A Costa Rican coffee adventure.

"Embracing a Common Goal: Increasing Coffee Consumption" was the theme of Sintercafe XVII in San Jose, Costa Rica, which mok place November 15-19, 2003. Since 1987, Sintercafe, a private, nonprofit Costa Rican organization, has hosted seminars and workshops for producers and consumers from around

This past year, 500 attendees and around 40 exhibitors gathered information and exchanged ideas on Costa Rican coffee and the industry in general, often relating to the show's theme--how can all facets of the industry work together increase consumption and counteract the coffee crisis? Top professionals from around the world--growers, coop officials, importers, exporters, roasters, traders, NGO and government organization members and many more met with this common goal in mind as they did business, touched base with contacts, and met new ones. The occasion was one for many where they finally were able to meet face-to-face with business partners they only know by voice or e-mail.

"I attend this special event because it is an excellent opportunity to meet with some of our customers and coffee suppliers in a relaxed atmosphere," says Felipe Isaza of Coffee-Resources, a coffee trading company based in the U.S. "If is also a great setting for exchanging ideas with producers, exporters, importers, roasters and coffee traders from all over the world; therefore developing new contacts in the coffee trade and strengthening relationships with existing customers and suppliers." Like many others at the show, he made good use of the time in Costa Rica: "During every Sintercafe meeting I travel around the country, visiting different producers, mills, and coffee areas. Usually we can obtain first-hand information on the actual status of the Costa Rican crop, the problems involved in production, processing, and quality control. It is always an enriching experience."

After fun activities by the beach, which included lively golf, fishing and tennis tournaments, this year's Sintercafe began with a welcoming cocktail party. Coffee professionals from producing and consuming countries across the globe mixed and mingled at the celebration, held in honor of this year's Guest Producer Country: India. The festive night was complete with Indian cuisine, decor, music and entertainment.

The next morning, Rodolfo Couto, Costa Rica's Minister of Agriculture, inaugurated the year's event' and Xinia Chaves, president of Sintercafe delivered a welcome address. Lakshmi Venkatachalam, chairperson of the Coffee Board of India, also delivered a speech, after which a beautiful film on Indian coffee called "Coffee Karma" was screened, which generated much delighted buzz throughout the show.

Kicking off the working sessions was the keynote address by Dub Hay, senior vice-president, Coffee, Starbucks Coffee Intl. Inc., entitled "Our Challenge in Penetrating International Markets Encountering and Overcoming Difficulties in Opening New Markets, A Global Strategy," in which Hay discussed Starbucks' strategies in choosing markets. The Camara de Exportadores de Cafe de Costa Rica / Asociacion Camara Nacional de Procesadores y Tostadores de Cafe then presented "Costa Rican Coffee--Evolution of the Coffee Culture in Costa Rica," a comprehensive history of Costa Rica and its coffee industry. Other seminars held included "Research on the Positive Effects of Coffee in Regards to: Cancer, Depression, Sex, Memory, etc." by Ricardo Avellaneda of Viva Cafe Forcer; "History of Japanese Success: How a Coffee Company in Japan Triumphs in Today's Market" by Masarou Ueshima, general manager production and purchase division, UCC; and "Dunkin Donuts: Quality and Relationships: Great Coffee is Great Business" by Spencer Turer, coffee technologist, Dunkin Donuts. A lively panel discussion was held called "How Should Global Consumption of Coffee Be Increased--Through Speciality or Mainstream Coffees?" with moderator: Eric Nadelberg and participants, Nestor Osorio, (ICO) International Coffee Organization; Ted Lingle, (SCAA) Specialty Coffee Association of America; Sandy McAlpine, Coffee Association of Canada; Robert Nelson, (NCA) National Coffee Association U.S.A; Rod Vaessen, European Coffee Association and Hidetaca Hayashi, Hayashi Institute, Japan.

One very-well-attended session was entitled, "What are Roasters Doing for the Coffee Communites?" This was also a prevailing topic of conversations throughout the conference: growers need help, beyond the help of government and non-government organizations. Many noted that roasters need to get involved as much as possible in the industry that feeds them--if they want quality coffee to exist for their business in the future. Richard Clemont, Van Houtte, Canada and Marc Schonland, Starbucks Coffee Trading, Switzerland spoke at the session. Clemont spoke about Van Houtte's commitment to sustainability. One of the Van Houtte's programs mentioned has, since 1998, collected money for Coffee Kids with each pound sold of their line of coffee, Cafe Mundo, totaling $135,000 and providing exposure for the program to North America. "It gets consumers involved," he said. During his talk, Schonland emphasized: "It isn't a time for finger pointing, it isn't a time for blame--it's time for action." He emphasized that Starbucks' "brand building" creates exclusivity and the marketing of single estate coffees is "giving the producer the recognition." Someone in the audience asked if Starbucks would ever participate in auctions like the Cup of Excellence. His response was that 'Auctions are a price discovery mechanism, not quality discovery--an auction might fall short in that area."

Schonland also spoke about Starbucks' opening of an agronomy office in Costa Rica, (which opened in January 2004) and its focus on quality, sustainability, transparency and social issues--teaching producers to produce higher quality coffee. The Starbucks Coffee Agronomy Company will staff a team of experts in San Jose to monitor the quality and supply of top beans from Central America. The agronomy office will work directly with farmers to implement coffee farming methods that sustain quality and guarantee viable prices for growers. It will be based in Costa Rica but agronomists will also be working in the field in Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

Arnoldo Leiva, vice president of the Specialty Coffee Association of Costa Rica (SCACR) says that today, more than ever, he sees roasters becoming involved. "I see roasters are demanding higher quality, and are willing to pay a premium. This year I see more roasters at the show--and this is a good sign! Roasters are getting closer to origin--they want direct relationships and transparency. We see them more often, coming here and trying to understand--and this too is a great opportunity for the producers to get to know the final buyer. The producer starts to understand what social and environmental factors are important to think about." He continues: "What is being set up is a long term, healthy relationship between grower and buyer--where extra cents per pound are set up to help schools and the community. The same is happening in Guatemala and Nicaragua--they are making a strong effort to be specialty and this is getting attention." Like many others attending the show, Leiva gave Starbucks credit for leading the consuming world in the direction of concern with origin and quality of coffee: "Starbucks set a trend, a benchmark. Roasters in the U.S. are now following their lead--they are becoming concerned with availability of the product in the future, and this is a reason why they come to origin--to secure supply. With our high cost of production our only hope is to stick to quality. We just can't compete with Mexico and Brazil otherwise."

The bustling exhibition floor was filled with exhibitors from Central American Countries promoting their coffee: Cafe De El Salvador, Cafes de Nicaragua, Cafes de Honduras and of course, Cafes de Costa Rica, along with Colombian Coffee Group, and the Eastern African Fine Coffee Association, promoting their own conference in Kenya. Henry Hueck Castillo of Ramacafe and vice president of the Specialty Coffee Association of Nicaragua says presence at Sintercafe is important for their new marketing campaign. "I went to promote Cafes de Nicaragua 'The Essence of our People'..., a campaign that we launched in June of last year with the help of the USAID." Other exhibitors ran the gamut, from coffee information services and equipment manufacturers, to sustainability certification organizations, to government and programs. Among them were Coffee Network, CECA S.A., Eximware, Utz Kapeh, Fair Trade Certified, Coffee Quality Institute, Delta Technology, SCAA, NCA, Sybex, Sortex and Xeltron.

Sintercafe was the perfect occasion for some noteworthy special events. A Cupping Competition was held to determine the best coffees in Costa Rica, and the best estates--as well as a friendly competition to determine the world's best cuppers. Show attendees were then given the opportunity to taste these delicious coffees during a coffee break.

Sunalini Menon, formerly of Coffee Board of India and c.e.o, of Coffee Lab held a special "Women's Breakfast" meeting during which she gave a presentation called "Coffee: A Way of Life and the Bean of My Existence." Menon spoke at the well-attended meeting of women coffee professionals, tracing the ups and downs of her career in coffee. "It was wonderful to meet women from various countries, who have the same passion and love for coffee," says Menon. "At the end of my presentation, many of them came up to me to say that they could identify themselves in the many situations that I had narrated. They seemed to have similar encounters and experiences! It was wonderful to share my moments of frustration, challenges and success with women who have the same aspirations and goals. All of us were richer by the experience of just meeting one another."

The first-ever Barista Competition in Costa Rica was also held during the show. A barista who has also been a coffee grower won first place at the competition, run by Sherri Johns of Whole Cup Consulting.

Attendees were also able to visit the Anonos Mill, the Tres Volcanes Mill, enjoy an exhilarating Canopy Tour, or visit the famous Poas Volcano. Afterwards, they lunched on Costa Rican cuisine at the beautiful Hacienda Valle Del Sol. Andres Villalobos of CIMS, a sustainable coffee information service noted the need for these excursions: "Many producers and exporters are interested in the milling system, and also buyers always interested in visiting farms and learning from where the actual coffee grows. Although more and more buyers are visiting coffee plantations, still a large number have their first encounter with one at Sintercafe."

Nestle Nespresso, international producer of portioned espresso coffees, launched its "AAA" program at Sintercafe, showing the world that demand from consumers has led even large, traditional companies to commit to providing sustainable, quality coffee. The program, made up of a partnership with five major green coffee suppliers (including Ecom and Efico), was created to ensure the highest quality, traceability and assessment of sustainability on their "AAA" coffees. The program begins with coffees from Costa Rica but will move on to include other origins.

Back at the symposium, speakers gave their take on what can "save" the Costa Rican coffee industry. Steve Aronson, founder of Caffe Britt, the largest specialty coffee toaster in Costa Rica, spoke on "Consumption in Producing Countries." He noted that Brazil is the Number One producing country with 30-50 million bags, but is also the Number Two consuming country with 15 million bags, and that they have doubled their consumption in the past 12 years. He used the example that in France, 15% of wine is imported, so "why not export to Brazil?" Sergio Beczkowski of the Brazilian Coffee Industry Association (ABIC), also saw this as a solution. But, he cautioned, "You won't raise internal consumption with gourmet coffee--the average person cannot afford high quality coffee. Quality can improve, but for the time being, the bulk of coffee has to come from lower quality coffee. This is being realistic." He asserted, "What we are doing in Brazil to increase consumption: form a strong relationship between producer, toaster, and exporter so the whole chain has to optimize to give good prices to the producer so the population can afford the product."

While these and other strategies are being considered, quality and sustainability was the hottest topic at Sintercafe, as producers are seeing this as a marketing tool, and their only way to survive during these hard times. While Costa Rica has been known for its commitment to sustainability and quality already (it is against the law to grow Robusta coffee here), ever more farmers are trying to get that certification label, and to show the roaster that their coffees are worth a premium. Says Villalobos of CIMS, "Costa Rica has done a terrific job in establishing tight laws for coffee processing, demanding from mills to reduce their water contamination. All mills underwent a very expensive change in their processing, and many nowadays have oxidation lagoons to reduce water contamination before if actually goes into a river source. Less water in used in the process, and also the coffee 'honeys' are used as fertilizer. In some places the left-overs are used to fuel the ovens to dry the coffee. A 'sustainability' certification was also created in collaboration with the ICAFE and the Agriculture Secretary ... Also, organic, Fairtrade, and Rainforest Alliance have their share in the production, and every day more farmers are interested in obtaining these certifications. Although this might not mean immediate better prices, since in some places it is being spoken of a market saturation of these markets, nevertheless the industry in still interested in sustainable production."

Organizations are also trying to help with the marketing of this quality and sustainability with auctions like Cup of Excellence. A new "Q" contract is also being launched by Coffee Quality Institute's CADR Quality Coffee Program as an alternative price reference to the NY "C", particularly for specialty coffee. Gerardo Leo-York, alternative markets development manager of the program says, "We have developed a Quality Certificate certifying specific lots from each mill. CQI is launching the contract based on quality. It will help us to find market for specialty coffee that has not found one."

The convention came to a close with a Farewell Party in the theme of a Mardi Gras Masquerade, where everyone let loose and danced the night away, saying goodbye to yet another productive and fulfilling event.

Sintercafe Cupping Competition Winners

Cupping Competition:

1st: Monte Redondo RZ Tarrazu from Compania Continental 2nd: Monte Redondo RZ Tarrazu from La Meseta 3rd: Xalachi from Lomas al Rio

Estates Cupping Competition:

1st: Providencia Dota from Coopedota 2nd: Hermanos Barrantes from Cafetalera Herbazu 3rd: The Patalillo Estate from Cafetalera Patalillo

Cupper Competition:

1st: George Lewis, Coffee Link Intl. USA 2nd: Rafael Hernandez, Cafe Terruno Costa Rica 3rd: Alfredo Matamoros, Cafetalera Tournon Costa Rica

Sintercafe XVIII will be held November 6-10, 2004 in San Jose, Costa Rica. For more information, visit www.sintercafe.com