Coffee News Roundup: Week Ending January 14th

A hand holds a coffee cup with latte art, resting on a folded newspaper. Via Pixabay.

Welcome to a surprisingly short Coffee News Roundup. Not a lot of coffee-based news around this week, but let’s take a look at what’s out there.

Union Wins Election At A Second Buffalo-area Starbucks. - via New York Times

After several weeks of deliberation, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has certified the results of a second Starbucks union vote in Buffalo, New York.

The company had challenged the results, claiming that several ballots belonged to employees who didn’t work at the store, but in the end the NLRB sided with the workers—although Starbucks has the opportunity to appeal.

Having two unionized stores in one city could benefit the union, according to the New York Times, with the ability to increase pressure on the company during contract negotiations.

Meanwhile, organizing continued with five stores in five different states filing for union elections over the past week.

Read the full story here.

Brazil-Based Farmly Launches Online Platform For Green Coffee Sales - via Daily Coffee News

Getting coffee from the farm where it’s grown to the roastery where it’s packaged for sale to customers is, as we all know by now, a tricky proposition. Long distances, logistics, and the presence of middlemen can make it even trickier.

That’s where Farmly comes in (in theory, anyway). A newly-launched online platform for green coffee, based in Brazil, Farmly claims to connect producers directly to buyers without any of the usual folderol that goes with coffee buying.

The company will also help with the logistics side of the purchase. “Transactions can range from as little as a single bag of green coffee up to entire lots,” says Daily Coffee News, “with Farmly also offering quality control measures throughout the delivery, according to the company.”

Farmly Co-Founder and Chairman Adriano Salvi says that the process “can potentially result in increased earnings for producers as well as savings for buyers.” Farmly takes 15-20% of the purchase price on each transaction.

The company, founded in Brazil in 2019 and which recently expanded to Colombia, has gone through two undisclosed investment rounds and plans to launch a fintech division to offer financial services to producers.

Read the full story here.

Coffee Prices End 2021 On Decade-long High - via Global Coffee Report

The article linked here is mostly statistics, but basically: the International Coffee Organization’s (ICO) composite indicator price reached a decade-long high in December 2021, with average prices not seen since September 2011.

This marks a 75% increase in 2021 alone, with the composite price rising almost a dollar from January to December.

The ICO says that exports in November 2021 were down 12% on 2020 (21% for arabica). However this was mostly driven by Brazil, whereas other regions actually increased their export rate. As the report states, “Continued difficulties with logistics, especially the availability of shipping containers, and reduced supply from farmers are the two main reasons behind the drop.”

Whether these continued logistical and supply issues continue into 2022 remains to be seen, but in December the US Department of Agriculture forecast a drop of 8.5 million bags worldwide, again mostly due to expected lower yields in Brazil.

Read the full story here.

More Headlines

The Queer Coffee Conference Is Coming To San Francisco

Morning Bell Coffee Becomes Iowa’s First Worker-Owned Cooperative

Italy: Unvaccinated People Banned From Public Transport, Coffee Shops And Gyms

Build An Empire Fuelled By Coffee In The Espresso Tycoon Demo

The Week In Coffee Unionizing

Workers at Colectivo Coffee are continuing to pressure the company to recognize and bargain with their union, more than six months after their successful vote.

A petition with over 2,200 signatures was delivered during a rally outside the company’s Milwaukee headquarters, “asking them to sit down at the bargaining table with their employees." Management has been stalling on beginning the process, citing appeals before the NLRB.

"The Colectivo Collective won their election in August of last year,” said Pam Fendt, president of the Milwaukee Area Labor Council. ”It is a very bad response from management that they still have not started the bargaining process. Colectivo management has been filing appeals to the NLRB that have no merit. It is clear they are only seeking to stall the certification process. Their employees have spoken."

Is Coffee Good For You?

This section was going to contain news about how excessive coffee consumption may lower your body’s ability to absorb vitamin D, but then after some more digging it turns out that the study was WITHDRAWN for some reason.

It probably wasn’t a good idea to rely on belmarrahealth.com for this story, but coffee health news was thin on the ground this week.

Oh here, have an article from Sprudge about why your pee might smell like coffee.