Global coffee supply chains entered the COVID-19 pandemic during another long-standing coffee price crisis. Moreover, there are reasons to believe that the pandemic exacerbates existing challenges while creating new ones, perhaps more so for producers who invested away from commodity grade coffee into more lucrative specialty markets. Given these precarious conditions, it is imperative that industry stakeholders consider market actions and interventions that support an equitable and sustainable ‘new normal’ for specialty coffee producers. Optimizing these efforts requires a clear understanding of how the pandemic influenced contracted volumes and prices for green specialty coffees harvested and sold during the 2019/20 harvest season.
This report leverages detailed contract data from the Specialty Coffee Transaction Guide plus insights from several focus groups with experienced industry professionals to track specific market changes as the specialty coffee sector dealt with the immediate effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Among other things, the data show that the pandemic had a negative overall effect on specialty coffee sales and a dramatic effect on the composition of those sales.
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