Every Friday, Perfect Daily Grind rounds up the top coffee industry news from the previous week. Here are this week’s stories.

• Monday, 31 May – Singapore Specialty Coffee (Micro-Lot) Auction 2021 to host ministerial and ambassador luncheon. Before the auction opens, 21 ambassadors and high commissioners will join Singapore’s Second Minister for Trade and Industry, Dr. Tan See Leng. In accordance with national Covid-19 restrictions, in-person attendees are now restricted to 100 people; the virtual auction will still go ahead.

• Monday, 31 May – Higher Grounds continues call for urgent support for Mount Nyiragongo volcano eruption in DRC. Through their sister non-profit On The Ground, over US $7,000 has been raised so far. The roaster has also supported the provision of food, soap, blankets, and other necessities to refugees.

• Monday, 31 May – Mercanta and Oritain partner to improve traceability across coffee supply chain. Using forensic data and statistics, Oritain can produce an “Origin Fingerprint” that can be tested to ensure validity and authenticity. Mercanta hopes the partnership will promote transparency throughout the industry.

• Monday, 31 May – Fairtrade Foundation awards climate-smart business grants to nine Ghanaian cocoa farming unions. Funding will be used to pilot systems where cocoa farmers can reduce the impact of climate change on their crop, as well increasing their income.

• Monday, 31 May – Research from Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory & Cognition finds that caffeine consumption doesn’t help to combat sleep deprivation. The researchers studied 275 sleep-deprived participants who were given either a 200mg caffeine tablet or a placebo. Lack of sleep had a negative impact on both group’s performances in completing tasks, and caffeine consumption only improved performance for basic tasks.

• Tuesday, 1 Jun – Sucafina to host 5k Fun Run for Girls Gotta Run foundation. The green coffee traders are hoping to raise US $8,000, and will match each donation to raise a total of US $16,000. Funds will be used to sponsor 16 girls in Ethiopia in attending school and life skills training. Participants can donate, download the Strava app, and walk or run 5k on June 24.

• Tuesday, 1 Jun – Melbourne International Coffee Expo tickets now available. Considered one of the biggest coffee events in the Asia Pacific, the expo is set to take place in-person on September 9 to 11. Covid-19 health and safety measures will be in place throughout the event.

• Tuesday, 1 Jun – Registration opens for 2021 Specialty Coffee Expo. The SCA event will take place in person on September 30 to October 3 in New Orleans, US. Early registration rates are available until August 19.

• Tuesday, 1 Jun – Albron set to acquire Coffeecompany from JDE Peet’s. Coffeecompany is a Dutch chain founded in 1996. It operates a roastery and 31 shops across the Netherlands. JDE Peet’s acquired the chain in 2011.

• Tuesday, 1 Jun – Dunkin’ releases Caramel Multi-Serve Iced Coffee. The 40oz. (1.1l) RTD beverage is available in grocery stores and large-scale retailers.

• Tuesday, 1 Jun – Pentair announces Social Responsibility Targets in 2020 Corporate Responsibility report. The water treatment company is aiming to be carbon neutral by 2050 and reduce water usage by 30% by 2030, among other initiatives.

• Wednesday, 2 Jun – Maverick Coffee Trading opens in Woerden, Netherlands. The green coffee trading company will focus on increasing market access for farmers, and will mainly work with medium-sized roasters to source coffee.

• Wednesday, 2 Jun – University of London publishes study on the “third place” concept. The study, entitled Consumer Work Practices and the Productive Third Place, identifies four types of third place environments, but argues coffee shops need to develop a better understanding of the value of the “customer-worker”.

• Wednesday, 2 Jun – Commercial coffee grinder market set to increase by US $5 million by 2025. It has a predicted CAGR of 2%, with growth mainly driven by energy efficiency.

• Wednesday, 2 Jun – Caffè Nero sales increased by 82% over last 13 weeks. After opening new sales channels through platforms like UberEats and Amazon, the coffee chain has increased sales exponentially.

• Wednesday, 2 Jun – The Barn Forest to plant 40,000 native trees in Brazil. In partnership with carbon-neutral coffee farm Daterra, the Berlin roasters will plant 25ha of trees over the next five years. With every online order, customers can donate €1.50 to the project, and The Barn will match each donation.

• Thursday, 3 Jun – Virtual World Coffee Producers Forum 2021 to be held on July 15. The third forum will be hosted in Rwanda, with an in-person event set to take place in 2022. The focus of this year’s event will be improving farmer incomes, and setting guidelines for the 2022 National Coffee Sustainability Plans. The forum will take place at 8:00AM EDT.

• Thursday, 3 Jun – Ally Coffee releases results of Montesanto Tavares Group’s sustainability study. The green coffee traders – along with Atlantica Coffee, Cafebras, and GMT Farms – collaborated to propose new sustainability actions for the coffee industry. High priority topics include value creation in the supply chain and increasing the use of certifications.

• Thursday, 3 Jun – The Good Coffee Company partners with Social Bite to donate to homelessness causes. The Glaswegian coffee company will donate around 10% of profits from its food and drink sales to Social Bite – an independent sandwich chain that aims to alleviate homelessness through funding and employment opportunities.

• Thursday, 3 Jun – Quality Espresso launches Q10 EVO Grinder. The new model is an upgrade on the Q10 model, including a Dose Consistency System that improves accuracy. The touchscreen interface and Espresso Link app allow users to easily set the preferred grinding parameters.

• Thursday, 3 Jun – European Speciality Tea Association appoints two new directors. Ajit Madan helped to establish Camellia’s Tea House in the UK, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and South Korea. Joyce Maina founded the Cambridge Tea Consultancy in 2019, specialising in advisory services, education programmes, communications, and strategy building.

• Thursday, 3 Jun – UK Coffee Leader Summit 2021 announces speakers. The line-up includes Jeffrey Young (CEO of World Coffee Portal), Paul Ettinger (Development Director of Caffè Nero), and Abigail Forsyth (co-founder and CEO of KeepCup). The virtual event will take place June 9 & 10, with 1:1 networking sessions available.

• Thursday, 3 Jun – New Zealand local council encourages use of Again Again reusable cup scheme. To mark the country’s Plastic Free July campaign, Hastings District Council is encouraging local cafés to adopt the scheme.

• Thursday, 3 Jun – Starbucks to offer reusable cup schemes in all EMEA stores by 2025. Initial trials will begin in the UK, Germany, and France over the next few months, before the coffee chain expands the Cup-Share programme across 43 countries. The scheme is part of Starbucks’ aim to reduce waste by 50% by 2030.

• Thursday, 3 Jun – SCA to discuss findings of National Coffee Data Trends Specialty Coffee Report on Instagram Live. Yannis Apostolopoulos, Peter Giuliano, and Katie von der Lieth will lead the discussion, with a Q&A session afterwards. The Instagram Live session will take place on June 8 at 11:30AM PDT.

• Friday, 4 Jun – Fairtrade announces findings of Climate Academy Project in East Africa. The project mainly focused on reducing the carbon footprint of coffee production and helping farmers adapt to the impact of climate change. Farmers in Kenya are now growing 20% more shade-grown coffee, which helps to protect the plants from increasing temperatures.

• Friday, 4 Jun – Savorworksroasters launches bean-to-bar chocolate. The roasters are the first Indian coffee company to sell own-brand bean-to-bar chocolate. Flavours in the range include Banoffee, Piña Colada, Odyssey, Honey, I’m Nuts, and Gin & Tonic.

• Friday, 4 Jun – First CAFÉ Virtual Business Roundtable to be held on June 22. The event is organised by Sierra y Selva Exportadora, Rikolto, and Peru’s Ministry of Agricultural Development and Irrigation. The panel will discuss how the Peruvian coffee supply chain can recover after Covid-19. Attendance is free, but bidders must register before June 7.

Here are a few news stories from previous weeks that you might find interesting. Take a look.

• Tuesday, 25 May – Muuse reusable cup scheme launches in Toronto. The initiative started in Bali and Singapore, before expanding into Hong Kong and Jakarta. The reusable cups include QR codes that allows users to return them to participating cafés or designated return stations.

• Wednesday, 26 May – DRWakefield announces schedule and speakers for Full Circle 2021. On June 9 & 10, the green coffee trader will host the virtual event – exploring topics including coffee’s carbon footprint, B Corp status, and gender equity in the coffee supply chain. Speakers will include Henry Clifford, Senior Trader at DRWakefield, and Dr. Aaron Davis, Senior Research Leader at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

• Wednesday, 26 May – EU votes against plant-based censorship legislation Amendment 171. Despite initial support for the amendment – which would not allow plant-based companies to use language associated with dairy on packaging and labelling – the European Parliament voted against the proposal. Petitions to reject the bill amassed 456,000 signatures between them.

• Wednesday, 26 May – Tanzanian government sets out plans to increase country’s coffee production using hybrid seeds. The Minister for Agriculture announced a goal of producing over 70,000 tonnes for the 2021/22 harvest. The Tanzanian Coffee Board are set to distribute 20 million hybrid seeds across 30 coffee-growing regions.

• Friday, 28 May – Oatly valued at US $13 billion following IPO. Previous valuations were around US $10 billion, but the company’s share price has increased by 30% since it went public.

• Friday, 28 May – Barista Guild releases results of Livelihoods in Coffee: Exploratory Survey. The survey was used to assess the living wage standards of coffee workers paid by the hour. Around 40% of the 103 respondents considered their salaries to be “a living wage”, but 76.5% of people surveyed said a living wage requires more than a fair salary – including benefits like time off and family leave.

• Sunday, 30 May – Climate change predicted to cause Kenya’s tea production to fall by 25% to 40% by 2050. UK charity Christian Aid released the report, claiming tea plants in the country will die as temperatures close on 23.5°C. Kenya grows around half of the UK’s tea.

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