Every Friday, Perfect Daily Grind rounds up the top coffee industry news from the previous week. Here are this week’s stories.

Mon, 29 May

• PRF announces new No Filter panel series. The new innovative panel discussion format will debut at PRF Colombia, which takes place on 14 & 15 September 2023 in Medellín. The aim of the panel series is to discuss some of the most pressing yet often overlooked issues in the coffee industry. PRF Colombia attendees can apply here in English and here in Spanish.

• Upcycled coffee fruit snack launches at Woolworths stores across Australia. I Am Grounded contains around 50g of upcycled coffee fruit in each bar, which is available in five different flavours.

• Fairtrade says it now represents more than two million international farmers and agricultural workers as consumers are still willing to pay more for its products. The organisation’s latest monitoring report recorded earnings of more than US $214 million in Fairtrade Premiums in 2021. The number of its female members also increased by 3% in the same year, while 56% of shoppers surveyed across 12 countries are willing to pay more for Fairtrade labelled products.

• Semi-washed Pacamara receives 91.82 points at 2023 Cup of Excellence El Salvador competition. The coffee was produced by Norelvia Angelica Elias De Diaz at Mileydi farm in the Alotepec-Metapan region. All 30 lots will be up for auction on 20 July.

• HOTELEX Shanghai takes place at National Exhibition and Convention Centre. Alongside hosting the 2023 China Coffee Championships, a number of exhibitors were present at the event – including Carimali China.

• SCA Turkey announces 2023 Barista and Cezve/Ibrik Championships winners. Süleyman Rifat Yalçın won this year’s national Barista Championship, while Kevser Atmaca placed first at the national Cezve/Ibrik Championship. Both will go on to represent Turkey at their respective competitions in the world finals.

Tue, 30 May

• USDA predicts 21% increase in 2023/24 Tanzanian coffee production. The department says recovery from drought conditions, as well as coffee plants entering their most productive period of yield cycles, will result in total exports of 1.35 million 60kg bags of green coffee for the 2023/24 harvest.

• Estate ’98’s ultra-concentrated coffee receives full funding on Kickstarter in under 40 minutes. The ten-times concentrated coffee is made with shade-grown Bourbon sourced from the Salvadoran highlands.

• Yolk Brands acquires Dubai specialty roaster The Climbing Goat. The UAE hospitality group, which was established earlier this year, says it plans to transform the brand into Dubai’s leading specialty coffee roaster.

• Royal Coffee offers online promotion for East African Crown Jewels selection. Roasters who buy three or more Crown Jewels boxes sourced from East Africa can save US $10 per box with the code: CJ10EA.

• Strauss Coffee reports 10% organic growth in 2023 first quarter. The Israeli company reported 11% sales growth in Brazil alone, with the Três Corações subsidiary now accounting for more than a third of the country’s total roast and ground coffee sales.

• WMF launches CoffeeConnect telemetry solution. The platform allows businesses to collect data about machine performance to improve efficiency. Users can also receive support from WMF’s CoffeeConnect digitisation team.

• Nestlé appoints Anna Manz as new Chief Operating Officer. Manz, who is the current CFO of the London Stock Exchange Group, will succeed François-Xavier Roger in the coming months.

Wed, 31 May

• International Women’s Coffee Alliance seeks candidates for Executive Director role. The position involves overseeing and providing hands-on direction for all global IWCA projects and activities.

• Starbucks on track to reach 9,000-store mark in China by 2025. During a recent visit to China, CEO Laxman Narasimhan reaffirmed the chain’s “large” ambitions in the Chinese market, and added that it plans to hire a further 30,000 staff members in the country over the next three years.

• SCA Greece Chapter announces two new coordinators. Tasos Delichristos is the chapter’s new Community Coordinator, while Ioannis Papadopoulos is the new Marketing & Communications Coordinator. Both will join the committee until the current two-year term comes to an end in 2024.

• Tims China reports 50% revenue increase in 2023 first quarter despite net losses. The exclusive operator of Tim Hortons stores in China reported a net loss of US $25.4 million in 2023 Q1. However, Tims China opened 31 net new stores and a experienced a huge surge in revenue during the same period.

• Specialty Coffee Association Educator Summit takes place in Busan, South Korea. The two-day summit is designed to equip coffee educators with the latest knowledge and training techniques. The event featured various lectures, workshops, and sensory experiences.

• World Coffee Research to potentially launch robusta breeding programme. The organisation says over the past year, it has continued to seek opportunities to establish more robusta research and development projects – largely driven by increasing demand.

• Green Coffee Association stops publishing US coffee stockpile data reports. Reasons for the abrupt end of the reports are unknown, but analysts say the decision makes it difficult to accurately estimate US coffee consumption.

Thu, 1 Jun

• Chamberlain Coffee secures US $7 million in latest fundraising round. Founded by content creator and social media influencer Emma Chamberlain, the brand sells a wide range of products including RTD drinks and pods.

• This year’s Milan Coffee Festival to take place from 2 to 4 December. Alongside the Roasters Village and Global Coffee School Live, the event will include the Roast Masters and Latte Art Live competitions.

• This year’s French AeroPress Championship to take place on 1 July in Bordeaux. The national competition will be hosted by La Claque Café at Deux Ex Machina, with several regions championships to be announced soon, too.

• Oatly partners with Snapchill and Little Wolf Coffee on RTD café au lait drinks. This is Oatly’s first collaboration with Snapchill. The RTD coffee drink is currently sold at Clover Food Lab retail locations in Boston, US.

• Robusta futures reach over US $2,600 while arabica prices bounce back from one-week low. Falling robusta production in Vietnam, Indonesia, and Brazil are attributed to the decline, largely because more Vietnamese farmers are switching to growing other fruits such as durian, avocado, and passion fruit. Certified arabica stocks, meanwhile, are at the lowest levels since December.

• Flash Coffee becomes first major coffee chain in Singapore to default to oat milk. The international tech-enabled coffee chain now uses OATSIDE as its default milk option for all milk-based drinks across locations in Singapore. OATSIDE oat milk is provided to customers at no extra charge.

Fri, 2 Jun

• Toddy launches new Cold Brew Coffee Maker Essential Brewer. The smaller-sized brewer can produce up to 1.1l of cold brew at a time. Toddy’s new brewer is available exclusively at Walmart.

• Cocinare to launch wireless electric grinder on Kickstarter. The USB chargeable grinder, which won a 2022 Red Dot Good Design Award and a 2023 iF Design Award, includes 38mm conical burrs and a 80-step grind adjustment system.

• Brighton Coffee Festival returns on 12 August 2023. The event will be held at All Saints church, and will feature local and international exhibitors, live talks, and a number of other attractions still to be announced. Tickets are available now.

• Registration opens for 2023 Caffè Culture Show. Visitors and exhibitors can now register to attend the event, which will take place on 3 & 4 October at the Islington Business Centre in London. This year’s show will feature hundreds of exhibitors, lectures and workshops, the Marco Brew Bar, the Roasters Forum in association with Sucafina, the World Coffee Innovation Awards, and the 2024 UK Barista Championship.

• The 2023 Singapore AeroPress Championship scheduled for 22 June. The event will be hosted by Common Man Coffee Roasters at Lowercase⁠. The winner will represent Singapore in the world final in Melbourne, Australia this December.

• New roaster BiraBiro becomes first in Europe to source coffee exclusively from Africa. BiraBiro sells coffee from Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. For every pound of roasted coffee sold, BiraBiro will donate £1 (US $1.25) to the Ethiopian Education Foundation.

• National Coffee Association promotes Matthew Cariani to Director of Education, Research, and Innovation. Carani will assist the NCA in expanding its educational programmes and market, including the association’s webinars, its annual convention, and the National Coffee Data Trends market research series.

Here are a few coffee news stories from previous weeks that you might find interesting. Take a look.

• Tue, 2 May – Oatly announces multi-year partnership with Minor League Baseball in the US. The company says the partnership makes it the country’s first-ever national plant-based sponsor. Oatly will begin to roll out advertising and concession menu items at Minor League Baseball ballparks in the coming months.

• Thu, 18 May – USDA estimates 2023/24 Ugandan coffee production to increase by 4%. The agency says the country could produce up to 6.85 million 60kg bags of coffee during the period – largely driven by the maturation of high-yielding robusta seedlings planted in 2019.

• Thu, 25 May – Research suggests chemicals used to manufacture decaf coffee contribute to ozone damage. Researcher Julián Villamayor at the Madrid Institute of Physical Chemistry says various chemicals used to remove caffeine produce short-lived pollutants that harm the ozone layer in the tropical lower stratosphere.

• Thu, 25 May – JDE Peet’s to cancel 15.3 million of its treasury shares. The company filed a notice of cancellation with the Dutch Chamber of Commerce, and is taking the necessary steps to complete the process. The cancellation is expected to take effect by end of July 2023.

• Fri, 26 May – Probat receives entrepreneurial excellence award for outstanding corporate governance. The award – presented by Deloitte, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and Credit Suisse – recognises the company’s customer-first strategy and various measures aimed at increasing productivity.

• Fri, 26 May – International Labour Organisation supplies new equipment to coffee and tea farmers in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. The effort is part of a project to support coffee and tea producers with increasing yields and reducing processing times.

Photo credits: Producer Roaster Forum

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Want to keep up with current affairs in the coffee industry? Check out last week’s stories and make sure to read the latest Coffee Intelligence News & Opinion piece on PRF’s No Filter panel series.