A new smart phone app could help warn coffee farmers in Costa Rica about an impending outbreak of the fungus roya, or other pests. Developed by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Satcafe crowdsources information from farmers across Central America to help avoid another region-wide coffee plague.
North Americans' taste in coffee might be getting more high-end – with a growing fixation on perfectly roasted beans, pricier caffeinated concoctions, and artisan coffee brewers – but it turns out a surprisingly big part of the world is going in the opposite direction: towards instant coffee.
The breakaway favorite of Costa Rica’s 2014 Cup of Excellence competition took home the highest bid in the Alliance for Coffee Excellence international auction Tuesday, netting over $60,000.
The Costa Rican Coffee Institute (ICAFÉ) on Tuesday said current estimates indicate the 2014-2015 coffee harvest will be better than the previous season, due mostly to the implementation of better agricultural practices and actions to control rust fungus.
Central American countries have spent years battling the crippling coffee fungus known as roya or leaf rust. Now the U.S. Agency for International Development has decided to get involved in fighting the epidemic.
The anticipation was palpable Friday night as a room of producers from across Costa Rica met at the Costa Rican Coffee Institute’s field office in San Pedro de Barva, Heredia, to hear who would win the honor of the best coffee in a country renowned for its high quality beans.
A plan developed jointly by four government agencies along with the Inter-American Development Bank will implement a series of measures for 36 months to grow coffee more efficiently and with less impact on the atmosphere. The measures also could help bring more profits.
NEW YORK – Coffee futures rose to a 25-month high as concerns mounted that the global market will swing to a deficit after a drought in the first quarter ravaged crops in Brazil, the world's biggest producer and exporter.
"If you fake being a foreigner who doesn't speak Spanish," says the fair skinned Caraqueño, "you can simply pretend not to comprehend why exactly they won't let you buy the goods. You just maintain a blank expression, holding out cash in your hand, and doing your best to sound indignant and perplexed in broken, idiot Spanish.
What was once novel – the warm décor, the gentle music, the faux-Italian lingo – has become banal. Today's coffee snobs would rather snort Sanka than set foot inside a Starbucks.
