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© Red Fox Coffee Merchants
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Join Red Fox Coffee Merchants in the Foxhole for coffee learning and current events from the farm level up.
30 Episodes
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Welcome to the final quarter of 2025. As the industry continues to absorb shocks from tariffs & a high & volatile C market, our first southern hemisphere coffees are beginning to land while the rest make their way to the States. The closest we’ve come to a new normal seems to be constant vigilance & flexibility, so that’s our play—but there’s much to be excited about, including our entry into a new origin. Read on for the scoop on logistics, the C market, & every origin in which we work.
As we enter the second half of 2025, we’ve learned to expect the unexpected & prepare accordingly. Logistics remain complicated by geopolitical uncertainty, the historically high C market shows strong signs of letting up, coffees are flying out of the warehouse as fast as we can stock them, & we’re prepping heavily for strong seasons in our southern hemisphere origins. Listen for the scoop on logistics, the C market, & every origin in which we work.
We would love a boring quarter, but that’s not the outlook that Q2 2025 is bringing. As an uncertain tariff landscape piles onto an already high C market & a world plagued by uncertainty & geopolitical unrest, we’re focusing on building stability where we can. We’re moving decisively, getting into & out of origin quickly, & moving coffees as swiftly as we can—a strategy that has paid off in all of our landed coffees & most of our current incoming position being tariff-free. Ethiopia & Mexico containers are landing with more on the water. Coffees are selling about as fast as we can bring them in, sometimes faster, so make sure to get in touch with us about your needs & so we can do our best to ensure they’re met.Listen for the scoop on logistics, the C market, & every origin in which we work.
As we close out a complex quarter in a complex year & head into Q1 of 2025, we’re looking forward to the early shipment & arrival of gorgeous East Africa origins amidst a continuously changing & challenging pricing & logistics landscape. Our strategy remains: a sharp focus on adding value everywhere we can, tight logistics, & constant communication. Listen for a deep dive into logistics, the C market, the trade, & every origin in which we work.
Welcome to Q4 2024. As Q3 wrapped, its ending was marked by volatility & uncertainty in the C market brought on by climate strife & new impending regulations, origin pricing challenges brought on by the volatile C market, & complex logistics landscapes brought on by a major strike among other preexisting factors. The moment is hectic although some of these issues show potential for positive resolution going forward. As always, we’ll keep you in the loop. We’ve also got spectacular coffees on the way from Peru, Bolivia, & Rwanda & a slim spot position that’s prime to scoop up. Listen for details on an extraordinarily volatile C market, logistics updates, & the details on the local landscape of each origin in which we work.
Hello from Q3 2024. Mexico & Ethiopia coffees are landing as we head into Peru, Rwanda, & Bolivia seasons. On the logistics side, the ongoing challenges that we’ve reported for the last 2 quarters show no sign of easing. The C market is up although it hasn't created the same ripple-out dynamics we saw in the early 2020s. Read on for details on what the quarter has in store, from logistics to C market flux to every origin in which we work.
Welcome to Q2 2024. While logistics are very much the squeaky wheel this quarter, we’re also glad to have coffees on the water making their way to the US from Kenya & Ethiopia, with Mexico following overland soon. Stay tuned for details on what the quarter has in store, from logistics to a surprisingly stable C market to each & every origin in which we work.
Welcome to Q1 of 2024. As we bring in the last of our Peru & launch into Ethiopia, Mexico, & Kenya seasons, we also see logistical shocks due to both war & weather buoying the C market, while coffee stocks at origin remain high. On our end, we’re confident & ready to bring in all the first fruits of the origins we know and love, as well as a couple new ventures. For details on all this as well as every origin in which we work, listen to our update.
Here we are in the final quarter of 2023, & things are looking relatively stable for a change—or at least as close as we’ve gotten in a few years. On top of stabilizing logistics & the C market, Peru containers have started landing with Colombia & Rwanda close behind. Listen for details on the state of logistics, the C market, & every country in which we work.
As we enter Q3, the C market is down with further drops possible on the horizon, while its volatility continues to create complexity. Local prices that have been elevated for years are now beginning to follow suit as the all-important Peru season concretizes, but again, volatility plays a key role. Our warehouses are flush with the latest & greatest as well as a diversity of prime lots from the 22-23 crops, holding their own on quality & priced to move in order to make room for newcomers. As always there are plenty of wrinkles domestically & across the coffee world, which we’ll delve into in depth.
As we head into the second quarter of 2023, many threads from the beginning of the year remain. Logistics continue normalizing but are still tangled in various ways & regions—not quite returned to pre-disruption but overall, trending positively. The C market tentatively remains more stable, while differentials in our actual sourcing relationships remain largely untethered to it. Mexico season is coming in strong despite labor shortages due to & causing inflation, an issue in Guatemala as well. While logistical challenges remain in Ethiopia at large, our Ethiopia containers are all afloat. Spring has sprung & the coffees that this season conjures in our minds will be here soon. Details on all of this & more.
As we wrap Peru acquisition & shipping season, begin Ethiopia procurement, & prep the lab in Mexico, we’re seeing some distinct trends continue from 2022. For one, logistics challenges including prices & availability have continued to ease, although the situation is still more complex & expensive than it was pre-2020/21. Another key trend, which we noted in our last update & which has become more pronounced than ever, is the decoupling of the C market price (down substantially from its peak) from the prices we’re actually seeing at origin for top quality coffee in the tiers we purchase, which in many cases are higher than ever. Listen for more specifics & analysis on that, as well as origin detail.
As we enter the final quarter of the year, logistics issues & price volatility persist & staying the course while remaining agile is the name of the game. The story of this particular moment seems to be that even when the C market dips—it’s notably both high & volatile as it’s been all year—local prices, especially for top-tier quality, remain astronomical. Solid relationships & communication, from the farm level to logistics, are key. Listen for more on logistics, market dynamics, & in-country activity at origin.
Red Fox Coffee Merchants Q3 2022 Origin & Shipping Update
Red Fox Coffee Merchants Q2 2022 Origin & Shipping Update
Red Fox Coffee Merchants Q1 2022 Origin & Shipping Update
Hello friends, coming to you with our final quarterly origin and shipment update of the year as we enter the home stretch of 2021. This report will cover some broad strokes and some details in all the origins in which we work, whether their coffee is on the water, heading to the mill, in harvest, or still looking towards its next flowering.
In this episode we are joined by special guest Casimiro García López and his son Omar of Pluma de Oaxaca. A second generation coffee farmer, Casimiro and his wife Reyna Petronila Luna farm 20 hectares (an unusually large farm for Pluma region) just outside San Agustin Loxicha, a community growing both coffee famous for its malic character and avocados. Casimiro's older children support in both farm work and marketing, contributing agronomic knowledge learned in local courses. In the off-season, the family works as blacksmiths. He's been one of the most consistent parts of our Oaxaca coffee community year over year, and we're excited for you to meet him.
Join Ali and Aleco for a conversation in the Foxhole with Prudencio of Valle Inca association in Cusco. The widely respected leader of one of our most key relationships in all of Peru, Prudencio (Jose Prudencio Saenz Vargas) is a Calca native who brings former experience as a bank loan officer to his work running Valle Inca—fiscal experience of critical importance to Valle Inca and the surrounding community, most of whom are smallholders averaging just 2-3 hectares each. When he got started he was new to coffee production, but his extreme quality focus has always been key to the group’s success. He helped Valle Inca producers move from drying coffee on plastic mats to raised beds, worked to improve drying, fermentation, and storage practices, and was the first producing partner of ours to implement GrainPro in storing parchment. He meets farmers where they are in the isolated reaches of Yanatile and Lares and works with them to produce the best coffee they possibly can.
In this episode we host a conversation between Veracruz-based producer, wet mill manager and community leader Ernesto Perez and Red Fox Mexico sourcing and sales lead Adam McClellan. After Ernesto takes off, Adam and Aleco give us the rundown on the season thus far. A younger farmer taking over the family farm and mill, he's working to guide community production into high quality specialty, tweak processing, focus on microlots, and help those around him get the best prices their work. He expanded his own wet mill at Finca Fatima into APG Coffee, a micro wet mill for the community that also offers agronomic consulting for other farmers to help rebuild soils and increase quality.
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