International Coffee Week Begins in Costa Rica

FOR the 18th consecutive year, CostaRica will host International Coffee Week(Sintercafé), one of the world’s mostimportant meetings of coffee producers,importers, exporters and consumers.Organizers say the future of specialtycoffees will be the main agenda item ofthis year’s meeting, which will take placein Hotel Herradura in San José Nov. 8-10.More than 500 businesses from 30countries are expected to participate inthe event. The president of the worldwidecoffee import leader NeumannGroup and the vice-president ofStarbucks are among the expected guests.Last year, Sintercafé participants discussedways to combat the global coffeecrisis by increasing demand using suchmethods as promoting coffee drinkingamong youth and including it in schoolmenus (TT, Nov. 21, 2003).