Last April, much of the discussion - at Expo and Re:co Symposium - was centered on the Coffee Price Crisis and the future of specialty. In a special episode to kick off the new year, we’re releasing a two-part lecture on the C market that sought to provide clarity and actionable data for the specialty industry. 

Over the past few years, many began to question coffee’s ability to provide a sustainable household income to smallholder producers. Although there’s still much to learn about the full cost of producing specialty coffee around the world, a widely-acknowledged hypothetical benchmark of US$1.40 per pound demonstrates how current levels of productivity and market pressures continue to fail smallholder producers. Throughout all of 2018 and 2019, the C market, the main price discovery mechanism and clearing house for coffee, has been below this hypothetical price of US$1.40. As a result, our industry has been questioning the value and existence of the C market as well as expressing concern over the multi-dimensional costs to producers, countries, and the environment. 

Special Thanks to Softengine Coffee One, Powered by SAP 

This episode of the Expo 2019 Lectures podcast is supported by Softengine Coffee One, Powered by SAP.  Built upon SAP's business-leading Enterprise Resource Planning solution, Softengine Coffee One is designed specifically to quickly and easily take your small-to-medium coffee company working at any point along the coffee chain to the next level of success. Learn more about Softengine Coffee One at softengine.com, with special pricing available for SCA Members. Softengine: the most intelligent way to grow your business.

Related Links 

• Read a full transcript of this episode on SCA News 
• Listen to other episodes of the SCA Podcast 
• Learn more about the upcoming 2020 Lecture Series at the Specialty Coffee Expo 
• Listen to Part 1 of A Two Part Arc About the C Market and the Future of Specialty 
• Learn more about the coffee price crisis

Episode Table of Contents: Part 2

0:00 Introduction
1:40 Colleen Anunu introducing the panel speakers
6:15 Kim Elena Ionescu on the SCA’s response to the coffee price crisis
23:30 Juan Esteban Orduz of the Colombian Coffee Federation on the response he received when asking coffee chain actors for help addressing the coffee price crisis
32:15 Ben Zwerling Baltrushes on how Fair Trade USA is trying to address coffee price crisis
35:50 Audience questions
1:03:30 Outro