby-step advances over the years of involvement.

Our second station visit seemed to be more like a visit to Mumbai train station with hundreds of people if not a thousand or so milling around the cooperative offices and warehouse. Even by African standards of hospitality and greeting this seemed to be an inordinate number of people so it was with relief that we found out that the farmers had turned up for the annual fertiliser handout. At Butegana, also in Kayanza, the station had been taken over in the first wave of liberalisation by a commercial operation known as Webcor Group, a private company active in commodity production in a number of countries around the world. With big resources, the company has made a significant commitment to Burundi coffee taking 13 stations in the first government privatisations and putting in human and financial resources to develop quality initiatives at both station and smallholder level. The principal difference here is that the processing facility is privately owned and as such profits remain within the corporation as opposed to being shared out amongst the community. In reality, coffee producing countries need both public and private producers as the latter can often employ capital to develop resources in an organised manner and if the goal remains that of creating added value coffee that the farmers can really see an improvement in earnings per kilo grown or labour hour employed then it should be seen as a benefit and not just the corporate arm of big business. As this is the first year of this relationship we’ll continue to watch and see how things progress. From the visit it was immediately apparent however that the station’s capacity was huge (500-1500MT) and that even with a central elevation of 1650MASL much work will need to be undertaken to really understand the areas from which their coffee comes, the daily lot sizes that comprise the stations operational capacity and how these can remain segregated to protect and retain the no doubt small parcel sizes where real quality coffee can be found and retained.

After a short lunch we made the final visit of the day to a station at Buziraguhindwa (CPC), a much smaller station (capacity 300-500MT) also private but this time owned and operated by a local private organisation. With an exciting altitude location of 1996MASL this station is well located in the higher reaches of Kyanza’s Muruta district and should be capable of producing some good coffee lots although sadly we didn’t see any samples from here on the cupping tables.

Looking at Burundi coffee there are unsurprisingly many similarities in the methods of operation when compared to Rwanda – after all both countries share so many aspects of terrain, population dispersal and density and of course the presence of old Bourbon coffee varietals. Just because of this however, one should not assume that the coffee itself will be the same as Rwanda’s. Now that the quality of Rwanda coffee has been allowed to shine through better agronomy and processing, real regional differences are becoming apparent characterising coffees that may be full bodied with deep brown sugar sweetness to those fleeting cups with floral, citrus and soft honeyed tones. I fully expect that with such a diversity of microclimates and a soil character that is similar but with enough differences to mark it out from other regions, Burundi coffee could provide us with yet more nuances of the region.

On day 2 of the trip, our cupping was due to take place at a regional cupping lab in Ngozi and here for the first time the roaster anoraks came out! When preparing cupping lots, we routinely use very small batch roasting machines known unsurprisingly as sample roasters. These bits of kit are, like any specialist equipment inordinately expensive and are manufactured in different sizes (number of barrels that can simultaneously roast). At Union we have a two barrel machine that covers the majority of our needs, but out here in Ngozi, the full evidence of government commitment (spending) became apparent. It seemed as though whichever door or hallway we looked in, there was yet another SIX Barrel roaster – in brand new pristine condition. In one lab we noted 5, six barrel machines – and by the end of the week our count had climbed up to a total of fifty something barrels!!!! I hope that these machines find their way out into the regions and are well used, its just that when one sees things like this – I hope that the machines do get implemented and don’t just disappear into the system!

Over the following two days we visited another four stations, both private and cooperatively owned and witnessed similar operations trying to tease out the differences between people and their approach to the coffee, subtle things that give you a feel for the people’s relationship to what they produce and how the community is established – their aspirations and willingness to partner with external organisations to improve quality and of course their return. No matter how much people get under your skin, its important as a buyer to remain focussed on the coffee. I’ve thought back over the years about how many people we’ve met each with great stories and how we’ve come away with a desire or a hope that their coffee meets our own requirements but the acid test is of course the cupping room and blind tasting. This trip promised to be a crash course in Burundi coffee and after day 4 we had hit over 240 sample lots and to keep the schedule on track had to resort to some pretty nifty speed cupping – yeah it’s the same as dating just that your partner doesn’t slap you in the face when you say something inappropriate!

On the final day of the trip, we had a long morning cupping session at Arfic – the Burundi National Coffee Regulation Authority with the US Ambassador in attendance and who also participated in the cupping under tutelage of Wendy DeJong, current chair of the US Roasters Guild. The Ambassador had only recently taken up the posting but it was encouraging to see how much time she gave us and the Burundian teams in seeking to understand the opportunity for both sides in this partnering for quality. I know our own government does do some good work in supporting developing countries –mainly in areas of governance and society, but as a coffee guy its frustrating not to be able to hook up with our own nationals in developing these sources of great coffee…..come on DFID?

Overall I have to say that this has been a great trip and I do feel much more aware of the range of possibilities in Burundi coffee. From my cupping notes I have already got my eye on some lots we’d like to try out and get to know Burundi a little better this year. Over the coming months we are going to look at some of the communities where we can, as with Rwanda, form a close relationship and work together to develop sustainable direct trading that yields more exciting coffee from the Great Lakes of Africa.