Opportunities Ahead – 25 Magazine, Issue 11

There’s no doubt that, as 2019 comes to a close, our community’s conversations have been dominated by the Coffee Price Crisis.

As we prepare to release the results of the SCA Price Crisis Response (PCR) Initiative’s work, it’s clear that managing this crisis – and moving it into a recovery stage – is going to take years of effort, collaboration, and intervention. Hearteningly, we also see a number of short-term actions our industry can start to take as we look towards a more long-term set of solutions to the crisis.

We open this issue with a look at ongoing research that will help us to achieve one of these actions, amplifying the living income movement. In Spotlight, economists Steve Boucher, Andrea Estrella, and Christoph Saenger share results of a study that could help the coffee sector benchmark global production costs and farmer profitability.

Building on this theme in the Origin section, Jonas Leme Ferraresso shares the story of one region’s small and medium producers in Brazil creating new avenues for more equitable value distribution.

In fact, much of this issue is about paradigm-shifting work happening across our industry. In Research, scientists at the UC Davis Coffee Center explore another exciting facet of their ongoing research project with Breville: How do you maximize the natural sweetness in black coffee? Meanwhile, across Insight and Sustainability, Joanna Furgiuele and Kim Elena Ionescu push us to rethink our answers to questions like, “Why are young people leaving coffee?” and “How does the coffee value chain work?”

There are so many exciting opportunities to drive change in the coming year – and this issue shares only a fraction of those yet to come!

Jenn Rugolo
Editor, 25 Magazine