Global Coffee Report January 2022

January/February 2022

A SHIFTING SUPPLY CHAIN

How COVID-19 has changed the logistics of transporting coffee

F1’S TIME TRIAL

World Coffee Research’s F1 hybrid project takes vital next steps

2022 PREDICTIONS

Industry leaders speculate on the challenges and opportunities ahead

SUSTAINABILITY SPOTLIGHT Leading companies pledge their commitments for a sustainable future

DESTINED

TO LEAD

Caffitaly CEO Giuseppe Casareto on untapped potential and why innovation is key to creating the best single-serve coffee in the world www.gcrmag.com

T R A N S PA R E N C Y

THE PROSPECT OF BEING OPEN AND VULNERABLE MAY MAKE ME NERVOUS BUT THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION HAS MADE TRANSPARENCY A CORE PART OF AUTHENTIC BUSINESS BEHAVIOUR. KAMAL BENGOUGAM, Group Commercial Director

CONTENTS January/February 2022

COVER STORY DESTINED TO LEAD

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IN THIS ISSUE FEATURES

10 DESTINED TO LEAD

Caffitaly CEO Giuseppe Casareto on how the company has adjusted to a rapidly changing market

14 F1’S TIME TRIAL

The history and significance of World Coffee Research’s F1 hybrid coffee variety project

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A SHIFTING SUPPLY CHAIN

How COVID-19 has challenged the logistics of transporting coffee

22 INDUSTRY PREDICTIONS

Top industry influencers share their outlook on the year ahead

PROFILES 32

INSPIRING GENIUS The Black Eagle Maverick from Victoria Arduino provides baristas with an instrument to express themselves 34 A SUPER T SOLUTION

How Eversys Super Traditional machines are breaking down established taboos

36 A GLOBAL CLEANER

Cafetto achieves Halal certification and explains why this accreditation is key to its global plans

38 SMART SOLUTIONS

Leaders of the Smart Packaging Hub discuss sustainable solutions to cut packaging costs and minimise waste

40 THE COMPLETE PACKAGE

Rebranded Syntegon Technology makes a new name for itself in coffee packaging

42 A DRIVER OF CHANGE

Gruppo Cimbali on its process of renewal, strategy for expansion, and how to maintain its cultural identity

46 CARING FOR CLIMATE SERVICES

ECOM helps coffee businesses achieve net zero through its newly launched platform

48 A SMARTER WAY TO FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE

Solidaridad demonstrates how coffee production can practically implement sustainable practices

50 A BETTER FUTURE

Caffitaly CEO Giuseppe Casareto on untapped potential and why innovation is key to creating the best single-serve coffee in the world.

“THE CAPABILITY TO INNOVATE HAS ALWAYS BEEN WITHIN THE COMPANY. WE HAD THE PEOPLE, WE HAD THE KNOWLEDGE, WE WERE SIMPLY USING THE KNOWLEDGE IN THE WRONG WAY.” Giuseppe Casareto

CEO OF CAFFITALY

40

Sucafina reaffirms its commitment to a more sustainable coffee industry

LAST WORD

58 MADE IN ITALY

Family roaster Morettino on growing Italy’s first coffee and its implications for the future

SUSTAINABILITY

REGULARS

What sustainability means to the coffee industry and how different businesses are playing their part

04 06 52 54 56

45 SUSTAINABILITY IN THE SPOTLIGHT

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EDITOR’S NOTE NEWS DRIP BY DRIP WHAT’S BREWING DIARY DASHBOARD MARKETPLACE

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EDITOR’S NOTE Global Coffee Report

PUBLISHER Christine Clancy christine.clancy@primecreative.com.au EDITOR Sarah Baker sarah.baker@primecreative.com.au ASSISTANT EDITOR Ethan Miller ethan.miller@primecreative.com.au

PURPOSE AND PRIVILEGE IF THERE’S one thing we’ve learned from the past two years, it’s that nothing is certain, and anything can happen.

Two years ago, I would never have imagined that a conversation with a friend asking for hand sanitiser to take back on his travels to the United States for fear of some “looming virus” would have evolved into one of the biggest challenges of our generation.

One year of hard lockdowns turned into two and now a third variant of the coronavirus has cause for concern at a time when the world is well and truly ready to move on.

It’s a world that’s battered and bruised, and not just from the impact of this evil virus, but from mother nature reminding us who’s boss.

Climate’s unpredictability is what our industry has to contend with, and adapt to.

Speaking with Professor Camila Stefani de Sousa of Cerrado University Center Patrocínio in Minas Gerais after the most severe frost Brazil had experienced in 40 to 50 years, she said there was fear amongst Brazilian farmers, particularly smallholders. What if they experienced another year of frost? What if the lack of rain resulted in a late flowering of the 2022 crop? What if production costs continue to outweigh crop output? If either event occurs, de Sousa said many farmers will be forced to look at planting alternate crops.

But what if those ‘what ifs?’ turned to ‘how cans?’ How can we as an industry do more to support our farmers? How can we make better buying decisions to sustain their livelihood and still make a healthy profit? How can we move forward with our business plans to excel and grow as roasters and manufacturers in beneficial

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ways for consumers and the environment?

Balance, I believe, will be key.

Carbon Market Institute CEO John Connor said COP26 in Glasgow concluded in 2021 with “significant achievements but still left the world short of the ambition and action required to avoid massive climate costs”. However, he said the event did put the spotlight on the need for new targets and timelines as well as new policies to boost carbon markets, capacity building, and technology deployment in 2022.

It was never going to resolve all issues in the pursuit of Paris Agreement temperature goals, but it has prompted action and a rules-based framework for international cooperation. The challenge for governments and markets is clear, and it will be up to businesses within our industry, to do their part.

As we begin a new year, let us reflect on the growth we’ve achieve out of resilience, focus on gratitude for the support we have, and use adversity to drive solutions that can better our knowledge, products and services. At the end of the day, we’re in the flavour business, but we’re also extremely privileged to celebrate a product that can have a positive impact on so many lives, and it’s up to us all, to sustain it.

Sarah Baker Editor, Global Coffee Report

DESIGN PRODUCTION MANAGER Michelle Weston michelle.weston@primecreative.com.au ART DIRECTOR Blake Storey blake.storey@primecreative.com.au DESIGN Kerry Pert, Aisling McComiskey BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AND MARKETING ACCOUNT MANAGER Courtney Walker courtney.walker@primecreative.com.au CLIENT SUCCESS Ben Griffiths ben.griffiths@primecreative.com.au PHOTOGRAPHY Jacopo Indelicato of NJ Video & Drones, Robilant Associati CONTRIBUTORS Shanna Wong HEAD OFFICE Prime Creative Pty Ltd 11-15 Buckhurst Street South Melbourne VIC 3205 Australia p: +61 3 9690 8766 f: +61 3 9682 0044 enquiries@primecreative.com.au www.gcrmag.com SUBSCRIPTIONS +61 3 9690 8766 subscriptions@primecreative.com.au

Global Coffee Report Magazine is available by subscription from the publisher. The rights of refusal are reserved by the publisher.

ARTICLES

All articles submitted for publication become the property of the publisher. The Editor reserves the right to adjust any article to conform with the magazine format.

COPYRIGHT

Global Coffee Report is owned and published by Prime Creative Media. All material in Global Coffee Report Magazine is copyright and no part may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means (graphic, electronic or mechanical including information and retrieval systems) without written permission of the publisher. The Editor welcomes contributions but reserves the right to accept or reject any material. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information Prime Creative Media will not accept responsibility for errors or omissions or for any consequences arising from reliance on information published. The opinions expressed in Global Coffee Report are not necessarily the opinions of, or endorsed by the publisher unless otherwise stated.

Cultivate partnerships for climate solutions

Reach a NET ZERO supply chain by decarbonizing and implementing natural climate solutions with customers and partners.

www.ecomtrading.com

NEWS In brief

NEWS DRIPBYDRIP 14

AFRICA Sucafina has released its inaugural sustainability report, outlining its past and existing work towards sustainability, significant changes in 2020, and the trader’s 2030 sustainability strategy.

Currently, Sucafina can identify 171,000 farmers in its global supply chain, at least half of which receive ongoing training and support. Under its strategy, the coffee company intends to double the size of its farmer network to 350,000 producers worldwide by 2025.

See page 50.

AMERICAS As temperatures increase, coffee growing land decreases, and crop productivity becomes paramount to farmers’ survival. 2021 marks the fifth year in which World Coffee Research is testing potential new F1 hybrid varieties

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in early-stage field trials. This project not only seeks to create high yielding varieties that can perform under a wide range of environments, but quality-driven coffee there is a market for.

See page 14.

In 2020, integrated container logistics company A.P Moller-Maersk shipped more than 100,000 coffee containers via ocean carriers from Brazil. As a result of local container shortages, the company became accustomed to expecting delays. Change in consumer demand has also played a role in coffee shipping delays. Despite Vietnam being America’s third largest importer of coffee in 2020, it’s predicted imports will remain low due to these COVIDrelated delays. Census Bureau import data for coffee indicates that, through the first nine months of 2021, tonnes of coffee imports from Vietnam are down 29 per cent from the first nine months of 2019.

See page 18.

Industry leaders share their vision, goals and challenges for 2022, with predictions from Annette Pensel of Global Coffee Platform, Andrea Illy of illycaffé, Jose Sette of the International Coffee Organization, Cristina Madriñan of Buencafe, Simone Chimini of Lavazza, Paul Molyneux of UCC Coffee Europe, Roberto Vélez Vallejo of FNC, Vanusia Nogueira of the BSCA, Jennifer “Vern” Long of World Coffee Research, Kamal Bengougam of Eversys, and Enrico Bracesco of Gruppo Cimbali.

See page 22.

Across Peru, Colombia, and Mexico, Solidaridad’s Climate Smart Coffee projects have involved 13,800 farmers and 20,000 hectares of farming land.

On average, these producers have seen a 20 per cent increase of productivity and using satellite imaging, Solidaridad has monitored little to no deforestation.

See page 48.

14.5Bn

The number of kilograms of coffee Caffitaly roasted in 2021.

NEWS In brief

ASIA PACIFIC Coffee cleaning manufacturer Cafetto has achieved Halal certification for its products from the Supreme Islamic Council of Halal Meat in Australia, a globally recognised Halal certification. The certification covers 20 of Cafetto’s products, increasing the brand’s accessibility in new regions like the Middle East and Asia.

See page 36.

EUROPE The first half of 2021 saw Caffitaly experience 84 per cent growth in machine sales and more than 18 per cent growth in capsule volumes, with a turnover increase of more than 20 per cent equating to around €150 million on a yearly base (about US$169 million).

By the end of 2021, Caffitaly will have produced 1.7 billion capsules, and estimates a further 1.6 billion capsules will be produced by the end of 2022. Roasting about two tonnes of coffee per day at each of its Capriate and Gaggio Montano factories in Italy, Caffitaly estimates it

roasted approximately 14.5 billion kilograms of coffee in 2021.

See page 10.

Mondiv Lassonde, Opem, Caffitaly, and Cama Group.

See page 38.

Victoria Arduino unveiled its updated take on the Black Eagle espresso machine at HostMilano 2021. The Black Eagle Maverick features a suite of new technology that allows baristas to express themselves through coffee. Its PureBrew technology was particularly popular; roughly four in five coffees Victoria Arduino served at the expo were made using the technology.

See page 32.

Formerly known as Bosch Packaging Technology, Syntegon branched out from the German multinational Bosch Group in 2020, creating new opportunities for the company under the new owner CVC Capital Partners.

See page 40.

Eversys Super Traditional coffee machines can produce 150-plus double espresso and milk drinks each and every hour, impressing industry leading baristas Dale Harris, Matt Perger, and Emi Fukahori, and consulting director Dr Adam Carr, all of whom advocate for the new era of automation.

See page 34.

To learn how different companies in the processing and packaging market approach sustainable solutions, six leading businesses discussed their experiences in a Smart Packaging Hub webinar on 13 October. Presenting companies included Baumer, Santero,

Gruppo Cimbali is represented in 130 countries and has 12 subsidiaries across the United States, China, Middle East, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, and Australia as of Q1 2022. Where it does not have a direct presence, Gruppo Cimbali has more than 700 distributor agreements in place.

See page 42.

In 2015, nearly 200 countries were signed to the Paris Agreement, which aimed to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and slow a rise in mean global temperature by 2030. Many businesses, including those in the coffee sector, have since made pledges of their own to reduce or achieve net zero emissions.

See page 45.

ECOM founded ECOM Sustainable Management Services (SMS) in 2006 to build sustainable supply chains and oversee the many projects that both coffee and cocoa operations were implementing on the ground at origin. Today, ECOM SMS reaches more than 600,000 farmers with 1500 agronomists across 23 countries in coffee and cocoa, allowing it to act at scale.

See page 46.

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Italian coffee roaster Morettino harvested the first batch of Sicilian grown coffee in September 2021.

These were planted 350 metres above sea level, in the village of San Lorenzo ai Colli in Palermo.

See page 58.

600K

The number of coffee producers, if not more, supported by ECOM’s Sustainable Management Services.

COVER STORY Caffitaly

Destined to CAFFITALY CEO GIUSEPPE CASARETO ON UNTAPPED POTENTIAL AND WHY INNOVATION IS KEY TO CREATING THE BEST SINGLE-SERVE COFFEE IN THE WORLD.

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iuseppe Casareto describes his introduction to Caffitaly Systems as a “roller coaster ride”. With an international career spanning almost 30 years working with high-profile consumer brands and companies including Duracell, Procter & Gamble, and the Bolton Group, Casareto took over the reigns as Caffitaly CEO in May 2020 and found himself facing more external challenges than he ever predicted.

“It’s been an exciting yet challenging transition. It’s exciting because the potential for Caffitaly and the opportunity for growth is hug,” Casareto tells Global Coffee Report. “The company is unique because what we try to do is make the best coffee in the single serve arena. It’s an environment where a good majority of players are focused on producing a good product at a low price, but we want to focus on making something that is much better than everybody else’s and bring a lot of innovation that drives value. The biggest challenge in this context, is convincing the customer.”

But that’s not all. Forced to stay grounded in Italy due to travel restrictions instead of introducing himself to customers and global suppliers, Casareto says the immediate challenge when COVID-19 struck was a loss of business for Caffitaly’s out-of-home customers. For some, like Caffitaly’s North-European customer, it meant closing stores and losing 40 per cent of revenue. For others that dabbled in at-home products, it meant their ecommerce and retail channels thrived.

“We had this mix of positive and negative effect for customers that had business in both markets,” Casareto says. “We had to be extraordinarily flexible to change production plans. Our business in professional machines basically went to zero while consumer machine sales doubled. It was a time when we needed to reset and restart some of the components of our business model, like innovation and the supply chain, and rebuild the relationships we have with our customers. At the same time, we needed to adjust ourselves to a market that was changing very rapidly, and not necessarily all the time in a positive direction.”

To add to the challenges in March 2021 the cost of raw materials such as coffee, polyethylene, and polypropylene started to rise as demand for the products surged.

Even the cost of filters Caffitaly uses in its capsules increased by 40 per cent. But rather than putting the cost directly on customers at a time Casareto says the market was not ready for price increases, Caffitaly worked with customers on a one-on-one

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LE basis to find solutions to recover the extra costs.

Now, with the worst behind him, Casareto says Caffitaly is forging ahead with its plan for innovation and market growth.

“In 2020 we stabilised the business from a revenue standpoint after three years of decline, and [in 2021] we started growing in double digits,” he says.

The first half of 2021 saw Caffitaly experience 84 per cent growth in machine sales and more than 18 per cent growth in capsule volumes, with a turnover increase of more than 20 per cent equating to around €150 million on a yearly base (about US$169 million).

By the end of 2021, Caffitaly will have produced 1.7 billion capsules, and estimates a further 1.6 billion capsules will be produced by the end of 2022. Roasting about two tonnes of coffee per day at each of its Capriate and Gaggio Montano factories in Italy, Casareto uses his own calculator to estimate that Caffitaly roasted approximately 14.5 billion kilograms of coffee in 2021.

He says the revenue boom is a direct link to Caffitaly’s commitment to innovation.

“Innovation and technology is what keeps us alive.

It’s the reason why we are in the business. Our business model is to provide our customers with a system that is unique on the market. It perfectly combines technology and the capability to deliver a superior tasting experience.

But the market does not stand still. We need to constantly stay one step ahead of anything new that comes into the market, and so one blessing of the pandemic is that it forced us to innovate in order to lift our standards faster than I expected,” Casareto says.

Caffitaly now commits to an annual investment of approximately €2.5 million (about US$28 million) in research and development and is constantly working in this area to increase specific skills and fuel large-scale changes capable of revolutionising the market.

“What is interesting, is that the capability to innovate has always been within the company. We had the people, we had the knowledge, we were simply using the knowledge in the wrong way. When we started implementing proper innovation processes and new technologies, the impact was almost immediate,” Casareto says.

Image credit: Jacopo Indelicato

AD Giuseppe Casareto is the CEO of Caffitaly.

JA N UA R Y /FE B R UA R Y 2 0 2 2 | GCR

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COVER STORY Caffitaly

Caffitaly has partnered with Cama Group for more than 10 years, utilising its range of feeding and packing lines.

QUALITY FIRST Offering a quality product is part of Caffitaly’s DNA. It was the mission of the group of entrepreneurs who founded the company in 2004 and remains its core objective. Up until the beginning of 2000 when Nespresso was the only single serve product on the market, Casareto says it was difficult for anyone else to play in the arena thanks to its capsule patent. When the patent expiry lifted around 2012, many businesses started developing compatible products, but not Caffitaly, it created a system of its own.

“Our founders started asking themselves ‘what more can we do?’ ‘How can we ensure the extraction of coffee is better than anyone else’s?’ Their know-how was machine knowledge, so they started there. Then they started thinking creatively about the capsule and reapplying logic from the world of coffee,” Casareto says.

They built a machine with a double infusion system equipped with two different pressures to help preserve the aromas and flavour characteristics of the coffee. Two filters inside the capsule – one at the top and another at the bottom – help compress the coffee and spread the water in a homogenised way for an even extraction.

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Each Caffitaly capsule contains eight grams of ground coffee, which Casareto says is the right amount for a true Italian espresso with intense aroma and a thick crema.

“In some bars in Milan or London, a professional machine uses the same volume of coffee,” Casareto says. “As a result – and it’s something that stroke me immediately about Caffitaly – the company has never lost a customer. Once our customers physically exploit our system it’s very difficult for them to move to something else.”

Caffitaly machines also include optical readers that recognise the capsule and indicate to the user the correct dispensing button, such

and Beta-glucans to help raise immune defences.

“Customers see a massive opportunity in this area because you’re giving the market something more – not just another coffee with a different taste, but something that is good for them,” Casareto says.

After the success of Caffitaly’s range of coffees with aromas, such as rum, amaretto, nut, mint and espresso panettone for Christmas, Caffitaly will also launch seasonal Limited Edition coffees with aromas that meet the tastes and trends of the market. It is close to finalising a global deal that will see the brand expand its range of alternative soluble drinks to include matcha tea, ginseng, barley, and other natural offerings.

With around 71 per cent of Caffitaly’s capsule turnover coming from abroad, Caffitaly will keep leveraging international market opportunities. In particular, in 2022, it will focus on expanding its presence in the United Kingdom and United States, countries in which the brand is not yet present.

To help cater to its expansive growth and the development of new soluble products, Caffitaly is working with leading packaging company Cama Group, whom Casareto describes as a “fantastic partner and key supplier that helps Caffitaly bring to the market a superior capsule product with its range of feeding and packing lines”.

“In order to bring to the market a superior product we need superior technology to make it in the right way, and Cama plays a critical role in that. Cama has supplied us with many packing lines that enable us to deliver solutions for our customers and consumers. Cama is professional, ambitious, responsive, and very quick to help us. Their technology has a very high level of flexibility, ability, and quality which is applied to each of our packaging configurations,” Casareto says.

“We are also working with Cama on new improvements to invest in a new packing line that has a much higher flexibility than what there is on the market. It will allow us to shift from one pack to the other without stopping the feeding line. It’s extraordinarily efficient.”

Image credit: Jacopo Indelicato

SUSTAINABLE ROADMAP

as espresso or filter coffee.

“There is no system comparable to ours.

It produces a quality espresso, and has the flexibility to transfer that quality to other types of beverages such as filter coffee or teas.

Other systems usually only specialise in one of the two. We are the only one providing a very high-quality spectrum of drinks because of the high level of technology in what we do,” Casareto says.

Caffitaly will expand its range of coffees over the next 18 months to incorporate functional ingredients that are focused on supporting consumers’ body and mind health. This includes Difesa, a coffee enriched with zinc, vitamin B6

Casareto is focused on building the best hot drink capsules on the market, but he also wants them to be the most sustainable. As such, Caffitaly has created a sustainability roadmap by customer and country with the objective to one day use 100 per cent recycled materials, largely from Caffitaly capsules, to create its single-serve products.

In the next 12 months, Caffitaly capsules will be fully recyclable, with all capsules made with 97 per cent polypropylene by the end of 2021. It will also launch its first fully compostable capsules in 2022.

“We have started designing and building a roadmap to drive sustainability across all our product brands, and all our customers are with us on this effort. We are 100 per cent focused on using materials coming from waste, which will progressively become recycled into the coffee capsules our customers use. That’s the full circular economy,” Casareto says.

He is also committed to improving the working conditions of Caffitaly’s 450 employees and creating opportunities for their future.

“Companies are made by people. Successful businesses are the result of the quality of the people that you have. Having the right level of talent, the right people to drive the business forward, to fix the issues we have, to turn the company around and to see the opportunities ahead has been a major satisfaction. The company is changing because the leaders are changing,” Casareto says.

Also changing is Caffitaly’s customer relationships, which Casareto says is “blossoming” after a period of transition.

“We’re starting to see revenue growing in the right direction. In a period of crisis, the capsule segment has grown fast. Single serve is still highly underdeveloped and is growing virtually unaware in double digits, and the expectation is that the market will keep growing,” Casareto says.

“We do expect it will become more complex, more innovative, and more competitive because there are many opportunities to employ premium technology to produce a better-quality product.

The price of compatible [capsules] is going down and [so] is profitability, so the right way to leverage growth is to innovate and deliver a better product than what is currently available on the market.

For us, the only way to survive is to innovate more than the other players and have flexibility that is difficult to match.” G C R

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FEATURE World Coffee Research

To make a new F1 hybrid, emasculation occurs, where the pollen-producing stamen is removed so an exposed pistil is ready for pollination.

F1’s time trial GLOBAL COFFEE REPORT DISCOVERS THE HISTORY AND SIGNIFICANCE OF WORLD COFFEE RESEARCH’S F1 PROJECT THAT IS NOT ONLY FOCUSED ON HIGH YIELDING VARIETIES UNDER THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE, BUT COFFEE THAT TASTES GREAT.

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espite being in a relatively early stage of development, first-generation (F1) hybrid coffee varieties are increasingly seen as an important and viable path forward for the coffee industry.

As temperatures increase, coffee growing land decreases, and crop productivity becomes paramount to farmers’ survival, 2021 marks the fifth year in which World Coffee Research (WCR), a collaborative, industry-driven R&D nonprofit, is testing potential new F1 hybrid varieties in early-stage field trials.

This project not only seeks to create high yielding varieties that can perform under a wide range of environments, but quality-driven coffee there is a market for. As such, international coffee roasters were involved from the beginning.

“F1 hybrid varieties are created by crossing two genetically distinct plant parents that have specific complementary features,” says Jorge Berny, Breeding and Technical Manager at WCR. “The offspring has the potential to offer unique advantages beyond either of its parents, such as higher production, in-cup quality or greater disease resistance. It’s a way to progress the coffee industry faster.”

The first F1 hybrid varieties in coffee were created by a collaborative breeding effort that predates WCR’s formation. Four countries including Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua, under the PROMECAFE umbrella, collaborated with French research institution

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CIRAD and a coffee genebank in Costa Rica (CATIE) to create and release four F1 hybrids in 2010. Of those, one in particular, Centroamericano, also known by its breeding code, H1, has seen growing demand by farmers in the region.

WCR began a focused F1 hybrid breeding effort in 2015, with the idea that continuous improvement is needed by farmers.

“At the time, it still wasn’t clear if farmers would accept these new F1 hybrids, and if roasters would like them, too,” says Hanna Neuschwander, WCR Communications Director. “But it was clear that they offered real advantages for productivity, and they can be brought to market faster than traditional varieties, which take 25-plus years. We initiated the program based on that urgency.”

Cupping of the F1 hybrid.

Forty-six F1 hybrid crosses were made using accessions from the WCR CATIE Core Collection. The crosses were planted across six sites including Costa Rica (pictured below).

Monitoring the progress of experimental F1 hybrids at a World Coffee Research farm in El Salvador.

Roasting samples of the F1 varietal.

WCR’s project saw the creation of 46 F1 hybrid crosses in 2015 using various materials including commercially available varieties known for yield, rust resistance and cup quality, as well as genetically diverse Arabicas that had not been used in breeding before.

The crosses were then planted at six sites of varying altitudes and climates in Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Rwanda between 2016 and 2018. Over five harvest cycles, the performance of the different crosses is observed across all the sites to see which perform best in terms of yield, cup quality, and rust incidence, as well as which are the most stable across environments, a critical proxy for climate resilience.

Aquiares Estate, located in Costa Rica, is one of the farms where the experimental

varieties were planted. It is the largest continuous, carbon neutral coffee farm and holds a community of more than 2000 members.

“As producers, it is important to always try and be at the forefront of technology — especially due to climate change. With limited coffee genetic variety, we can only respond to climate, pest, or other pressures in a limited way,” says Diego Robelo, General Manager Aquiares Estate.

“With this project, we are aiming to create a real-life example which others can follow, because not a lot of farmers have the resources or time to do this type of research,” says Robelo.

WCR’s Neuschwander echoes Robelo’s sentiment, stating that one of the greatest challenges with coffee plants is the dedication and funds required for multi-year field trials.

“It requires a lot of patience,” she says. “You need at least two years to produce the first harvest, then you need multiple harvest years’ worth of data to make good judgements.”

As such, it wasn’t until 2020 that the first round of coffee beans from these F1 hybrids had been picked, processed, and were ready to be cupped by roasters across the globe.

“We aren’t the first organisation to make hybrid crosses. But what’s been innovative about this program is that we are including feedback from a diverse and global group of significant coffee buyers who purchase millions of pounds of coffees every year,” says Neuschwander.

“We are taking into account their feedback from the very beginning of the process, so that, in effect, the market has a say in which candidates advance forward toward commercialisation.”

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FEATURE World Coffee Research

To evaluate the cup quality of these experimental varieties, WCR has distributed green samples to 60 companies over two years. Each participating company roasts the coffee according to their own specifications, and cups using the Specialty Coffee Association’s (SCA) cup score scale. These roasters also answered questions such as whether the variety met current or planned product specifications and flavour preferences.

“We consider these product specifications and flavour profiles like shades of information which helps give us a read on the market. It also helps us identify the flavour and aroma attributes that are present and untangle the relationship between the two,” says Neuschwander.

“In the 2020 trials we interestingly found that everyone liked chocolate and sweet attributes.

However, floral attributes were divisive, some people rated them high and some low.”

Both field trials and sensory evaluation are laborious processes, so Neuschwander says the project is also focused on investigating more efficient ways to screen candidates for quality.

After the 2020 cupping was complete, the F1 variety candidates were narrowed to a set of 15 of the most promising, which were once again sent to international roasters, including specialty coffee roaster Blue Bottle Coffee.

“We received 15 samples, which per our standards took about 24 hours to process, from roasting it then cupping it the next day along with time for data entry plus some other physical analysis such as screen size, moisture, and density,” says Shaun Puklavetz, Coffee Sourcing and Relationship Manager of Blue Bottle Coffee.

He says Blue Bottle Coffee was impressed with the overall quality, with the beans having typical tasting notes of Central American coffee including chocolatey and balanced with brown sugar.

Another cupping participant was the Specialty Coffee Association of Japan (SCAJ), a collection of Japanese importers, roasters, wholesalers, and micro-roasters. Across its association, a total of 19 companies received samples to cup, with the cupping arrangements proceeding smoothly.

Takao Ueshima, SCAJ Executive Director says it was critical for the association to be involved.

“As global warming proceeds, the issue of how to secure a sustainable supply of high-quality specialty coffee is very important,” he says. “We believe that varieties that maintain productivity

Diego Robelo of Aquiares Estate in Costa Rica, one of the farms where experimental varieties were planted.

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and high quality while responding to climate warming are very important for the survival of our business of both producers and sellers in the future.”

The top two candidates have now been moved forward. WCR’s Berny says these hybrids will hopefully advance to larger-scale, on-farm trials in 2023. This phase will see the plants grown in a wider variety of places with greater volumes.

“This is where we will really see its potential and you look at it on a bigger scale: is it really better? Will it actually work for farmers?” says Berny.

Creating a hybrid plant, however, will not solve all farmers’ problems. One of the main challenges is related to the cost.

“Creating these hybrid plants is typically more expensive and requires either clonal propagation or manual cross pollination. This causes the prices of the plants to increase. On top of this, more productive varieties usually require more agricultural inputs like nutrition and water,” he says.

“This increased cost means hybrids are often better suited to well-established farmers with enough land and resources to trial these plants.”

WCR’s Neuschwander adds that another challenge is the lack of developed seed systems.

“The most important risk of using hybrids is that you shouldn’t save the seed – if you do, the resulting plant will not perform like its super-powered mother,” she says.

“If farmers save hybrid seed it can damage their livelihoods because the performance of a crop derived from an F1 plant can be extremely variable. So you wouldn’t want to release a F1 variety into a country that doesn’t have the seed system or farmer support capacity needed to minimise those risks.”

This means the benefits of hybrids are less straightforward for smallholder farmers, who produce 60 per cent of the world’s coffee and who typically save seed versus buying plants from established nurseries.

This is why in 2022 WCR will only test F1 varieties in established countries with national breeding programs and traders with facilities.

One region is Costa Rica, due to its developed seed systems, high-capacity nurseries, and experienced researchers alongside the

advanced training provided to farmers.

In the next phase, WCR will begin talks with national breeding programs and traders who have the means to introduce F1 hybrids to the market.

“It will, however, still be another three years for these varieties to mature, and another three to confirm the performance in the field and in the cup,” says Neuschwander.

That may seem like a long time, but it is still half as long as it takes to bring a traditional variety to market. And in the past 10 to 15 years, conversations around hybrids have completely changed, and there is the potential to do so again.

“It was previously thought that the risks outweighed the benefit, but we’ve seen so much curiosity and cautious optimism from both farmers and roasters. We are excited to see where this research goes next,” Neuschwander says. G C R

Harvesting the F1 varietal at the Alsacia Farm in Costa Rica.

For more information, visit www.worldcoffeeresearch.org

The next step in our history of innovation and design.

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FEATURE Logistics

A shifting supply chain GLOBAL COFFEE REPORT EXPLORES HOW COVID-19 HAS CHANGED THE LOGISTICS OF TRANSPORTING COFFEE, AND HOW TRADERS, SHIPPING COMPANIES, AND ROASTERS ARE PIVOTING TO MEET CONSUMER DEMAND.

T

ransporting green beans requires a plan as meticulous and thorough as a James Bond mission. It involves coordinating harvest seasons with local and international logistic companies, correct handling to prevent oxygen contamination and maintaining consistent humidity levels, and that was before COVID-19 turned the logistics world on its head.

International food and agri-business supplier olam food ingredients (ofi) experienced the immediate impact firsthand, having transported green coffee from origin countries to roasters around the globe for more than 30 years.

“There are so many variables in shipping that come as a surprise even with the best of planning.

Throughout COVID, we’ve seen first-hand how a single bottleneck causes a ripple effect throughout the supply chain,” says Marc Lissauer, Director of Coffee Logistics at ofi.

Lissauer points to Colombia, where government-enforced curfews during early COVID-19 outbreaks decreased shipping and production capabilities. Soon after, strikes and protests shut down the country’s main roads, drastically reducing exports again, despite demand for coffee remaining high.

“Our extensive global team and presence in origins such as Colombia put us in a favourable position to navigate our way through these roadblocks – both literally and figuratively,” says Lissauer.

“Having inventory available in each destination is one way we’ve been able to continue supplying green coffee to our roasting partners. Others, meanwhile, have been forced to buy spot coffee at increasing prices or swap to alternative origins that offer similar flavour profiles.”

As a result of these roadblocks, Lissauer says there have been fewer vessels and containers able to meet surging global demand.

“Ports and vessels become filled with full containers that reduce both the number of available vessels and empty containers on the water,” he says. “With this increased competition for space and containers, there has been an increase in shipping prices.”

In 2020, integrated container logistics company A.P Moller-Maersk shipped more than 100,000 coffee containers via ocean carriers from Brazil. As a result of local container shortages, Luiz Gouveia, Sales Coordinator of Maersk Group brand Hamburg Sud, says the company became accustomed to expecting delays.

“We found when we exported containers to ports across the globe, they would probably become stuck at terminals,” Gouveia says.

This can be caused by any number of reasons, including irregular shipping schedules with an influx of boats arriving at the same time, understaffing of terminal workers due to COVID-19 outbreaks, lockdowns or capacity limits, and truck and equipment shortages. These factors can result in 20 or more boats waiting in a port at any one time.

Gouveia cites the Rotterdam port, one of the largest seaports in Europe, and the Port of Los Angeles in America as some of the hardest hit.

“In September, we saw up to 60 to 70 vessels waiting at one time in the Port of Los Angeles,” he says.

Gouveia adds that Maersk, along with countless other shipping companies were faced with

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the challenge of either utilising more fuel to make up for lost time spent at the terminals or “blank sailing” – skipping ports.

“There is, however, an environmental issue with burning more fuel and skipping ports adds to the backlog of items already waiting at ports,” he says. “Globally, there has been a vessel shortage, so it is not as simple as sending more vessels to collect the blanked ports.”

With so many contending factors, Maersk worked to maintain the high standard conditions of its dry food grade containers to ensure coffee quality.

According to Jean Nicolas Wintgens in his book Coffee - Growing, Processing, Sustainable Production , green coffee is susceptible to absorbing water from its surroundings, which dilutes its flavour and aroma.

As such, when transporting coffee, its temperature and humidity must be carefully monitored and held in conditions of less that 60 per cent humidity. Exposure to warm temperatures, along with too much oxygen, also increases the bean’s metabolic activity, causing a loss of aroma.

Transport by air, however, remains very expensive due to limited space says Gouveia, with degassing and oxygen exposure always a threat. According to the United States Census Bureau, in 2021 air transport of green beans cost an average of US$16 per kilogram, compared to ocean shipping of green beans which cost an average of US$3 per kilogram.

For this reason, maritime shipping has remained the preferred method for transporting coffee internationally, which is why Gustavo Pereira, Senior Marketing Analyst at Maersk says it’s important to improve the problems seen today.

“We are shifting to offer a complete end-to-

end solution, as these delays have demonstrated the need for an integrated view of the entire supply chain,” he says. “Through extending Maersk’s transport services to railway lines which allows us to transport coffee from origin to retail stores, and allows greater visibility for our customers.”

Pereira adds that this period has also highlighted the need for more sustainable shipping solutions. As such, in 2023, Maersk will introduce the first of eight ocean container vessels, which will operate on carbon neutral methanol, reducing one million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually.

Alongside these trends, Raphaelle Hemmerlin, Head of Logistics and Operational Efficiency at Sucafina – a multinational coffee merchant – says over the past year she has noted a tendency for shipping companies to favour the highest paying goods with the lightest weight.

“This has negatively impacted the coffee supply chain as coffee is considered ‘heavy goods’ for shipping lines,” Hemmerlin says.

“We have also seen shipping prices increase six-times [since] 2019 levels.”

As a coffee merchant, Hemmerlin says Sucafina’s biggest challenge was keeping in contact with its logistics partners during delays.

“Moving coffee has many aspects. We had to manage communications with the truck drivers, quality controllers, as well maintaining aspects such as the release of the physical documents. On top of this, we saw many constraints between countries’ borders,” says Hemmerlin.

“This slowed the availability of truckers down a lot, and it also slowed the overall transit time of goods to reach the ports, so keeping that communication line clear was key.”

This same principle has been applied to roasters and buyers around the world.

“We track shipments and containers on daily basis, and we offer visibility with reports and updates to our customers on at least a weekly basis,” says Hemmerlin. “If our customers can’t get a shipment as per their initial plan, we work with our commercial team to suggest alternatives for our customers to be supplied with a coffee of equivalent quality.”

“THERE ARE SO MANY VARIABLES IN SHIPPING THAT COME AS A SURPRISE EVEN WITH THE BEST OF PLANNING. THROUGHOUT COVID, WE’VE SEEN FIRST-HAND HOW A SINGLE BOTTLENECK CAUSES A RIPPLE EFFECT THROUGHOUT THE SUPPLY CHAIN.” Marc Lissauer Green beans must be transported in conditions of less than 60 per cent humidity.

Director of Coffee Logistics at ofi.

JA N UA R Y /FE B R UA R Y 2 0 2 2 | GCR

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FEATURE Logistics

According to container shipping publication Dynaliers’ 2021 report, container volumes have grown 21 per cent.

Hemmerlin says that coffee buyers around the globe have shown an understanding of the challenges, with most ready and willing to look at all possibilities as long as discussions are constant and transparent.

“We’ve moved to a new landscape for logistics, which requires a lot of innovation and learning, and customers have seemed to understand that,” says Hemmerlin.

Hemmerlin says the conditions we’re seeing now are the result of a “perfect storm”.

“There has been a 21 per cent overall growth in world-wide container volumes to, from, and in between North America, according to container shipping publication Dynaliners’ 2021 report,” she says. “This has created congestion in critical port terminals such as the West Coast of America or in China’s ports.”

Jason Miller, Associate Professor of Logistics at Michigan State University says particularly with the import supply chain, the sector functions with minimal excess capacity and low margins, resulting in limited room for increased demand, especially over a prolonged period.

“You can’t quickly add another terminal to a port or build warehouses and, likewise, quickly train new truck drivers and train engineers; it’s a classic example that demand can shift quickly, but supply cannot and when that happens, two things happen: prices can go up quickly, and wait times increase exponentially, which is exactly what we’re seeing today,” he says.

Miller adds in the US, the change in consumer demand has played a role in coffee shipping delays.

“When the lockdowns occurred, we had a record government stimulus, but people weren’t able to spend on services and instead bought durables which just spurred an increase in demand of products both globally and particularly from East Asia,” he says.

As such, despite Vietnam being America’s third largest importer of coffee in 2020, Miller predicts imports will remain low due to these COVID-related delays. His analysis of Census Bureau import data for coffee indicates that, through the first nine months of 2021, metric tons of coffee imports from Vietnam are down 29 per cent from the first nine months of 2019.

Nguyen Coffee Supply, an American-based specialty Vietnamese coffee importer and roaster, has been impacted by such delays.

“There have been incredible delays ordering coffee from Vietnam and shipping coffee to our customers. Specifically, with global freight, we’ve seen the cost increase four to five times, and as

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a small business, we’ve had to eat this cost as there is no way around it,” says Nguyen Coffee Supply Founder Sahra Nguyen.

“We’ve had to order our coffee from Vietnam much earlier to arrive on time, factoring in the delays with global freight shipping. We don’t stockpile coffee, but have had to manage our inventory appropriately to account for the delays.”

Domestically, Nguyen says carriers delivering goods to customers are also overwhelmed with the rise of online shopping. While some customers have been understanding about shipment delays, she says there are still many who expect deliveries to be as quick as Amazon Prime or offering “next day” options.

She adds that large companies like Amazon have their own carrier system, which enables them to make such shipping guarantees. Small businesses like Nguyen Coffee Supply work with other carriers, and although most have no control over carrier systems like USPS or UPS, Nguyen says customers often place the onus on brands.

For customers, she says it’s all about communicating the realities of the carrier system and assist with managing expectations around shipping timelines.

“I predict that people will have to order

much earlier to compensate for their crowded and congested global freight supply chain,” she says.

Like many suppliers around the globe, satisfying consumer demand at a time where transportation was volatile was one of Lavazza’s biggest challenges during the pandemic.

To mitigate supply shortages in 2021, Lavazza’s supply and operations team reviewed and overhauled the frequency of shipments and lead times to ensure stock arrived on time.

“Pre-COVID, there may have been the ability to rely on ‘just in time’ mentality, or for one party in the supply chain to harbor the majority of the inventory. This is no longer feasible or wise, especially on long distance freight,” says Lavazza APAC Regional Director Simone Chimini.

Looking forward, Chimini says agility and flexibility will continue to play a key role in helping the Italian roaster manage volume and transportation of coffee evenly across its global network.

“There is no one-size-fits-all solution to

implement as the new industry standard. So, moving forward, the best resources in our supply chain toolkit will be adaptability and proactivity,” he says.

“We know that ports and airports are influenced by state and international borders, so we have created guidelines into the new year to be able to pivot where needed.”

Lavazza does not anticipate delays will improve in the short-term, nor that shipping prices will reduce at least in the first half of 2022. In the medium-long term however, Chimini predicts shipping prices will come down, but not necessarily at the level of pre-COVID. According to Associate Professor Miller, the next question the industry will be asking is “what do we, or can we, feasibly change within the supply chain?”

“There’s only so much warehousing capacity we can add before we begin struggling with labour availability, which is one of the issues we’ve started to see in the US,” Miller says.

He predicts however, that shipping container prices, for coffee and the wider industry, will not revert to pre-COVID levels.

“For over a decade before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, ocean carriers just weren’t making any money. This was due to a surplus of global vessels and containers coming online the same time that the Great Recession hit in 2008 and 2009,” he says.

“Given the high degree of concentration in the container shipping sector, I believe the carriers have learned pricing discipline and will avoid adding too much capacity.”

When transport schedules will return to “normal”, says Miller, is unpredictable.

“It’s difficult to estimate because we don’t yet have a sense for when consumer behaviour will change again and people start to buy less durables, which will drive down demand for imports and improve shipping time for industries such as coffee,” he says.

“We do know, however, that all these extra container lines being built around the globe won’t come online until 2023, so we still have a period of waiting before things shift again.” G C R

REPORT Industry predictions

EACH YEAR GCR INVITES INDUSTRY LEADERS TO SHARE THEIR HOPES, FEARS AND EXPECTATIONS FOR THE YEAR AHEAD, IN WHAT IS EXPECTED TO BE ONE OF REJUVENATION AND UNITY FOR THE GLOBAL COFFEE MARKET.

PAUL MOLYNEUX CEO, UCC EUROPE

The world is evolving dynamically: COVID-19, rising costs, and climate change are accelerating this at a rapid speed, but even in times of crisis, you can make room for opportunity.

In the last two years, we’ve seen 74 per cent of Europeans work from home during the pandemic, 41 per cent spend less on eating out, and unfortunately, an 18 per cent reduction in household income according to a PWC 2020 global insight survey. This has been a drastic shift in how we behave and consume, meaning businesses must be agile in adapting to the new world order. According to the World Coffee Portal Project Café Europe 2021, there will be “a modest return to outlet growth in 2022”.

This doesn’t mean customers aren’t drinking coffee, they’re just doing it differently.

So, we’ve looked at these market trends and how we build resilience and flexibility into our business model and have started the process of rebalancing our business to give us the ability to focus on where we see real opportunity. Our strategic plans are in place, and to meet the new

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demand, we are investing in our new consumer brand Ueshima Coffee Company and our premium digital vending solution, Coffee To Go. To support these initiatives, we’ve accelerated organisational change, strengthened our central functions, added new marketing and product innovation roles, and created vertical business

units to incubate these new business models.

However, what cannot be ignored is sustainability. At COP26, the hotly debated topics were around carbon emissions and how businesses can reduce them. We are all accountable, and we’ll feel the pressure from not only governments but customers too. As a top 10 global coffee business, we have a farreaching environmental footprint, so we have several ongoing initiatives, including factories moving to renewable electricity and improving energy efficiencies, reducing our waste, and reusing and recycling wherever possible. As well as supporting the key initiatives of our partners, including Conservation International, Rainforest Alliance, and Terracycle. Taking this a step further, we have a global materiality study underway to define our long-term sustainability ambitions, and we look forward to sharing more on this soon.

This past year, we’ve overcome considerable obstacles, and 2022 will undoubtedly be challenging, but if we leverage the power of UCC – its heritage, knowledge, people – and apply it into the new business models, then the opportunity is huge.

CRISTINA MADRIÑÁN RIVAS

GENERAL DIRECTOR, BUENCAFÉ LIOFILIZADO DE COLOMBIA At Buencafé Liofilizado de Colombia, we are permanently aware of the needs of our customers in the 60 markets of the world reached by our products. Based on this knowledge, for 2022 we expect three trends as a result of the pandemic.

First, we will see a consumer who will adapt to frequent changes in availability of both products and packaging, due to the crisis of raw materials and disruptions in the supply and logistics chains. Consumer’s flexibility will lead them to try new formats and products, and will lead companies down the path of innovation and creativity for their product offering, which we began to see in 2021.

The second trend is the consumer’s search to indulge comfortably and safely.

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This will lead to increased consumption as per two patterns that will strengthen in 2022: purchases through vending machines and

the rise of ready-to-drink (RTD) beverages.

Vending machines will continue to gain a lot of popularity due to their ease of use and little human contact. And RTD beverages will grow because they are a way to indulge comfortably and can be consumed at any time without brewing. They are expected to grow at a sustained rate until 2025.

Finally, the third trend which is not as temporary as we first thought, is the consumer’s concern about self-care after the pandemic. This encouraged healthier lifestyles, concern for the immune system, and the search for foods rich in antioxidants, with anti-inflammatory properties and fewer calories. In response, in the soluble coffee market, some companies have already chosen to offer plant-based products or cold brew coffee drinks that use less sugar and are mixed with other functional ingredients to meet this consumer need.

In conclusion, in 2022 the coffee industry will be enriched by flexibility, innovation and creativity in response to market uncertainties and new consumer habits.

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ANNETTE PENSEL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GLOBAL COFFEE PLATFORM

At the end of 2020, a year full of challenges, we needed 2021 to offer us hope. Hope has been realised through a new vaccine, a new climate agreement, and in the coffee sector, a new – albeit temporary – relief from the coffee price crisis with the steep upwards trend in the market.

At the same time, much-needed vaccines are not yet reaching the vulnerable communities. The

JOSÉ SETTE

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL COFFEE ORGANIZATION I was recently looking back at my predictions in last year’s edition of Global Coffee Report and saw that my closing words were: “Whatever happens, let’s hope that the upcoming year will not spring any more surprises like this one.” Famous last words, indeed.

While 2020 was marked by profound shocks to the demand side, 2021 was a stark reminder of the vulnerability of coffee production to supply-side shocks. On 20 July 2021, growers in Brazil were hit by a severe frost, the first in more than 20 years. The frost came after a long period of drought, which had already debilitated coffee trees and made them more susceptible to climatic instability.

As of the time of writing, the extent of the damage to future production in Brazil is still difficult to evaluate, although it will

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climate pledges and deforestation commitments still need to be translated into impact. The rising, volatile coffee prices and underlying reasons such as adverse weather, lockdowns and logistical bottlenecks pose a huge challenge for many coffee producers and might translate into higher consumer prices.

In terms of coffee sustainability, systemic challenges facing the coffee sector remain. The decade of delivery to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals provides a key opportunity to the coffee sector. It’s time to move from hope and small steps to big steps through collective action. Coffee is more than a beloved beverage. Sustainable coffee is a positive engine for economic and social development and the conservation of nature, and can even be a “natural climate solution”.

How can we make significant progress towards achieving coffee farmers’ prosperity, social wellbeing and conservation of nature?

How can we drive individual and collective action along with investments to make coffee growing an attractive option for the next generations and by that a great experience for

consumers all over the world?

Through the likes of Global Coffee Platform’s (GCP) Collective Action Initiatives, stakeholders from across the value chain and public sectors are proving that collaboration with urgency is not only possible, but already impactful – be it on agrochemicals and glyphosate, or socialwellbeing and living income. It is encouraging to see GCP members stepping up their commitments to collective action on farmers’ prosperity in collaboration with Country Platforms, along with progress on responsible sourcing.

Supporting this work, the newly revised Coffee Sustainability Reference Code provides a common language and empowers GCP Members, partners and the broader coffee sector to better align activities, inspire continuous improvement and accelerate individual and collective action.

While this Reference Code addresses the beginning of the supply chain, downstream actors are expected to share the responsibility for sustainability.

It is through leveraging each other’s strengths, that we have a real shot at a thriving and sustainable coffee sector.

undoubtedly be substantial. The impact is also likely to last for a considerable time.

With no other origins having the capacity to make up the shortfall in Brazilian in the short term, we must prepare ourselves for a prolonged period of restricted supply.

Meanwhile, demand for coffee is showing encouraging signs of recovery from the pandemic-induced drop, which especially affected out-of-home consumption.

As a result of the impending supply shortage, prices have risen sharply in recent months. Prices are now at their highest levels in the last 10 years, with no prospects for a significant decrease in sight. Bearing in mind that roasters have not yet passed on the increase in prices to consumers, we can expect even more uncertainty in 2022.

Meanwhile, I would like to inject a word of caution. Although current price levels are welcome news for coffee growers, who have suffered a long spell of low quotations, experience shows us also that coffee prices are subject to long-term cycles, so we must not fall into the trap of thinking that today’s high prices will persist indefinitely.

Farmers must use the good times today to organise their operations and improve their productivity in order to prepare themselves for lower prices in the future.

ANDREA ILLY

CHAIRMAN OF ILLYCAFFÈ In reflection on my industry predictions for 2022, my first hope is that we get rid of the global pandemic. If so, we are likely to see a significant rebound in out-of-home consumption. I also hope that the price of coffee, which is in a volatile situation, will consolidate to a level which is not too high nor too low. And lastly, I hope we start having a collective impact of sustainable efforts across the coffee value chain.

The most challenging of all, however, will be climate change management. We will undoubtedly see its impact next year – we don’t know which country will bear the force, but we will have to manage it like we did in 2021.

This battle for sustainability must be a precompetitive one. We need to share resources, efforts, and knowledge collectively in order to make the overall coffee industry more sustainable and continue to compete for the

taste of our coffee rather than for the title of ‘most sustainable’. At the end of the day, we as coffee roasters, offer taste and flavour in a cup to a consumer. Sustainability is not consumable, it’s about the way we produce. If everyone produced their coffee in the same way, we could probably minimise climate change impact in a shorter period of time. It is a limitless battle.

The first impact of climate change will be on quality, then quantity. My fear is that we are running out of time. The next 10 years will make the difference. There are so many ambitious programs being run by institutions like the United Nations, and many important private investments, that there is literally a mobilisation for sustainability. It is also clearly understood and imperative to decarbonise our world in a natural way – replanting trees and preserving biodiversity.

If we move from a conventional agriculture model to a non-conventional, virtuous, and regenerative one, agriculture could even become carbon negative, sequestering carbon instead of emitting it.

While there is pressure at origin to make a positive impact, companies are also under pressure from consumers, the financial sector, institutions, and competitors. I believe there is more opportunity for the private sector to bring a very strong contribution to this ecological transformation.

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SIMONE CHIMINI

premium at-home coffee experiences and new ways to elevate their morning coffee rituals.

This year alone in Australia, our A Modo Mio coffee machine range, which serves baristaquality espresso from the comfort of home, saw a 61 per cent growth, according to GFK Value Sales, Moving Annual Total to October 2021.

At the same time, we are continuously focusing on developing our premium range in the bean category to deliver the best at-home experience for coffee lovers.

We anticipate this trend continuing in the year to come, with flexible working still in place for many.

In the last few years, we have seen significant advancements with in-home technology, and the role it plays to make people’s busy lives easier.

The coffee machine lives in the heart of the home, the kitchen, and therefore in 2022, I believe we will see some exciting advancements in the coffee machine category.

Innovations in technology are evolving in the coffee sector at a remarkable pace. With a strong dedication to first-class consumer experiences, Lavazza has invested in leading technologies that will enable one-of-a-kind experiences tailored to personal preferences.

We’re excited to share some of these exciting announcements in 2022, especially on our proprietary system A Modo Mio, and look forward to seeing how all these trends will shape the modern-day coffee experience.

that Colombia offers, highly differentiated exceptional coffees that represent a better income for producers, and we will continue working in that sense. Today, consumers are more prepared, having evolved to enjoy what Colombian coffee can offer.

With a production close to 13.5 million 60-kilogram bags and a very good price in 2021, the value of the coffee crop should reach COP$11

trillion (US$2.97 billion), which confirms the coffee sector as a key engine of the country’s economy. And with this good precedent, 2022 should also show good results.

Current high prices should also motivate coffee growers to renew their coffee plantations and invest in their farms, so that their businesses are more productive and bring development to coffee regions.

APAC REGIONAL DIRECTOR, LAVAZZA

With the accelerating factors brought on by climate change, we anticipate seeing more conscious coffee-drinkers, those who consider their coffee’s origin and environmental impact.

Earlier in 2021, we launched ¡Tierra! for the at-home market – a Certified Organic and Rainforest Alliance endorsed range that helps teach farmers agricultural techniques to manage the effects of climate change.

Ultimately, we believe that providing a premium quality coffee product that doesn’t compromise on taste, but also operates sustainably, will be the future of coffee.

On top of this, 2022 will see us sharpen our focus on sustainable packaging, with some exciting announcements coming up across netzero carbon options.

As flexible working arrangements continue to become the norm, we’ll see people invest in

ROBERTO VÉLEZ VALLEJO

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, COLOMBIAN COFFEE GROWERS FEDERATION (FNC) In the last several years, world coffee consumption has been growing 2 per cent per year, and in the case of specialty coffee at rates of 10 per cent. Because of its high quality, Colombian coffee, both standard and specialty, is in very good demand, so the prospects for 2022 are good.

Add to this that, thanks to the global pandemic and better-quality products, coffee consumption at home grew substantially. The industry will continue innovating to captivate more palates. The challenge is not only to keep home consumption, but to increase world coffee consumption as a whole, leveraging reactivation of coffee shops. Innovation is the keyword to keep on the rise.

For several years, we have been insisting on promoting the great diversity of specialty coffees

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VANUSIA NOGUEIRA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BRAZIL SPECIALTY COFFEE ASSOCIATION

Everyone knows that the COVID-19 pandemic drastically impacted modern lifestyles, influencing consumers’ buying behaviour around the world. People learned to drink quality coffee at home, they sought more information about preparation methods, and everything indicates that they will continue to consume specialty coffees at home, despite the gradual return to face-to-face work.

There is a tendency to return to the routine of buying in coffee shops, but the consumption of quality coffees continues in both situations, at home and at work. Currently, there is also an interesting trend in the increase of buying high-quality soluble coffees. This category has generated much curiosity among consumers in diverse locations, for convenience as well as the quality of the experience. Just in Brazil,

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there has been a 3.7 per cent increase in the consumption of soluble coffees from January to August 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, equaling 669,797 60-kilogram bags.

There is also increasing growth in the commercialisation of whole bean coffees and there is increased interest in Canephora coffee.

This is a market we can consider “virgin,” which shall provide many discoveries ahead

and will gain increasingly more market share and presence in the cups of consumers around the world.

Due to the current pandemic scenario, there is a lack of containers and ships for export, which has delayed shipments abroad since March 2021. However, we believe that these logistical problems will be remedied in the medium-term.

The resiliency of Brazilian coffee producers is admirable and, even facing this challenging scenario, both in terms of climate matters as well as the logistical bottlenecks, Brazil continues to be the leading exporting country of the bean.

In the period from January to October of 2021, Brazil exported 33.27 million bags of coffee to 119 countries. Nevertheless, considering the coffee value chain in its entirety, there is still not the expectation that 2022 will bring a return to pre-pandemic business profit levels.

This recovery should be gradual and structured such that in 2023 the market returns to the mighty scenario of 2019.

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JENNIFER “VERN” LONG

CEO, WORLD COFFEE RESEARCH 2022 will be remembered as the year when we moved from words to action. The stark reality of the climate crisis will be in full view in 2022 – and we’ll be facing down only eight more years until the 2030 deadline to achieve the world’s sustainable development goals. The hopeful part is there’s been much reflection over the past year to prepare the coffee community for action in 2022.

Collective action networks in coffee, from the launch of the International Trade Centre Coffee Guide to taskforces convened by the International Coffee Organization, have consolidated our knowledge as a community.

We’re ready to move this shared commitment forward to action across multiple domains – from climate action specifically to sectoral transformation to achieve our social, environmental and economic sustainability

ENRICO BRACESCO GENERAL MANAGER, GRUPPO CIMBALI

2022 will still be a challenging year for the coffee industry due to the effects of inflation, supply chain, and the availability of raw materials.

This volatility motivated us to change, to rethink our existing business models and quickly adapt to these conditions, which might occur on a regular basis in the long run. The vision must be on a global scale.

Companies that are open to take advantage of new technologies and forge new partnerships will be able to rely on further flexibility and innovation opportunities.

We as Gruppo Cimbali are aiming to use technologies like IoT and connectivity for the development of our machines, both traditional and fully automatic, that can be remotely managed and operated, to increase productivity and ensure safety.

New functionalities that allow the barista to guarantee the highest quality in

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goals. We all realise that decisive steps are critical, as the consequences of delaying action on climate may lead to the kinds of unprecedented disruption we’ve experienced with the global pandemic.

Investments in science and technology over the past few decades have generated critical tools, from improved coffee varieties, like Uganda’s coffee wilt disease resistant Robusta varieties, to methods for calculating carbon footprints. These are all tools that we can use right now to help farmers adapt to climate change or guide our choices to achieve our mitigation goals.

The theme of 2022 will be action. Taking what we have, making the most of it and moving forward. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t reemphasise the importance of science and technology in giving us options to support our shared agenda. As the new variants of SARS-CoV-2 have reminded us, science and technology investments must continue to stay abreast of the challenge, but we can use what we have now to make progress.

And we will. the cup and, at the same time, gather useful information aimed to constantly improve the grinding of coffee and to better control the necessary supplies. Synchronicity between the barista and technology can help improve

overall standards and outcomes.

One of our latest innovations is the “electric nose”, a technology that uses artificial intelligence to trace the coffee’s origin and the aging process. This is necessary information for cloud system development, a function with a growing strategic role as it helps the businesses’ flexibility, agility, and speed.

The winning ticket of this innovation, like many others that have been presented at Host Milan, is to have worked on topics that link performance to sustainability. For example, the electric nose reduces waste while guaranteeing the highest quality in cup.

Companies must innovate and rethink themselves constantly, challenge the status quo and focus on using technology as a major driver. Digitalisation is a long-term strategy and reality that we have to deploy with a sustainable and consistent pace Our key priority for 2022 will therefore be granting the highest possible services to our diverse customer base despite the testing conditions, and concurrently continue to fuel the renewal of our solutions to stay ahead of the game.

KAMAL BENGOUGAM GROUP COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR, EVERSYS

Trying to imagine what 2022 might bring, I have let my mind wander in the hope that 2022 will bring some wisdom back into our shaken world.

In 2021, we experienced some hope with a few success stories, a coffee world reaching out for those low yet elusive hanging fruits that, in 2021, we had at times to even jump a bit to reach.

I can foresee the following trends for 2022: 1. A rise in creative business models. Under pressure, the human spirit always rises, finds a way through the most complex of issues, demonstrates a strong will to survive.

2. The loss/challenge of old-fashioned taboos.

Humanity will shed its restrictive cocoon, stretch its wings towards creating a new reality. Great coffee can be produced by a person or a machine with equal artistry and sensory fulfilment. Pragmatism will

become the order of the day as the misery of choice subsides.

3.

T he rise in demand for contactless transactions. Some people will want to socialise yet be fearful of the potential danger associated with doing so.

4. Working from home/COVID-19 fatigue.

The novelty of that trend captured the imagination of youth as it promoted flexibility, trust, empowerment and, to some extent, even freedom? I like the idea of dressing up, going out to work, meeting colleagues and clients, travelling and sharing meals across the globe.

5. A rise in sustainable practices. And, in this new narrative, people will focus on the end product, more on the substance and less on the form. Electric cars, digital currencies and super traditional coffee equipment will be the order of the day.

Humanity will continue to strive, determined to not be defeated by a spineless bug, allow their espresso to reach parts that zoom… could never touch.

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PROFILE Victoria Arduino

Inspiring genius THE BLACK EAGLE MAVERICK ESPRESSO MACHINE FROM VICTORIA ARDUINO PROVIDES BARISTAS WITH AN INSTRUMENT TO EXPRESS THEMSELVES AND THEIR COFFEE IN A NEW LIGHT.

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maverick is someone who blazes their own trail, breaking free from the mould and looking past the way things were traditionally done. This is the type of barista Victoria Arduino had in mind while developing its latest espresso machine, the Black Eagle Maverick.

“Victoria Arduino has always been inspired by the people behind the machine.

When we decided to update our iconic Black Eagle machine, we wanted it to be something that would inspire them and their genius as well, to create something different and bring their ideas to life,” says Marco Feliziani, Vice-President of Simonelli Group.

“Jimi Hendrix played guitar like nobody else, but it wouldn’t have been possible if Fender hadn’t built the Stratocaster guitar. That invention gave Jimi Hendrix an instrument to express his genius in that way, and this was the idea behind the Black Eagle Maverick.”

The Victoria Arduino Black Eagle has become an icon in the global coffee industry, gracing the bench of the World Barista Championship (WBC) since 2015. Feliziani says it was no easy task to revolutionise such a highly regarded espresso machine.

“The Black Eagle is a very innovate machine. It provided barista champions with technology that was very precise in temperature and volume. When you create an iconic coffee machine for the barista and coffee communities, tied to the WBC, elevating that experience is not easy,” Feliziani says.

“To do this, we introduced new technologies to allow baristas to reach their full potential and streamlined the design to make the machine more accessible to a wider variety of coffee shops.”

It was important to Victoria Arduino that it consult the very baristas that will use the coffee machine every day to ensure the Maverick meets all their needs and requirements.

“When we create new designs or innovations, it is not something we do on our own. We take

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all the advice, feedback, and trust from the people working behind our machines over the years and use that to create something new and different that is focused on their needs and expectations,” Feliziani says.

Before launching the Black Eagle Maverick, Victoria Arduino identified several ‘coffee mavericks’ from the WBC circuit and invited them to preview and collaborate on the new machine. These leading baristas include 2019 China Barista Champion Simon Sun, 2019-2020 Indonesia Barista Champion Mikael Jasin, 20152016 Irish Barista Champion and 2017, 2020 Polish Barista Champion Natalia Kwiatkowska, and 2016 United States Barista Champion Lem Butler.

Feliziani says each barista champion saw something unique in the Black Eagle that spoke to them and how they express themselves through coffee. For Simon Sun, it was the T3 Genius technology providing absolute control over the extraction.

“The Black Eagle Maverick has to be an instrument that helps baristas express their genius. To do that, we’ve provided them with our most precise technology to date,” Feliziani says.

“The machine can even give you – in real time – an update on the quality of coffee extracted so you will know if the beverage you prepared meets the targets you’ve set and is the quality you’re looking to serve.”

Representing a coffee producing country, Mikael Jasin takes pride in showcasing Indonesian grown coffee on the world stage.

Seeing the Black Eagle Maverick in action, he told Victoria Arduino its new Pure Brew technology is a game changer for how coffee is brewed.

Alongside a specially designed cone-shaped filter, PureBrew is a three-phase extraction method that releases the purest flavour from the coffee bean. Feliziani says PureBrew enables baristas to discover new flavours from their espresso or use the machine to produce a beverage more akin to filter coffee than traditional espresso.

“PureBrew allows you to create an entirely new experience in your café, one which highlights the pureness of your coffee. With the stainless-steel mesh filter, you are not losing some of the oils and best parts of the coffee that are usually blocked by a paper filter, so you will easily recognise a PureBrew from a v60 or AeroPress coffee,” he says.

“With filter coffee, everything is also made by the hand of the barista. When you are in a rush or must serve multiple different types of beverages, you don’t have time to make it properly. With the Black Eagle Maverick, the machine will do it for you after you design your recipe and you and your customers will always receive a consistent result in the cup.”

PureBrew technology allows baristas to create entirely new coffee beverages.

2016 US Barista Champion Lem Butler is one of the mavericks Victoria Arduino recruited to test its newest machine.

When the Black Eagle Maverick premiered at Host Milano in 2021, Feliziani says he was surprised by the enthusiastic response to PureBrew. About 80 of the roughly 100 cups of coffee per hour Victoria Arduino served from its stand were made using PureBrew.

“People were interested in the innovation, and they were surprised when they tested it for themselves and discovered the quality in the cup,” he says.

Natalia Kwiatowska offered similar comments to Sun and Jasin regarding T3 Genius and PureBrew, adding that the versatility of the Black Eagle Maverick could attract more customers to the coffee shop. While Kwiatowska was not sure about the new design at first, Feliziani says she came around after realising that the lower profile allows greater customer interaction and just how accessible the machine is for new baristas.

“The machine should not only be nice to look at for the customer entering the coffee shop but for the barista spending eight hours behind it every day. While developing the Black Eagle Maverick, we focused with our barista partners to make this one of the simplest and user-friendly espresso machines on the market,” Feliziani says.

“For example, the Steam by Wire lets you set the exact level of steam you want for each jug of milk and with PureBrew, you can easily switch between espresso and filter during service at the touch of a button.”

It is not just the extraction and accessibility of the Black Eagle Maverick that were optimised during its development. With the large amount of energy going to waste in a typical café, Lem Butler told Victoria Arduino he was impressed by how sustainability was just as key a consideration in its design as quality and usability.

“We reduced the Maverick’s energy usage by 37 per cent compared to the original Black Eagle, which took a lot of work from our research and development team,” Feliziani says.

“It’s important to us that our machines be as efficient and good for the planet as possible, and now we’re seeing our customers hold the same expectations, Sustainability has become just as important as quality for the coffee industry.”

While the Black Eagle has become the machine of World Barista Champions, Victoria Arduino’s aim with the Maverick is to assist baristas of any level to produce the same quality.

“The Black Eagle was designed with specialty coffee in mind. We saw interest in that machine from high-end coffee shops around the world. This new model was developed to allow any café to provide the same level of quality, where the owner, chain, or barista is looking for a high-end machine,” Feliziani says.

“The specialty industry is still at the heart of the Maverick, but the quality of coffee is really going up everywhere, even with the more commercial industry. They are looking to offer high-quality coffee and you need not only good coffee but a well-tuned instrument to achieve that result.” G C R For more information, visit www.victoriaarduino.com

JA N UA R Y /FE B R UA R Y 2 0 2 2 | GCR

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PROFILE Eversys

A Super T solution GLOBAL COFFEE REPORT TALKS TO INDUSTRY LEADERS ON WHY EVERSYS SUPER TRADITIONAL MACHINES ARE BREAKING DOWN ESTABLISHED TABOOS AND BECOMING NORMALISED IN A WORLD THAT REQUIRES GOOD QUALITY AT SCALE.

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hen 2017 World Barista Champion Dale Harris made his first encounter with the Eversys line of Super Traditional (ST) coffee machines, he admits to being “a little frightened” by their sheer productivity.

“When you’re looking at shot variants that can produce 150-plus double espresso and milk drinks each and every hour, that’s an incredible amount of coffee volume from a footprint smaller than the most basic of traditional machines,” says Harris, Global Business and Product Development Manager for Hasbean and Ozone Coffee.

On further inspection of the traditionally designed yet fully automatic and modularised machines, which include the Enigma, Cameo and Shotmaster range, Harris noticed their ease of use and the reduction in strenuous, labour demands compared to situations where he’d physically grind, tamp, and prepare every shot, in high volume, with a traditional equivalent.

“While there is a noticeable loss of some of the satisfying tactile moments of ‘making coffee’, these are always more fun when you’re making a couple of drinks for yourself without pressure compared to the factory-like process you have to work through when managing a morning rush. Being able to produce 100 great coffees at speed and ending that rush with clean hands, a clean work station and a more relaxed composure is also a truly amazing, valid experience,” Harris says.

“As you remove moments when the barista ‘crafts’ the product, the intrinsic quality of the machine has to reproduce these every time, and that means that the basic skills of tasting, recipe setting, and calibration across sites become even more critical. While lesser baristas can be used at reduced cost, the ones you have in key positions can actually be utilised more efficiently and in greater, more professional roles. We’re liberating the skill and the knowledge of the barista from being a cog in a production line to becoming a director of coffee quality, and a maître d’ of the customer experience.”

Harris adds that having technology replace the physical elements of coffee making also enables more staff to engage with customers, create a sense of community and celebrate or educate them on the products being offered.

I’m really interested to see how some businesses will use the technology to either bring the coffee making process closer to customers, empower them in different environments, particularly within self-service. And equally, how some venues may remove the coffee making process from within the dining room and instead focus on high quality products being delivered, in a return to a more premium table side service situation,” Harris says. “Changes in technology allow for greater flexibility, adoption sometimes in ways that can be unforeseen but that ultimately can transform and enhance our customer experiences.”

For Dr Adam Carr, Founder and Director of Highpresso consulting in Australia, the movement towards more automation within the coffee industry is already transforming experiences thanks to automated tampers and milk steamers, grind-by-weight tools, and automated brew ratio control.

“I believe any tool that can simplify a complex task while improving both the customer experience and the consistency of the end product is a job well done,” Carr says.

“Eversys has gone about automating all the tasks that would be done manually inside a café, while also replicating barista methodology within their technology platform. The result in the cup speaks

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for itself. As the system also facilitates handsfree operation, ST technology enables more eye contact with the customer. This in turn enables staff to have meaningful engagement with customers, while also delivering a consistently high-quality cup of coffee.

Carr says that while it can be tough for baristas to disengage from the familiar motions of manual coffee-making, once they experience the Eversys’ ST range and realise how they help get their job done faster, safer, and at scale with reduced inconsistencies and wastage, more people are likely to enjoy and appreciate them more.

Australian barista and Barista Hustle Founder Matt Perger has believed in the vision of Eversys since 2016 when he first became an ambassador for its Cameo machine. Since then, Perger has been convincing people of its ability and future in the coffee market.

“It’s been a gradual chipping away of prejudice. Back when I started working with Eversys, people were gasping that I dared work with a ‘super automatic company’. Then you slowly convert people once they realise that what Eversys manufacture is really good and they have their biases rejected. That takes time,” Perger says. “It’s like Airbnb – people though it was going to be nonsense, the preposterous idea of hosting someone in your living room, and it has now become normalised. It just takes time.

People will slowly come across or they won’t, and their decision will have consequences on their business and careers.”

Perger says it’s also taken time and a lot of finessing by Eversys to balance the “traditional design vibes” of its ST range while retaining its automatic functionality.

“You can’t just put the machine in a more fancy box. Lots of decisions have to be made,

Eversys Group Commercial Director Kamal Bengougam with Emi Fukahori of Mame specialty coffee and the Enigma ST.

from the user interface to how it’s programmed by people who care about the quality of coffee being made, to the style of service intended without compromising on quality – it’s all the little stuff that’s really hard to do. Attention to detail makes all the difference.”

While technology has evolved over the past six years, what hasn’t, Perger says, is customers’ demands for good coffee fast.

“That’s never changed, but in this postCOVID era, things are tougher for business operators. They want lower wage costs, less wastage and to on-board new staff with less training because there’s greater people turnover.

There are many forces leaning towards venues having fewer staff that are less specialised which is unfortunate, but that’s where machines like the Eversys’ Super Ts can assist,” Perger says.

For Emi Fukahori, 2018 World Brewers Cup Champion, fourth-place winner in the 2021 World Barista Championship (WBC) and Founder of Mame specialty coffee roastery and café in Zurich, Eversys’ STs have been the perfect solution to many of her customers wanting to serve her coffee in their specialty facilities, but didn’t know how.

“We work with people who are chefs, bakers, and wine producers who know there’s a world of coffee out there but they have no coffee experience and can’t afford to employ a skilful barista to dial-in the coffee. Rather than investing in a capsule machine like most restaurants in Switzerland do, or a manual machine which is beautiful but hard to maintain consistency, I looked for another solution,” Fukahori says.

“After visiting Eversys’ Sierre headquarters and getting to know its range of products, I really believe their ST range is the best available solution on the market for people who want to have better coffees in their specialty venues without having a barista. The machines think like a barista. It’s a revolution for our customers and me as a barista. It’s a relief to give my coffee to more non-specialty venues and know that it will be served correctly and consistently to a high level of quality.”

Before installing an Eversys Cameo machine, Fukahori says one of her customers, a fine-dining Turkish restaurant, didn’t know how to make coffee and found the process quite stressful. Now, the staff taste and discuss the coffee together and serve coffee with a sense of pride and greater confidence.

“If service is complicated, you cannot stay consistent and mindful. Only when it is, can the door of curiosity able to be opened. I see that in my customers’ places. Now, they’re excited and interested in the coffee, flavour and extraction, and it’s really nice to see,” Fukahori says.

“We want more places to be serving better coffee. To do that alone, with two hands is absolutely not possible. But an Eversys Enigma can do six shots at the same time. I can’t even try to compete.”

On a larger scale, Fukahori says STs have the potential to make an even larger impact by sharing a greater volume of quality coffee – and not just the eight kilograms she sourced for her 2021 WBC competition coffee.

“Imagine if more people served better quality coffee [using STs]. We don’t want this to be a trend, we want it to become an intrinsic part of a culture that gets bigger and bigger. And if the end user likes the coffee and wants to pay a higher price for a better coffee, then it’s what we all want.” G C R For more information, visit www.eversys.com/en

JA N UA R Y /FE B R UA R Y 2 0 2 2 | GCR

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PROFILE Cafetto

A global cleaner CAFETTO SHARES THE PROCESS IT UNDERWENT TO ACHIEVE HALAL CERTIFICATION AND WHY THIS ACCREDITATION IS IMPORTANT TO MEET GROWING CONSUMER DEMAND.

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or many consumers, certifications are not only a sign of product quality but representative of brand excellence. This holds true for coffee cleaning manufacturer Cafetto, who recently achieved its Halal certification from the Supreme Islamic Council of Halal Meat in Australia Inc (SICHMA), a globally recognised Halal certification.

SICHMA is a not-for-profit organisation that aims to promote halal food and the institution of halal. It is recognised and endorsed by several religious and governmental organisations across Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and Thailand, alongside bodies such as the Emirates Authority for Standardisation & Metrology and the Gulf Corporation Councils Accreditation Centre.

SICHMA is also a founding and sustaining member of the Australian Halal Certifiers Alliance and the World Halal Food Council.

“We wanted to adequately respond to the needs of the Muslim community and offer products that are compliant with Halal Standards in many countries,” says Christine Song, General Manager of Cafetto. “Now we can serve our customers better in the largely Muslim countries of the Middle East and Asia.”

Cafetto now has 20 products that comply with internationally recognised Halal standards.

Cafetto achieved its Halal certification from the Supreme Islamic Council of Halal Meat in Australia Inc.

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These include Cafetto’s: Traditional Espresso Cleaners: EVO, Espresso Clean, and Tevo Mini Tablet.

Automatic Espresso Cleaners: E29 Tablet, N10 Tablet, S15 Tablet, T32 Tablet, and T60 Tablet.

Milk Cleaners: MFC Blue, MFC Green, MFC Red, MFC Tabs Blue, MFC Tabs White 4.0, and T90 Tablet.

Descalers: LOD Green, Organic Descaler, Renew Descaler, and Restore Descaler.

Machine and Equipment Cleaners: Clean Bean Tablet and Grinder Clean.

“The first step Cafetto underwent was to apply and fulfil its raw material checklist, which captures everything that goes into its materials and packaging,” says Ahmed Ibrahim Alzoubi, SICHMA’s Technical and Quality Assurance Manager.

“Our technical team composed of two technologists, two microbiologists, chemical engineers, and packaging specialists reviewed each aspect, upholding the highest international Halal standards, in line with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).”

As a globally accredited practice, the ISO covers international standards and guidelines for certifying bodies, ensuring principles such as integrity, impartiality, and confidentially are upheld.

“All our technicians have done excessive training in these global Halal Certification standards and have an expansive knowledge of chemistry from studying at Australian universities,” says Alzoubi.

“After this, we then conducted an onsite audit of Cafetto’s factory which covered both Halal specifications and ensured the company was operating with high levels of food safety and quality.”

The scope of the Halal certification inspection covered documentation, auditing of raw materials, processing, handling, distribution

Cafetto now has 20 products that comply with internationally recognised Halal standards.

of products, clean and safe equipment use, operational cleanliness, food safety, packaging, and more, ensuring complete quality across Cafetto’s products.

Once completed and approved, SICHMA passed its findings to another committee, consisting of Sharia experts, or individuals who studied Islam law, and food science and technology specialists. This committee then independently assessed and approved Cafetto’s accreditation.

“Cafetto now has a Halal policy, much like a quality policy, which ensures management

protects the Halal integrity and reflects the brand’s commitment to the certification,” says Alzoubi. “[Cafetto] is a unique client as it is the first time SICHMA has certified cleaning products for coffee machines, and I predict this will open them to many new markets.”

Abdhllah Bawazier of Second Coffee, a distributor of Cafetto’s products in Saudi Arabia, agrees.

“Competitors in the region typically don’t have the same quality or environmental certifications that Cafetto has achieved,” he says.

“I would like to commend Cafetto on the initiative they took to receive this certification, and believe they are one of the pillars in the coffee industry that is building the growing coffee culture in the Gulf region.”

This growing coffee culture has been seen in many Asian countries too, including the Philippines, says Dana Mackenzie of Dunbrae Philippines, a supplier of coffee machines and equipment, beans, apparel, and cleaning products.

“During COVID we’ve seen this boom in cafés and hospitality venues as people change jobs or look to new avenues after being unemployed,” Mackenzie says.

“With this boom, we’ve also seen a greater demand from the Muslim community who are looking for more Halal products they can bring into their cafés and offer to their Muslim customers.”

Mackenzie says with Cafetto’s certification, Dunbrae can meet its customers’ needs while guaranteeing the safety and security of the product.

Zhou Wong of Dankoff, Cafetto’s exclusive distributor in Malaysia, says in his experience demand for Halal coffee cleaning products has

also extended to the domestic segment.

“Especially since there’s been an explosion of domestic coffee machines on the market, being able to provide suitable cleaning equipment comes hand-in-hand,” says Wong. “With Cafetto we can meet the Halal needs for any client, be it business-to-business or business-to-customer.”

The Halal accreditation joins Cafetto’s portfolio of environmental and food safety certifications, with the brand saying it is proud to be certified by globally recognised independent industry bodies.

“Today, many customers have high awareness regarding the ingredients of the cleaning and sanitation products they use, and we see the importance of this aspect continuously increasing,” says Christine.

“We predict the global market of Halal-compliant products is expected to grow in the upcoming years significantly.” G C R For more information, visit www.cafetto.com

JA N UA R Y /FE B R UA R Y 2 0 2 2 | GCR

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PROFILE Cama Group

Smart solutions LEADING INDUSTRIAL PLAYERS OF THE SMART PACKAGING HUB NETWORK COME TOGETHER TO DISCUSS SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS TO CUT PACKAGING COSTS AND MINIMISE WASTE IN THE COFFEE AND BEVERAGE SECTORS.

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mart operations are not just about working with intelligent production systems, but embracing solutions that are cost effective, waste reductive and operationally more efficient. To learn how different companies in the processing and packaging market approach the subject, six leading businesses discussed their experiences in a Smart Packaging Hub webinar on 13 October.

Massimo Pavani, Sales Manager of Italian automated processing company Baumer talked about the demand from customers to make packaging decisions that minimise their carbon footprint and impact on the environment while focusing on return of investment in the shortest time possible.

One such solution is Baumer’s shrink wrapper with automatic reel changeover system that allows the customer to reduce its plastic film consumption by 15 per cent thanks to its non-stop production.

“Neither film welding nor operator intervention is required. Consequently, the film on the reel is totally used for production and film scrap is virtually none,” Pavani said.

Baumer’s GreenTech shrink-wrapping tunnel is another solution that cuts down energy consumption by more than 20 per cent compared to traditional systems thanks to its advanced insulation system and air flow controls that lower the air temperature when there is no upstream production. If used in two or three shifts per day, equalling 5000 hours per year, Pavani said customers can recover costs in 2.5 years.

Elena Amerio, Export Manager of 958 Santero, a leading Piedmont winery, said to reflect the latest trends and market requirements, the 63-year-old winery has introduced 958 Santero canned products which are lightweight, eco-sustainable, and modern looking.

“When it comes to transportation, being so lightweight, you have to consider that the carbon dioxide emissions are much lower compared to a glass bottle load. The canned packaging market is [predicted] to grow by about 40 per cent during the next five to six years,” Amerio said.

To wrap cartons of wines for transport, Santero uses Tosa stretch wrapping machines with a pre-stretching unit that saves up to 30 to 40 per cent of plastic while ensuring the stability and safety of the product.

Giovanna Chiara Italiano, a journalist of retail publications Mark Up and GDOWeek, told the webinar audience “we are in a world where climate change can no longer be ignored”, with customers more interested in social topics and sustainability options. As such, Italiano said businesses must assure customers there is a sustainability approach across the entire supply chain.

“Consumers live in a society which is really careful about these topics, examples like the Sustainable Development Goals, the European Union Green Deal, and this goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2050. Of course, grassroot movements are specially tackling young people,” she said.

A United Nation’s Environment Program Food Waste Index Report 2021 found that 931 million tonnes of food waste was generated in pre- and post- retail, 61 per cent came from household consumption, 26 per cent from food service, and 13 per cent from retail.

Italiano said further education about the cost of food waste and its impact on the environment is needed, however food packaging solutions such as the use of barcodes and weblinks have evolved

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to help identify food freshness deadlines.

One company that specialises in the production of long shelf-life specialty food packaging is Mondiv, a division of Canadian manufacturer Lassonde. Mondiv turned to industrial automation specialist Clevertech to help custom design a basket loader and unloader automated robotics system for the processing and packaging of its specialty sauces and caffeine-based liquid products.

“Before the Clevertech solution, it took between five and eight operators to prepare and load the basket. It was backbreaking and repetitive work. Now with Clevertech it can be done with only two operators who restart the machine if a problem occurs and monitors the product quality,” said Ben Jemia Mehd, Project Manager at Mondiv Lassonde.

Clevertech Business Development Manager Luca Carollo adds that the ROI is within three years because customers can re-invest the operator in other tasks while the automated activities help increase traceability of the product thanks to data tracking integration in the basket loader and unloader.

“We know within three years the EU will introduce laws that there must be product traceability in every step of production, so to get this traceability integrated into the packaging system for fast moving consumer goods becomes a critical aspect,” Luca said.

Smart Packaging Hub member and packaging specialist Opem is also committed to finding sustainable solutions. Its capsule filling machines reduce energy consumption by up to 39 per cent and re-use 50 per cent of the spent nitrogen in its machine. It is also committed to changing the materials used in its capsules.

“In the last month we saw that a lot of

companies are developing biodegradable, compostable and recyclable materials. In this case, the most challenging point is creating [filling] lines that can manage all these materials,” said Franco Lupi, Opem Research and Development Manager.

Together, Opem and Caffitaly Systems are working on a compostable capsule that breaks down in minimal time but retains a long shelf life. Lupi said the task is challenging but necessary, with a European regulation on compostability that capsules must disintegrate 99 per cent within six months in 10 centimetres of soil.

“We must comply to this European law in order to have compostable capsules [that break down] at home or via industrial compostable facilities,” Lupi said.

Federico Oneto, Executive Vice President Operations at Caffitaly capsule systems says sustainability has always been a key element of the company but has become even more of a focus post-COVID. “Caffitaly is very keen to offer our customers the best quality and most sustainable coffee capsules,” Oneto said. “We [planned] to put on the market compostable coffee capsules by the year of 2021, and we are planning to offer our customers completely recyclable and circular economy capsules at the start of 2022. These will be made out of 100 per cent polypropylene capsules that are fully recyclable.”

Together with international-leading packaging company Cama Group, to which Caffitaly has held a partnership for more than 10 years, the companies are commitment to finding sustainable material and technological solutions together.

“We are just one piece of the puzzle, so to keep on with Caffitaly’s sustainability program, our machines must ensure zero waste, and produce energy savings in order to allow Caffitaly production to be really sustainable,” said Renato Dell’Oro, Global Key Account Coffee for Cama Group.

Oneto said one of the reasons Caffitaly chooses to partner with Cama to supply its end-of-line configuration is because the relationship is treated as “business partners”, which allows them to collaborate to find solutions.

“They are very reliable and flexible, and what I see as a key element is the after sales

support,” Oneto said.

“In order to maintain and reach [our level of desired] sustainability, lines must be efficient and well maintained. [For] good maintenance of the line, it’s key to work with a supplier and their aftersales and technical support. This means low energy consumption and wastage.”

Another key reason for the company’s longterm partnership Dell’Oro said, is because of the long-life of Cama’s production lines, such as its Monoblock Top Loading unit, to which it keeps installing state-of-art software and innovation for peak performance.

“We have to guarantee machine durability, high performance, short downtime during performance change, and flexibility because Caffitaly has a wide range of capsules,” said Dell’Oro. “They are also on the market with several other products and our machines have to be able to handle all these different sized products in different packaging configurations.” G C R For more information visit www.smartpackaginghub.com

From left to right: Luca Carollo of Clevertech, Renato Dell’Oro of Cama, Franco Lupi of Opem, Maria Chiara of Italiano GDO Week, Federico Oneto of Caffitaly, Massimo Pavani of Baumer. Behind: Sonia Bennati, Zeus Editor and event moderator.

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PROFILE Syntegon

The complete package THE RECENTLY REBRANDED SYNTEGON TECHNOLOGY IS MAKING A NAME FOR ITSELF IN COFFEE PACKAGING, WITH A FOCUS ON INNOVATION AND SUSTAINABILITY.

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yntegon may be a relatively new name in the coffee industry, but the processing and packaging specialist’s experience dates back more than 160 years. Formerly known as Bosch Packaging Technology, Syntegon branched out from the German multinational Bosch Group in 2020, creating new opportunities for the company under the new owner CVC Capital Partners.

“We became more independent and developed a new name and brand to highlight our complete focus on sustainable and intelligent processing and packaging solutions for the food, pharmaceutical, and coffee industries,” says Marcus Velezmoro, Head of Product Line at Syntegon Technology.

Christina Holm, Product Manager for Coffee Packaging Machines at Syntegon, says Syntegon maintains its penchant for quality and decades of experience, and is ideally prepared for the future.

“As Syntegon, it is possible to centre the customer even more in our innovations and business decisions. This means we are able to work closer with the global coffee market, from consulting to installation of complete line solutions and after sales support,” Holm says.

“We believe that coffee connects people and that’s certainly been my experience. We look forward to joining with and being part of our coffee family, letting people connect our new name with the best solutions for coffee packaging.”

Within the coffee industry, Holm identifies sustainability, globalisation, and diversification as growing trends, all of which Syntegon is equipped to cater to.

“Like in every industry, sustainability is very important, in terms of minimum waste, energy consumption, recyclability of packaging material, and the whole carbon footprint,” Holm says.

“Demand for high quality coffee and packaging is also increasing and we’ve noticed trends towards small batches. Trends change and evolve all the time, so that requires flexibility in packaging.”

Syntegon Technology can provide coffee roasters with a turnkey solution for coffee bag packaging. This ranges from dosing and weighing technology and packaging machines with different functions and features to multiple sealing systems, a broad portfolio of valves and applicators, and even secondary packaging.

For classic vacuum sealed packaging formats, Syntegon Technology offers a full range of high output mono-format lines necessary for larger commercial coffee roasters down to more flexible units for smaller coffee business. These include the PKD line for high speed and efficiency, the size and format flexible PKS range, and modular PME series for highest flexibility.

For the increasing popular vertical form-fill-seal bags, Syntegon Technology offers the SVE line for medium to high output, SVI 2600 B model as an economic solution for standard bag styles, and its premium PME Spout for maximum flexibility and aroma protection.

“There are other more sophisticated pack styles with reclosure elements that we feel will play an important role in the future, so coffee businesses will require a more versatile machine,” Velezmoro says.

“We have always had machines in that category but are developing a new family of machines catered to that segment.”

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Holm adds Syntegon has also seen increasing demand from new markets.

“We are also seeing changes in the habits of customers. Coffee has become a global lifestyle product and we see growth in new markets like Asia and the Middle East, where tea isn’t the go-to beverage anymore and younger generations love Western coffee,” she says.

“We see coffee as a global product and even though we’re based in Germany, can serve our customers around the world.”

Syntegon Technology employs more than 6000 people at more than 30 locations worldwide. Dealing with such a wide customer network, Velezmoro says it’s critical Syntegon Technology has a wide array of solutions available within its portfolio.

“The coffee industry has so many different products and pack styles, which change even more region to region. There is no one-sizefits-all standard solution, and your portfolio needs to consist of more than just high and low-to-medium output versions of the same machine,” he says.

“For example, in central Europe the evacuated pack for ground coffee has a long tradition. Some roasters may experiment with new types of packaging, but for certain large commercial brands or the vacuum pack will remain. Whereas in newer markets, consumers are more familiar with flexiblebased packaging, so there we see more ‘fancy’ pack styles – the United States is a good example. In Asia, we see they prefer this pack style as well, because they have their own preferences and are not just copying European tradition.”

With a long history and expertise in coffee packaging, Velezmoro says Syntegon is an ideal partner to accommodate these

many needs.

“We started working in coffee packaging when the industry was still using paper bags. Since then, we’ve pioneered many technologies for aroma protection in coffee packaging, such as gas flushing and valve technology,” Velezmoro says.

“One of our strong points will always be the quality and longevity of the machines, which is in our DNA because of how we design our technology. Our machines last a very long time and people can rely on them.

Productivity is also very important, so we ensure a high throughput as well.”

To meet growing demands for sustainable solutions, Syntegon has reduced its technology’s energy usage and optimised its material handling for minimal packaging material waste.

“For the future, another thing we are considering is adaptability to new packaging materials that could become available on the market. The variety of material will increase as more sustainable options become available, but we will use intelligent technologies like automation and new sealing systems to realise these innovative packaging solutions,” Velezmoro says.

“The plastics industry has evolved a lot and one of our key priorities is collaboration, which means partner with packaging material suppliers. It will take collaboration to develop these new solutions and we are willing to play our part.”

Coffee packaging has traditionally required multilayer plastic laminates to preserve freshness and aroma which makes it difficult to recycle. Today, Velezmoro says, novel mono materials are available.

However, these recyclable polypropylene and polyethylene plastics place higher demands on machine technology during processing than conventional plastic laminates.

“Thanks to our first-class technology and engineering expertise, our coffee packaging lines are up to these challenges and process mono materials into high-quality packaging,” he says.

To showcase these solutions to the coffee

industry, Syntegon has established a coffee centre of competence in Germany, where it is consolidating all of its expertise in one location.

“This coffee lab gives our customers the possibility to test new materials with their products at our site in Waiblingen and allows us to support them to find the right recyclable materials for their packaging. We want to help them to make it as easy as possible,” Holm says.

“The whole bean segment is growing all around the world, with everyone becoming a barista at home over the last few years. This is increasing new markets and pack styles, but also a greater need for sustainable packaging. This trend will not stop and Syntegon will continue to stay at the forefront of it.” G C R For more information, visit www.syntegon.com/coffee-packaging-solutions

Marcus Velezmoro is the Head of Product Line at Syntegon Technology.

Christina Holm is the Product Manager for Coffee Packaging Machines at Syntegon.

Syntegon Technology is providing sustainable packaging solutions for the coffee industry.

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PROFILE Cimbali

A driver of change

Gruppo Cimbali’s newly released Faemina.

GRUPPO CIMBALI GENERAL MANAGER ENRICO BRACESCO TALKS ABOUT LEADING THE COMPANY THROUGH A PROCESS OF RENEWAL, HIS STRATEGY FOR INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION, AND HOW TO MAINTAIN THE CULTURAL IDENTITY OF THE 110-YEAR-OLD COMPANY.

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or the third time in his life, Enrico Bracesco made a career change in May 2019 when he joined Gruppo Cimbali as Chief Commercial Officer to help coordinate the business strategy of the company’s four brands: LaCimbali, Faema, Slayer, and Casadio.

An industrial engineer by trade with a degree in engineering management and a master’s degree from the London Business School, Bracesco held managerial positions with multinational companies in the air conditioning and renewable energies sector, and fitness equipment industry, before coffee came calling.

“It was a bit daunting at the beginning, but in hindsight it was the best step I could have made. A common trait in all three industries is that the product has always been technical with a big element of service and asset management in the offering. But the passion, drive, and element of pleasure you find in the coffee industry is something you don’t find anywhere else,” Bracesco says.

From the outset, Bracesco’s perception of Gruppo Cimbali was “a manufacturer of premium brands with global brand awareness and a quintessential Made in Italy company”, and he wasn’t wrong.

Since 1912, the company has been a leader in the design and production of professional espresso machines and coffee shop equipment. It operates through three production plants in Italy and one in the United States, employing around 700 staff.

“Gruppo Cimbali embraces the perfect mix of product, technology, tradition and history, and is a classic example of a company that dives into the future with innovation but at the same time keeps connected to its tradition and roots,” Bracesco says.

To lead the company into its next stage of development, Bracesco was appointed General Manager of Gruppo Cimbali on 1 September 2021. At the same time, Andrea Clerici took on the role of Group Commercial Director.

“I was preparing for this role for a while, but once the pandemic hit, I thought it would become even more challenging. It sounds like a paradox, but one of the benefits of the pandemic was the

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extra time we had to reflect and prepare for the next phase. We reflected upon who we are, what we have been doing well, what we have been missing, and how to project new trajectories and capture new trends,” Bracesco says.

Now, with a solid investment platform for all four brands – each in distinctive markets in terms of its target customer and value proposition – Gruppo Cimbali is ready to diversify its product range and services.

With 85 per cent of Gruppo Cimbali’s revenue made abroad, Bracesco is keen to strengthen its market position with international expansion into the Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Americas.

“The name of the game is defending our high market share. We’re already big in Europe, but at the same time, we recognise there’s much more room for growth for our brands internationally in key areas,” he says.

Gruppo Cimbali is represented in 130 countries and has 12 subsidiaries across the United States, China, Middle East, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, and Australia as of Q1 2022. Where it does not have a direct

Image credits: Robilant Associati

presence, it seals exclusive agreements with strong international partners that represent and distribute its brands. Currently, Gruppo Cimbali has more than 700 distributor agreements in place.

“We recognise the high potential of the market and want to keep close and connected so we can best understand cultural trends and integrate them into our product development,” Bracesco says.

What will be pivotal to maintain throughout Gruppo Cimbali’s global expansion, Bracesco adds, is the deep connection the company has to its Italian roots.

“If you are fast paced in innovation, it’s easy to lose track of where you come from. We must always remain true to our core values and the market where everything started. It’s part of our identity,” he says.

Also part of its identity is Gruppo Cimbali’s design strategy, which Bracesco says has always been predominant. Gruppo Cimbali remains the only company in the coffee industry to be awarded the prestigious Compasso d’Oro, or ‘Golden compass’, industrial design award in 1962 for its Pitagora coffee machine.

“The company holds great pride for its award-winning products of high design and innovative technology that embrace the Made in Italy foundation. Being ambassadors of Made in Italy allows us to be in touch with our regions and connected to our values, which is priceless for a company that is well known internationally. Our attention to design together with our obsession for performance are part of our DNA,” Bracesco says.

These qualities are evident in Gruppo Cimbali’s release of the Faemina one-group espresso machine as part of the company’s strategy to emerge in sectors it wasn’t fully operational in before.

Gruppo Cimbali came close to releasing the model in the 1980s before deciding to focus on the professional sector. However, since the pandemic and accelerated consumption of coffee at-home, Bracesco says it was hard to look past the demand and launched the product at Milan Design Week in September 2021.

“Our customers and partners have been repeatedly asking Gruppo Cimbali to offer a solution for the at-home and high-end premium professional segment. We recognise we’re not the first to launch into this space, but when we

decide to do something, we try to do it well and properly,” Bracesco says.

“It’s still a competitive market. What’s critical for a company like ours, across all our brands at different extents, is to drive automation. Our customers are facing pressure to do more in less time.

As a result, there’s demand for simple intuitive interfaces, strengthened milk systems in our fully automatic models, valuable data on consumer insights, and functions that allow multiple operations at the same time.”

Gruppo Cimbali also plans to invest in a stronger and larger ecosystem for its products. It aims to partner with third party companies to create a seamless experience in terms of remote-control access and contactless functionality of products, cloud-based preventative maintenance, and a range of accessible service solutions via digital connectivity.

“Connectivity is absolutely critical. It’s something we would like to work more on moving forward, and something that will be present to different extents across all brands, but predominately in Faema and LaCimbali where the penetration within large operators is big,” Bracesco says.

“You drive change through innovation, technology, and by proposing state-of-the-art solutions to the market. You also drive change through setting standards.”

Such standards extend to Gruppo Cimbali’s sustainability program, which embody four key principles: People, through inclusion and diversity; Products, via recyclability and use of eco-friendly materials; Planet, by using energy-saving and renewable sources in production; and Partnership, by using different stakeholders to accelerate change.

“We want to play a strong part in the market for sustainability because we have a responsibility to set an example. Our customers look to Gruppo Cimbali for the quality of products we offer but they also expect very high standards. We want to be transparent in showing the market those standards are above a certain level. That, coupled with our constant quest for innovation and obsession for quality, is what I believe makes us a driver of change.”

Bracesco is determined to lead Gruppo Cimbali into the next phase of its development. He says the biggest challenge will be his ability to translate Gruppo Cimbali’s long-term vision into daily operations and gain traction with customers, but is confident the talent of his dedicated team is placing the company in the best position to succeed.

“I am so grateful for the team I work with at Cimbali Group – first class people who are passionate about the business and make it possible to launch new products and solutions in such a short timeframe,” he says. “The team acknowledge there is a long-term, ambitious vision for Cimbali Group due to our solid brand equity and investment platform – but our brands and the people of this company deserve an ambitious vision, and that’s what I intend to deliver.” G C R For more information, visit www.gruppocimbali.com

Enrico Bracesco is the General Manager of Gruppo Cimbali.

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GlobalCoffeeReport

GlobalCoffeeReport

November/December 2021

March/April 2019

COFFEE

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Private and Chinese province attention to the

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remove up to 99.9% of caffeine

FORWARD

THINKING EDGE

SOLUTIONS

November/December 2021

DIRECTOR Buencafé General Director Cristina Madriñán on the premiumisation of solubleOFcoffee, BUENachieving CAFÉ CONS ECON LEHMANN OMIC SECU RCEL results MAsales D AR BO record in a COVID year, and the importance of creating sustainable value RITY OF MOR TANZA MEJÍA ON HE NT ME GE NA MA E LPIN TH E THAN 540, STRY OF R DU KE IN EA NG SP DI P IN 000 COLOM G INCREASE THE HEMRO GROU ION FOR THE COFFEE GR com BIAN FARM www.gcrmag.

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March/April 2019

U N LI M IT O N LI N E D C O NTE E NT www.gcrm

Global Coffee Report is the leading business magazine covering the international coffee industry. In-depth features explore on-the-ground developments at origin, coffee pricing issues, technology updates, research breakthroughs and much more.

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SUSTAINABILITY

in the spotlight

GLOBAL COFFEE REPORT LOOKS AT WHAT SUSTAINABILITY MEANS TO THE COFFEE INDUSTRY AND HOW DIFFERENT BUSINESSES ARE PLAYING THEIR PART.

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ustainability means many things to different people. In the coffee industry, however, most will agree it means ensuring a prosperous future for actors across the supply chain.

But sustainability is not just an important topic when it comes to coffee. It is something people, businesses, and governments across the world must embrace if we’re to have any future at all.

In 2015, nearly 200 countries were signed to the Paris Agreement, which aimed to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and slow a rise in mean global temperature by 2030. Many businesses, including those in the coffee sector, have since made pledges of their own to reduce or achieve net zero emissions.

While a business can address its own Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, Scope 3 concerns emissions generated across the business’s entire supply chain and will take collaborative action to address.

Coffee trader ECOM Agroindustrial Corp has signed on to the Science Based Target initiative and has committed to reach net zero emissions across all three scopes by 2050.

To help its coffee roasting partners achieve the same, ECOM has launched its Caring for Climate services platform. Caring for Climate collates ECOM’s many projects to help it and its clients achieve their greenhouse gas emission targets through partnerships, reduction, and removal projects (see page 46).

For the coffee industry to combat climate change, it must first equip its producers with the tools, knowledge, and resources to mitigate their emissions and the impact it has on them.

In 2013, Solidaridad launched its Climate Smart Coffee projects in Latin America, building a use case for how coffee production can practically implement practices that increase producers’ resilience while reducing carbon emissions.

Climate Smart Coffee emphasises higher productivity per hectare, implementation of agroforestry, and more efficient fertiliser use and water management. These projects have since spread across Latin America and involved partners in the coffee industry like RGC Americas and ofi (see page 48).

While climate change has become a defining issue of our time, it’s important to not lose track of the social and economic pillars of sustainability in the process.

Sucafina prides itself on its deep ties to its producers. The coffee merchant can identify 171,000 farmers in its global supply chain and aims to more than double that by 2025 under its

2030 sustainability strategy.

Investing in Farmers is a central pillar of the strategy, alongside Caring for People and Protecting our Planet. This three-pronged approach to sustainability is intended to ensure the value of adopting sustainable practices accrues with the farmer (see page 50).

Sustainability is a complex topic. While coffee production is only one facet of the industry that it impacts, it is the part with the biggest footprint, most vulnerable to climate change, and with the least resources to address it. These companies are examples of how the coffee industry can come together for the future of coffee. G C R

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Header Caring for Climate Services ECOM AGROINDUSTRIAL CORP. LTD. HAS LONG BEEN A CHAMPION INTRO OF SUSTAINABILITY AND IS HELPING COFFEE BUSINESSES BECOME THE SAME AND ACHIEVE NET ZERO THROUGH ITS NEWLY LAUNCHED CARING FOR CLIMATE SERVICES PLATFORM. BUILDING ON ITS EXPERIENCE IN COFFEE, THIS PLATFORM AIMS TO HOST GREENHOUSE GAS REMOVAL AND REDUCTION INITIATIVES FOR ANY SUPPLY CHAIN.

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xx Xx G C R has become an ustainability important part of every coffee business, and could visit soon For more information, be required as a license to operate, but for coffee trader ECOM, it has been in the DNA of the company.

“Sustainability has been core to ECOM in terms of values and even business strategies for a long time now,” says Benjamin Rimaud, Sustainable Management Services (SMS) Coffee Global Manager at ECOM SMS. “With many operations and businesses in producing countries, ECOM fostered close connection with the local coffee reality through its originintegrated approach. Because of these close connections, sustainability has also been an integral part of how we work.”

ECOM founded ECOM Sustainable Management Services (SMS) in 2006 to build sustainable supply chains and oversee the many Benjamin Rimaud is the SMS Coffee projects that both coffee and cocoa operations Global Manager at ECOM. were implementing on the ground at origin.

Today, ECOM SMS reaches more than 600,000 farmers with 1500 field technicians across 23 countries in coffee and cocoa, allowing it to act at scale.

“A key element of sustainability in coffee is the prosperity of farmers. Without this, we cannot expect producers to act on social issues like child labour, minimum wage, nor on environmental concerns like deforestation,” Rimaud says.

“Education, training, and technical assistance are big parts of what we do – whether it’s related to certifications, good agricultural and environmental practices, or assistance with financing – so farmers can be economically empowered and produce more with the same amount of land.”

With climate change being an increasingly important part of sustainability, Rimaud says it is important that solutions don’t fix one problem at the expense of another.

“We cannot have a tunnel vision on climate impacts, only focusing on greenhouse gas emissions. It’s a complex and interconnected dynamic between various environmental impacts, such as water scarcity, biodiversity, and climate change. A very practical example is the wet mill at a coffee farm, which

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Ana Nicod is Head of Climate Change Strategy at ECOM.

produces large volumes of wastewater,” Rimaud says. “If that mill keeps its water in a lagoon or pond and is left untreated, as it degrades, it will release large volumes of methane and biogas.

ECOM, in partnership with the University of Notre Dame, is investigating a scalable pilot on wastewater treatment technology.

“In addition, you cannot discharge that untreated wastewater into a river because that leads to another environmental and social issue of water contamination and loss, so we must find a way to collect the water and

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basically compost it.”

ECOM works closely with producers to ensure that its supply chain does not fall into these traps. The trader also works extensively with other figures in the coffee community to develop thorough solutions to the challenges faced in coffee production.

“ECOM has a long history of working with the CIRAD to develop more robust farming solutions and planting materials. We developed a laboratory in Nicaragua propagating new coffee hybrids, five of which are now registered with World Coffee Research. This research is integrated with the technical assistance we’re providing as we can bring new varieties for the future that will resist drought or pests, maintain high productivity, and are adapted to new agricultural conditions, such as being grown in greater amounts of shade and agroforestry,” Rimaud says.

ECOM has signed on to the Science Based Target initiative (SBTi) and has committed to reach net zero by 2050 across scopes, 1, 2 and 3, and many other coffee roasters and chains it works with have done the same. To further assist its clients in achieving Net Zero, ECOM has launched its Caring for Climate services.

This allows ECOM to collate its many projects to help ECOM and its clients reach greenhouse gas emission targets through reduction and removal projects. Reduction projects aim to shrink the greenhouse gas footprint of the raw materials ECOM is sourcing and includes practices such as switching to renewable energy within primary processing, organic fertiliser usage, and better irrigation or waste management.

Removal projects aim to remove carbon from the atmosphere, such as agroforestry or reforestation projects, and sequester it into biomass and soil.

“We engage in vertical collaborations to tackle climate change, especially where scope 3 boundaries are shared. We also have the ability to work beyond our value chain,” says Ana Nicod, Head of Climate Change Strategy at ECOM. “While it is more straightforward addressing a business’s own scope 1 and scope 2 emissions, the bulk of the work is in our scope 3 emissions at farm level, which is more challenging to tackle.”

As an integrated management company, Nicod says ECOM is well placed to help reduce the impact on its upstream suppliers, coffee

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Agroforestry is one method of sequestering carbon generated during coffee production.

producers, as well as work with them to improve agricultural practices.

“In addition, we operate our own nurseries where we can grow and provide climate resilient and higher yielding plants. ECOM has distributed in excess of 150 million coffee and cocoa trees.

We assist farmers with training and maintenance with regards to planting and better farm management. Thanks to SMS, we have extensive in-house knowledge on climate science,” Nicod says. “We’re not starting from zero. We already have many sustainability projects ongoing and we need to understand what positive climate impact they have.”

She adds that the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in coffee production, for example, are mainly attributed to land use change (LUC) and the production and use of fertiliser.

“Optimising yields is crucial to discourage further LUC and promote crop diversification, but it needs to be done with better use of inputs including organic fertiliser where feasible,” Nicod says.

“Biodiversity is also extremely important as it can be an indicator of overall health of the plantation. This helps ensure that it is not just a monoculture crop.”

Aside from the environmental benefits of planting a variety of shade trees, biodiversity provides an additional positive social impact on generating further income streams to boost farmer incomes.

In some cases in coffee, Nicod says shade trees can also improve the quality of the bean due to its slower maturation.

“Reduction is our first priority, but it cannot be the only action behind climate mitigation. We need to find ways of capturing carbon and sequestering it back into our soils and biomass,” she says.

“We focus also on developing carbon projects within our scope 3 supply chain boundaries and projects adjacent to the boundary, also called insetting or offsetting. Partnerships are a crucial aspect of its Caring for Climate services to foster collaboration across the supply chain to deliver transformational change in the agricultural landscapes that we operate in to become carbon sinks rather than emitters”.

“The threat of climate change impacts us all and we all have our parts to do across the different industries and sectors. Reaching our goal to become net zero by 2050 to limit temperatures to 1.5°C requires a systems transformation and corporations cannot do it alone.” G C R For more information, visit www.ecomcaringforclimate.com

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Header A smarter way to fight climate change INTRO

SOLIDARIDAD’S CLIMATE SMART COFFEE PROJECTS DEMONSTRATE HOW COFFEE PRODUCTION CAN PRACTICALLY IMPLEMENT SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES AND REDUCE THE RISKS PRESENTED BY CLIMATE CHANGE.

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or the xx coffee industry to combat climate change, it must first equip its producers with theXx tools, G C R knowledge, and resources to mitigate their emissions and the impact it has on them.

In its Climate Smart Agriculture projects in Latin For2013, more Solidaridad information,launched visit America, building a use case for how coffee production can practically implement practices that increase producers’ resilience and reduce carbon emissions. These projects have been run in several countries, including Colombia, Peru, and Mexico.

“Climate Smart Agriculture involves four main practices, the first of which is increasing the number of trees per hectare to achieve an optimal production point,” says Andrea Olivar, Strategy Director for Solidaridad in South America.

“When the plot they’re producing on is no longer providing good yields, farmers have sometimes been forced to expand into new areas. A possible solution is to be able to do more on

Solidaridad’s Climate Smart Coffee projects have helped farmers improve yields, agroforestry, and resource management.

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less land, so they don’t need to expand into new areas and contribute to soil degradation and deforestation.”

Higher yields translate to increased profitability, better equipping producers to make sustainable changes on their farms. Olivar says this leads into the next two practices: agroforestry and fertiliser use.

“We’ve worked in several countries with unique production systems, so the three countries we’ve run these projects in have different challenges in delivering a climate smart agenda compared to others in the world,” she says.

“For instance, in Peru and Mexico, deforestation is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions because you’re no longer sequestering that carbon. But in Colombia and largescale producing countries like Brazil and Vietnam, deforestation is not the biggest contributor but fertiliser usage. Shade trees are also less common in Colombia than a region like Peru, so part of introducing Climate Smart Agriculture is education on optimal use of agroforestry and shade.”

Another large source of greenhouse gas emissions from coffee production in Colombia, Olivar says, comes from post-harvest processing. This includes from the crop residues generated during processing and anaerobic decomposition of wastewater, resulting in significant methane emissions. This is why more efficient wastewater treatment is the final practice Solidaridad identifies under its Climate Smart Agriculture.

Across the three countries, Solidaridad’s Climate Smart Coffee projects have involved

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“CLIMATE CHANGE HAS BECOME AN EMERGENCY. BACK IN 2017 AND 2018, WHEN WE STARTED WORKING WITH SOLIDARIDAD, WE WERE NOT AT THE STAGE COMPANIES WOULD MAKE LONGTERM COMMITMENTS TO GET TO NET ZERO.” Jeremy Dufour

Global Sustainability Projects Manager for coffee at ofi

13,800 farmers and 20,000 hectares of farming land. On average, these producers have seen a 20 per cent increase of productivity and using satellite imaging, Solidaridad has monitored little to no deforestation. Olivar says the biggest sign of the project’s success is the high adoption rate among participating farmers.

“It’s very easy to reach out to tens of thousands of farmers and not be sure if they’re really adopting these practices, but we have data that shows producers are really adopting these climate smart practices,” she says.

Since Solidaridad launched its Climate Smart Coffee projects, climate change and carbon emissions have become major issues and talking points among not only the global coffee industry, but with business sectors and governments around the world. Olivar says over the years, Solidaridad has received increasing interest and support from coffee industry members looking to embrace Climate Smart Agriculture.

One of these companies is RGC Coffee, which has worked with Solidaridad in Colombia for the past eight years in multiple

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projects. Angela Pelaez, Director of Sustainability for RGC Coffee, tells Global Coffee Report the education and direct involvement of producers has been key.

“What we have seen through the methodologies Solidaridad has developed is that producers are more willing to implement these practices,” Pelaez says.

“Climate change is a big concept for a farmer living in a remote community. It’s a complex issue that many farmers don’t fully understand. If you have money, you can give it to the farmer and tell them to make these changes, but if they don’t understand what’s important, why they’re doing it, or the benefits to them, they won’t be able to do it. When you create awareness among the producers, to make them part of the solution, it’s different because they will be willing to create that change.”

The success of the Climate Smart Agriculture projects in Colombia has encouraged that state’s government, Federación Nacional de Cafeteros, National Association of Colombian Coffee Exporters to sign The Coffee, Forest & Climate Agreement. A key element of this agreement, to which Solidaridad is the technical secretariat, is a focus on climate adaptation through the establishment of climate smart and agroforestry production models.

“All that we are implementing, the projects with good results, is seen by roasters, other traders, and cooperatives, which presents the possibility for Climate Smart Coffee to be scaled up to other regions. In our case, some of the roasters that work with us have seen this is possible and ask how they can help introduce it to other regions they source from,” Pelaez says.

“All industries and citizens of the world have a responsibility when it comes to climate change, and it’s something no one can avoid. In coffee, it’s important to inspire more people and companies to be part of this journey of protecting the planet and working hand in hand with producers so that they’re willing to participate and to be part of the journey.”

Another coffee business involved in Solidaridad’s Climate Smart Coffee initiatives is ofi (Olam Food Ingredients) which played an important role in introducing the Climate Smart Agriculture projects to Peru.

“Climate change has become an emergency. Back in 2017 and 2018, when we started working with Solidaridad, we were not at the stage companies would make long-term commitments to get to net zero,” says Jeremy Dufour, Global Sustainability Projects Manager for coffee at ofi.

“The conversation started with climate resilience, making sure farmers can continue to produce coffee, but nowadays the discussion has turned to decarbonising the economy. Climate Smart Agriculture demonstrates practices on the ground that are ensuring resilience, improving livelihoods, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”

Dufour adds it’s also important to incentivise producers to adopt climate smart practices, often meaning more must be paid for coffee that has been sustainably produced.

“To be frank, you cannot ask a farmer who is, unfortunately, on the edge of survival to start investing in new practices to create value over the long-term, without seeing the immediate reward.

They need to be sure there’s food on the table and they are getting a decent livelihood before even thinking about climate action,” he says.

“Farmers need to see their efforts rewarded and the value of their coffee recognised.”

Following the success of the Climate Smart Agriculture projects, Dufour says it’s important the global coffee industry works together to implement these practices on a global scale.

“Many of the practices under Climate Smart Agriculture have been known to the industry for a long time. What these projects bring are examples that it can work and the importance of helping the farmer understand how these practices can deliver benefits for both people and planet,” Dufour says.

“We should be tired of reading best practice case studies. There’s enough evidence that this approach works and we need to start changing on a global scale. We need to put competition aside and work much closer together to help farmers implement these changes. Climate Smart Agriculture at scale is what will really move the needle.” G C R For more information, visit www.solidaridadnetwork.org/coffee

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Header A better future SUCAFINA HAS PUBLICLY UNVEILED ITS 2030 SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGY, INTRO REAFFIRMING THE COFFEE MERCHANT’S COMMITMENT TO A MORE SUSTAINABLE COFFEE INDUSTRY.

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Investing in Farmers is one of three pillars in Sucafina’s 2030 sustainability strategy.

s the premier supplier of East African coffee and with operations in 32 countries, Sucafina prides itself on direct connections and relationships with producers.

Sucafina Sustainability Manager Justin Archer tells Global Coffee Report that with such deep ties to farmers, it’s no surprise that sustainability plays a big part in its work at origin.

“We’ve built quite a robust business around working directly with farmers, owning several washing stations for a number of years. We’ve become firmly implanted in and connected to those communities,” Archer says.

“With so many of our own assets and resources in origin, a focus on sustainability and farmer livelihood became almost a necessity. Now, sustainability has become synonymous with Sucafina, and we’re seeing that connection open up new opportunities in different parts of the world.”

In October 2021, Sucafina released its inaugural sustainability report, titled Shared Value for a Better Future. The report outlines Sucafina’s past and existing work towards sustainability, significant changes in 2020, and the trader’s 2030 sustainability strategy.

The strategy profiles three pillars under which its other goals and areas of focus fall: Caring for People, Investing in Farmers, and Protecting Our Planet. Archer says while no pillar is more important than the others, Investing in Farmers is the central pillar the strategy rests on.

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“There’s a slight risk that the coffee industry’s increased focus on environmental concerns could make us forget that, ultimately, this is a people business and there’s a very human centred aspect of what we do. If farmers can’t believe in a vision of economic development for themselves, they’re not going to be able to help us tackle environmental and social issues,” Archer says.

“Hence the need to make sure that we tackle things like price volatility, access to finance, good technical advice for farmers, and support for communities. Unless we can address these, the industry is probably not going to make much headway in terms of addressing longterm environmental challenges.”

Currently, Sucafina can identify 171,000 farmers in its global supply chain, at least half of which receive ongoing training and support.

Under Investing in Farmers, the coffee company intends to double the size of its farmer network to 350,000 producers worldwide by 2025.

Archer says this does not necessarily mean doubling the size of the business and will involve increasing the transparency and traceability that can sometimes be lost when dealing with intermediaries.

“To support that effort, we are going to be looking at putting in place long-term farmer financing solutions. We’re working with our commercial banking partners to see if we can establish a dedicated farmer financing facility, which will hopefully be something to the tune of US$30 million within a couple years’ time,” he says.

Sucafina is also exploring ways it can ensure price stability for coffee farmers, with the goal to source one million bags of green coffee per year under some form of price guarantee mechanism that rewards them for sustainable farming practices by 2025.

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“We’re gathering new data on living income thresholds in our supply chains to try to figure out what role some form of price stabilisation or floor prices could play with some of our committed roasting and financial partners,” Archer says.

“Especially after the recent frost [in Brazil,] there is probably no better time than now to look at how we can implement minimum prices for some farmers who are adhering to certain sustainable social practices that we could design similar programs going forward.”

Under the Caring for People pillar, Archer says Sucafina aims to support its employees, farmers and supply chain workers, and global coffee communities.

“The first point is making sure that as an employer, we can continue supporting our employees around the world and invest in them and their welfare. This ensures that there’s a high motivation to work for Sucafina and that our employees are able to express their career objectives in the work they do every day,” he explains.

“On a personal level, this element is important to maintain this passion that we have for sustainability as a group within our ranks.”

From the people within the company to those Sucafina works with, Archer says Sucafina is committing to ensuring human rights are maintained across its supply chains.

In 2020, all of Sucafina’s own operations in East Africa were internally audited and no human rights violations were reported across the entire group. In addition, audits were performed in eight out of 13 of its origin operations with no human rights abuses reported. Sucafina says audits were or will be performed in the five remaining countries in 2021, some of which are new operations for the group.

“As we expand around the globe, it’s crucial the human rights within the fence of our business are maintained to the highest possible standard,” Archer says. “Even outside the fence of our own business, we will continue to play a strong education, advocacy, and monitoring role on human rights when it comes to supply chain workers.”

Ensuring the wellbeing of the communities surrounding Sucafina’s coffee producing partners is a natural progression of its commitments to farmers.

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“In many of the places we were work, particularly in East Africa, it’s impossible to distinguish coffee smallholders from the wider community in which they live and exist,” Archer says.

“We have a history in our group, either through our foundation or working directly with some of our partners of investing in community focused solutions. Be it health, education, or something unique to that community, this is something very dear to our hearts that we will continue doing.

We also have a lot of roaster customers who are actually quite keen to support this work and often challenge us to help make community investments in the supply chain.”

The final pillar of Sucafina’s 2030 sustainability strategy – Protecting Our Planet – will see the coffee trader focus on three main activities: reducing carbon emissions, minimising water usage, and tackling deforestation.

“We want to help roasters meet their own carbon emission targets, but at the same time, really ensure that this value accrues back to the farmers who are going to have to be making some of this investment and probably in some cases changing the way they grow coffee over time,” Archer says.

“There’re also some bold statements on where we’d like to be in a couple years in terms of wastewater treatment in washing stations. We own more than 50 washing stations worldwide and they are already certified under multiple standards, but we think we have the potential to go much further, pushing the boundaries of the amount of water that’s used in coffee processing and ensuring absolutely zero risk of contamination from wastewater going back into the environment.”

Sucafina is currently mapping the farm to free-on-board carbon footprint of its supply chains in different origins, ensuring its washing stations meet World Bank standards on wastewater emissions by the end of 2023, and that its direct supply chains are deforestation free by 2030.

Sucafina will use the Global Reporting Initiative standards to hold itself accountable to the commitments it has outlined in its 2030 sustainability strategy in its ongoing annual report. Archer says while sustainability has always been core to Sucafina, this is its first time making public commitments.

“Making a public announcement of our long-term strategy exposes us to criticism and inspection down the road, but we want to invite that pressure on ourselves,” Archer says.

“There’s an awful lot of work ahead of us, but we won’t be doing it alone. Releasing this strategy publicly sends a clear message to roasters, donors, and non-governmental origanisations that we’re here to collaborate, with transparency and traceability, to create a more sustainable coffee industry.” G C R For more information, visit www.sucafina.com Under Caring for People, Sucafina aims to support its employees, farmers and supply chain workers, and global coffee communities.

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WHAT’S BREWING? Industry appointments COFFEE PEOPLE AROUND ON THE MOVE THE GLOBE

WHAT’S BREWING? A WRAP UP OF THE LATEST APPOINTMENTS IN THE GLOBAL COFFEE INDUSTRY.

Cristina Scocchia – Chief Executive Officer, illycaffè Cristina Scocchia, a member of the illycaffè Board of Directors since 2019, will take over from Massimiliano Pogliani as company CEO from 1 January 2022.

With a degree in business and economics from Bocconi University in Milan and a PhD in Business Administration from the University of Turin, Cristina Scocchia has been CEO of Kiko SpA since July 2017. Previously, Scocchia worked at Procter & Gamble, holding positions of increasing responsibility, and at L’Oréal Italia, where she held the positions of CEO and chairwoman.

She is also a member of the Board of Directors of Essilor Luxottica.

“For the new expansion cycle that will start in 2022 and in view of a future stock listing, we decided to entrust the leadership to Cristina Scocchia, a talented manager recognised in the development of brands with high aesthetic and experiential content,” says Andrea Illy, Chairman of illycaffè.

Andrea Clerici – Group Commercial Director, Gruppo Cimbali Andrea Clerici joined the company in 2021 after a long professional career at a large Italian multinational company, where he held roles in marketing and sales in Europe, the United States, Japan, China, and Australia. A Milan Polytechnic graduate in Aerospace Engineering, Clerici has a passion for the world of racing and for his two daughters.

In his new role, Andrea will contribute to the internationalisation of Gruppo Cimbali. He will drive the opening of new channels and segment the business, and direct sales towards services, not only products. Andrea will be the reference point of Gruppo Cimbali’s 12 global branches, sharing the company’s vision: “Innovation, digitalisation and technology are essential tools in a sector that is experiencing an important evolution and that allow us, together with the experience of 110 years, to consolidate our role as a player in the market of professional espresso coffee machines”.

Noelia Villalobos – Board Chair, Cup of Excellence Noelia Villalobos, Executive Director of the Specialty Coffee Association of Costa Rica, will now hold the position of Board Chair for the Cup of Excellence (COE). Villalobos was previously Vice Chair of the Alliance for Coffee Excellence, which owned and operated the COE, until the two organisations became separate entities. The COE has also appointed Thomas Pulpan, Director of Kaffebrenneriet, and Carl Cervone, COO of Enveritas, as Board Members.

“I am honoured to be part of this new COE family and have the opportunity to give back. COE has given so much to our coffee and our producers. This split will help each organisation focus on specific topics and areas to enable even more their outreach; always as sister organisations,” comments Noelia Villalobos.

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Paul Campbell – Chair of the Board, 200 Degrees Coffee Nottingham-based 200 Degrees Coffee Roasters has announced that Paul Campbell has joined the company as Chair of the Board. 200 Degrees has 15 ‘distinctly independent’ coffee shops across the midlands and the north of England and barista schools within six of those locations. Campbell is the Founder and Owner of Hill Capital Partners, through which he carries out advisory roles and private investment across the leisure and hospitality sectors.

200 Degrees has 15 independent coffee shops across the midlands and the north of England and barista schools within six of those locations.

“200 Degrees has a clear point of difference, a strategic growth strategy, and a sound management team that also align with my own values, so it’s a relationship that I’m pleased to be a part of,” Campbell says.

Patrick Coveney – Group CEO, SSP Group Patrick Coveney is appointed to the role of Group CEO of SSP Group, effective 31 March 2022. Coveney will join SSP from Greencore Group, a leading producer of convenience foods in the United Kingdom and Ireland, which is a member of the FTSE 250. He has been the Group Chief Executive Officer of Greencore since 2008, following more than two years as Chief Financial Officer.

SSP is a British multinational contract foodservice company operating more than 2800 branded catering and retail units at over 180 airports and 300 railway stations across 35 countries, including Starbucks franchises in travel locations.

“I look forward to working with the teams to seize the many opportunities that lie ahead and to delivering future growth and returns for SSP and its shareholders,” Coveny says.

Belinda Richards, Brian May, Penny Hughes – Board of ofi Belinda Richards will Chair the Governance and Nominations Committee and will be the Senior Independent Director for the Board of Olam Food Ingredients (ofi). Richards was a senior partner at Deloitte before embarking on her board career which has a particular focus on the consumer products and financial services sectors. Richards is currently a Non-Executive Director and Audit Committee Chair for both Avast and Schroder Japan Growth Fund, as well as a Non-Executive Director for Phoenix Group Holdings and Monks Investment Trust.

Brian May has also joined the Board of ofi as Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee and Penny Hughes has joined as Chair of the Remuneration and Talent Committee.

DO YOU HAVE CAREER NEWS TO SHARE? EMAIL ETHAN MILLER AT ETHAN.MILLER@PRIMECREATIVE.COM.AU

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DIARY Dashboard COFFEE COFFEE AROUND AROUND THE THE GLOBE GLOBE

GLOBAL COFFEE EVENTS

WORLD OF COFFEE

D12-14U JAN B UARY AI Europe’s premier coffee trade show is coming to the Middle East. Taking place at the brand new Dubai Exhibition Centre at Expo 2020, the show floor will be focused entirely on exhibitors and delegates from the specialty coffee and tea industries. The inaugural event will also include the UAE National Championship, Coffee Design Awards, and Best New Display Product Competition and Display. dubai.worldofcoffee.org

THAIFEX-ANUGA ASIA

BANGKOK, THAILAND

24 – 2 8 MAY Thaifex – Anuga Asia boasts 11 trade shows under one roof, connecting the food and beverage ecosystem within one show.

The Coffee & Tea trade show is a one-stop trade show from beans to equipment, and leaves to cup, underscoring the robust business opportunities in this segment. It represents coffee beans, pads/capsules, instant hot beverages and syrups, tea, cocoa, and coffee machines, brewing systems, table tops, grinders, tea-brewing appliances, and roaster. www.thaifex-anuga.com 54

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SIGEP 2022

RIMINI, ITALY

22 – 2 6 JAN UARY Sigep is a world leading B2B show dedicated to the dessert-andcoffee foodservice Industry. Returning to its physical form, SIGEP 2022 will be a unique opportunity to discover the new scenarios related to the momentous change of the out-of-home sector and how this transformation will revolutionise the way we do business, for companies and professionals. www.sigep.it

WORLD OF COFFEE WARSAW, POLAND 23 – 25 JUNE 2022 Travelling to a different European city each year, World of Coffee is the essential event for coffee professionals – drawing a loyal audience from the global specialty coffee community. Organised by the Specialty Coffee Association, this year’s event features Exhibitor Halls, the World Coffee Championships and so much more. www.worldofcoffee.org

SENSORY SUMMIT CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES

4-6 FE B R UARY Sensory Summit is a two-day coffee sensory science event designed to educate, inform, and inspire the specialty coffee sensory professional. Topics for the conference include incorporating techniques of sensory science into the coffee taster’s repertoire, latest reports about ongoing coffee extraction and consumer research, using new tools to sharpen tasting acuity and repeatability, improving coffee quality and consistency using established sensory methods, and incorporating learnings from wine, beer, and food science into specialty coffee. sensory.sca.coffee

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL

COFFEE EXPO 2022 MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

27-3 0 S E PTE M B E R 2 022 The Melbourne International Coffee Expo (MICE) is known throughout the Asia-Pacific as the largest and most exciting dedicated coffee event. Each year, café owners, roasters, baristas, equipment manufacturers, service providers, and more gather at this tradeoriented event to network and do business. MICE2022 will host the 2022 World Barista Championship. www.internationalcoffeeexpo.com

SPECIALTY COFFEE EXPO BOSTON, UNITED STATES

8 – 10 APR I L The Specialty Coffee Expo was designed to be the coffee professional’s one stop shop for everything they need to succeed in the coffee industry. As the industry’s standard setter, the Specialty Coffee Association has built a solid reputation over the past 30 years of providing the most up to date, qualified information and providing members with the tools to succeed. coffeeexpo.org

TRIESTESPRESSO EXPO

TRIESTE, ITALY

27 – 2 9 O CTO B E R Triestespresso Expo is an exhibition designed for international coffee industry professionals. The biennial trade fair devoted to espresso is held in Trieste, Italy, a city with a long tradition and a rich expertise in the coffee sector, since coffee has been a fundamental part of its trade exchanges and its artisanal and industrial expertise for more than 300 years. triestespresso.it

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PRODUCTS Marketplace

BRAMBATI KL3-150 SCR ROLLER GRINDER Brambati presents the KL3-150 SCR roller grinder, which has been conceived and realised following Ecodesign criteria, to minimise the environmental impact of the machine and to meet the market request for roller grinders of small size and production.

Thanks to the reduced size and weight, it can be installed in small spaces or directly on top of the coffee capsuling machines.

This machine is composed by three pairs of variable speed grinding rollers, driven by single independent motors, and it has all the mechanical characteristics of larger roller grinders, so that it can guarantee the uniformity and the consistency of the particle size under different working conditions and high density of the ground product. All this is necessary for the compostable, aluminium or plastic capsules, allowing a high number of grinding variables to obtain the desired product, possibility to maintain the grain size even in case of changes in the roasted beans such as colour, humidity, origin, and a total flexibility.

For more information, visit www.brambati.it/en

CAFETTO RENEW DESCALER The new and improved Renew contains a synergistic blend of organic acids that give outstanding scale removal.

Renew is registered by Australian Certified Organic (ACO) as an allowed input in organic systems.

Renew is free from phosphate and Genetically Modified Organisms. Safe for all machine parts, this product is listed with NSF. It has been tested, evaluated, and passed the most stringent toxicology and corrosivity standards.

The ingredients and formulation of the products that are NSF certified are safe, leave no harmful residues and do not cause corrosion within the coffee machine. It is safe to use on aluminium, brass, and stainless steel.

All ingredients are all rapidly biodegradable meeting international standards.

It is specifically designed for espresso coffee machines, boilers and coffee brewers. Renew is ideal to use in kettles, urns and bain-maries.

Each 25-gram sachet makes up one litre of descaling solution.

For more information, visit www.cafetto.com

FAEMINA Faemina is more than just an espresso coffee machine, it’s an exclusive design element that symbolises a highquality lifestyle. The one-group espresso machine is designed for the home market and high-end professional settings including boutiques, concept stores, bistros, and any other small to mid-size businesses that aim to provide an emotional coffee experience to their customers.

Faemina incorporates strong design elements with its minimal and classy characteristics while combining innovative technology to ensure the espresso performance is not compromised. This includes a brewing unit for filter and espresso coffee, a water softener filter, and autosteam wand to help texture milk automatically.

Faemina is also equipped with different ergonomic solutions, including the option of a removable drainage tank and Up&Down system to recreate different recipes in different cup sizes.

The coffee community can also interact with the machine thanks to the Be Faema app, featuring voice recognition.

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SMALL-SCALE AROMA RECOVERY In 2021, Flavourtech launched the newest member of its Spinning Cone Column (SCC) family, the SCC100. The SCC100 has a throughput of 25-115 litres per hour and retains the benefits of larger models while processing much smaller volumes for R&D applications or small production runs of high-value, low-volume materials.

The new model is capable of processing liquid products such as coffee and tea extracts, wine, milk, and fruit juices. It is manufactured on a compact skid with lockable castors, has an easy-to-use touch screen and is quickly assembled, operated, and maintained by the user.

Spinning Cone Column technology is established around the world for aroma recovery from coffee extract in soluble coffee production. The SCC100 provides soluble coffee companies the opportunity to discover new aroma profiles using smaller volumes which they can then take through to their production process. The new SCC100 also allows reconcentration of aroma to minimise dilution add-back prior to drying. The same applications can, of course, be applied to the tea or flavour industries.

For more information, visit www.flavourtech.com

FRANKE INDIVIDUALMILK TECHNOLOGY Franke Coffee Systems IndividualMilk Technology is a gamechanger for serving high-quality, full-flavoured hot and cold milk-based coffee specialties that clearly conform to and support customer expectations and choices.

This new technology promises to re-create the self-serve coffee experience.

Available on the Franke Specialty Beverage Station (SB1200), IndividualMilk Technology is a two-in-one solution that guarantees each milk, or non-diary alternative, is absolutely free of all cross-contamination with other milk products. It ensures the integrity of each milk processed, keeping it free of any residues, from refrigerated storage through to beverage preparation and in-cup dispensing.

This means vegan milk is solely vegan, or diary milk is purely dairy, whether the customer chooses hot or cold beverages, traditional drinks with milk foam, iced coffee, or flavoured latte.

Combining the premium features Franke´s professional, fully automatic coffee machines are famous for with the IndividualMilk Technology presents an entirely new coffee experience to the industry.

For more information, visit coffee.franke.com

BLACK EAGLE MAVERICK The Black Eagle Maverick is the next step in Victoria Arduino’s history of innovation and design.

It introduces important improvements in terms of performance, precision and sustainability. Just like T3 Genius, the evolution of T3 technology that offers the same precision and control by using 37 per cent less energy.

With the Black Eagle Maverick, Victoria Arduino introduces the Pure Brew Technology, a revolutionary method of espresso extraction and of a low-pressure coffee extraction. THe Italian manufacturer matched the Pure Brew technology to a new Victoria Arduino patent: a portafilter with a conical double-mesh filter that can create PureBrew, a totally new filtered coffee extraction more syrupy and full-bodied.

For more information, visit www.victoriaarduino.com

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LAST WORD Lab-grown coffee

MADE IN ITALY ANDREA MORETTINO, FOURTH GENERATION COFFEE PRODUCER AND SALES MANAGER OF FAMILY ROASTING BUSINESS MORETTINO, TALKS TO GLOBAL COFFEE REPORT ABOUT GROWING ITALY’S FIRST COFFEE AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FUTURE.

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hile Italy is known for its strong love of coffee, it has never been associated as a producing nation.

This, however, could all change with Italian coffee roaster Morettino harvesting its first batch of Sicilian grown coffee in September 2021.

“Our small experimental coffee plantation began in the 1990s when the Botanical Gardens – which is the research facility for the University of Palermo – gifted 60 Arabica plants of the Bourbon and Catuai variety to my father, Arturo Morettino,” says Andrea Morettino, fourth generation coffee producer and Sales and Marketing Manager of Morettino.

These were planted 350 metres above sea level, in the village of San Lorenzo ai Colli in Palermo.

“Over the next 30 years, through the patience, dedication, and love shown by my family, we grew these plants, gathering the drupes they produced and reseeding it into new coffee plants,” says Morettino.

Over three decades, these plants acclimatised to temperatures outside the typical tropical conditions they were used to. This combined with a change in climate and increasing temperatures saw the Morettino family harvest their first specialty coffee yield.

“We used our Gold Honey method of coffee processing, which saw the coffee undergo a 48-hour fermentation process,” says Morettino. “There were strong flavours of Sicilian native fruits such as the Zibibbo grapes, white plumeria flowers, and panela sugar, producing a refined coffee with natural sweetness.”

While the potential to grow coffee in Italy is a monumental discovery, Morettino predicts it will be at least a decade before any coffee will be commercially produced.

“It takes time to breed these coffee plants, and to create a cup of coffee with a consistently defined cup profile,” says Morettino. “Already we are starting a project in collaboration with the University of Palermo and the Botanical Garden as part of our short-term vision.”

This project will see the coffee plants grown in different regions across Sicily, with varying soil types and terroir.

“To analyse these results, it requires the collaboration of all of us across the supply chain. We will provide the Botanical Gardens with the seeds we produce, which will then be analysed,” Morettino says. “We are proud to be able to return the gift that the Botanical Gardens once gave us.”

Coffee is not the only agriculture plant benefitting from the changing temperature.

“We’ve been experiencing a ‘double bloom’ in recent years. This is a hot summer, followed by a short rainy season, which returns to a hot season. This means tropical fruits such as mango, papaya, avocado, kiwi or Sicilian litchi are flowering, and producing fruit twice a year,” says Morettino.

In recognition of the changing agriculture seasons, The University of Palermo has recently launched its new Masters degree in Mediterranean Food Science and Technology. Its opening was held at the Caffè Morettino Museum, both Morettino’s roastery and museum of coffee that intertwines with his own family history.

The course will study the technical and functional characteristics of machinery and agriculture

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Andrea Morettino and Arturo Morettino.

crops with a focus on preserving the quality of Mediterranean grown products and increasing their shelf-life. Laws related to food management and international trade, along with defining traceability, safeguarding resources, and enhancing supply chains will also be covered.

“We are working together to share our knowledge of the coffee chain. Through our Morettino Coffee Program will also support the Masters programto provide a greater depth of understanding about coffee,” says Morettino.

“It is much bigger than a coffee plant. So many young people are leaving Siciliy for work and better prospects in the city, but the ability to recultivate the land and grow new plants which are suited to this different climate could reinvigorate the region.

“There is so much potential to be more than a wine or olive country. This coffee plant could even drive tourism. It’s an investment into creating hope and opportunity, right here in Italy.” G C R

remove up to 99.9% of caffeine