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Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Special Reports

Made in Guatemala: Starbucks Coffee

Guatemala is the top coffee provider to Starbucks and the world's fifth-largest coffee exporter.

Guatemala coffee bags sold through Starbucks (above) and a Guatemalan coffee worrker (top). (Photos: Anacafe and Starbucks)

BY CHRONICLE STAFF

When you buy a tall coffee at Starbucks these days chances are you are drinking coffee from Guatemala. The Central American country is the top provider of coffee to the U.S. coffee chain, Starbucks spokesman Andy Fouche says.

Starbucks last year bought 73 percent of its coffee in Latin America. Apart from Guatemala, Starbucks buys coffee from Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama and Peru.

The company's second-largest provider of coffee is Costa Rica, followed by Indonesia and Colombia. Starbucks also buys coffee from various African countries, including Kenya.

Fouce declined to give details on the value of the coffee bought. "We...do not release numbers on total number by region or dollar figures," he says.

Last year, Guatemala exported coffee worth a total of $463.5 million last year, virtually unchanged from 2005, according to the country's central bank. Coffee is the second-largest export product after textiles.

EXPORT INCREASE

During the last coffee season, Guatemala exported a total of 3.35 million 60-kilo bags, a 2.8 percent decline from the 2004/05 season, according to the Guatemalan coffee federation Anacafe. This season, though, exports should reach 3.60 million, the federation estimates. The value should remain flat again, though, and reach $463.4 million, Anacafe says.

The United States is by far the top destination, accounting for nearly half of the exports in the 2005/06 season. Other leading markets include Japan, Germany and Canada.

Guatemala is now the world's fifth-largest coffee exporter, according to International Coffee Organisation data for the first eight months of the 2006/07 season. Brazil is the top coffee producer worldwide followed by Vietnam, Indonesia and Colombia, OIC data shows.

Guatemala exported 2.8 million 60-kilo bags in the period October 2006 to June this year, a 10.8 percent increase from the same period last year, Anacafe reports.

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From: miguel

I think it is sad that having exported over 400 million dollars in coffee, the people picking the product every day in Guatemala still sleep on the floor a lot of the time, their children barely go to school, and rarely do they have any kind of health coverage or appropriate meals. I don't know how the people making millions with these big coffee importers manage to sleep at night. And day in and day out we go about our lives, buying coffee at about 3 dollars a cup, which is only a little less than the coffee pickers make in a day. There is something wrong with this world when we stop caring about others to live lives of excess.

From: Antonio

Guatemala

Thanks, Miguel. It is good to know that you worry about our coffe farmers, but the real number is that the whole family (sometimes 5 people) live on less than two dollars a day. The reduced sales refered to in this article was because the fall in prices. But still, it is good to know that someone enjoys our products, so the Panamian people won't boast anymore about their coffee being better than ours.

From: JG

Puerto Rico

Did you know that a pound of coffee produce 65 cups. As a result, if Starbucks is paying the farmer $1.20 per pound, the farmer is getting two cents per cup. With a retail price of over $2.50 per cup, Starbucks should be ashamed of their business. As Miguel said, the poverty in those countries is stagerring.......

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