Is organic coffee a publicity stunt or a guarantee? Does organic coffee taste better?

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Organic coffee requires growers to adopt conservation practices that have a minimal impact on the environment. Organic production system pays attention to maintaining soil fertility, avoiding soil erosion and creating a healthy ecological environment.

Many organic growers see it as a way of life. However, although high-quality coffee can be harvested, growers have not been rewarded for their labor due to the labour-intensive nature of production, the high cost of organic farming and the difficulty of increasing prices.

Organic farming is sometimes forced by economic difficulties

Only farms certified by a qualified inspection agency can be called organic farms. Organic farms cannot use chemical fertilizers, but only organic fertilizers, such as animal manure, coffee fruit pulp or mixed fertilizers; pesticides, fungicides and rust removers cannot be used to control plant leaf rust. Instead,"integrated pest management methods" should be adopted to improve the immunity of farms to pests and diseases through reasonable fertilization, pruning branches and leaves, and creating a healthy ecological environment.

If the farm is unlucky enough to be infested with pests, it will be difficult to eradicate them in the short term. Organic coffee growers also plant shade trees (which help form a natural ecosystem), weed by hand, and maintain soil fertility with organic nutrients. So growing organic coffee requires a complex strategy.

Small-scale growers mostly do not apply pesticides to trees. In 2011, we surveyed 90 Guatemala farmers about their pesticide use, and only 3 percent said they used pesticides. Most farmers grow their crops organically because they cannot afford to invest more in their farms.

These conditions are not ideal for growers, and while not using fertilizers and pesticides can save costs, the yield and quality of coffee will also decline. Investing in fertilizer (organic or non-organic) is worth it because it increases yields, but in some extremely poor countries it can be hard for growers to make up their minds to invest money in order to harvest a few months later.

The reason our suppliers adopt organic farming systems is that they are inspired by organic farming concepts and feel responsible for the environment, land, trees and biodiversity of their farms. They tell us that organic farming is a way of life, and they are willing to take responsibility for protecting nature.

More expensive to grow, but not necessarily better quality

If organic means expensive chemicals cannot be used, is organic farming cheaper than traditional farming methods? Almost all growers will answer that organic farming is more expensive. Colombia's National Coffee Research Center, a world leader in coffee research, reported that 12 kilograms of fermented coffee fruit pulp is equivalent to 150 grams of fertilizer, enough to meet the annual consumption of one coffee tree. Multiply this by 4000, or the number of coffee trees planted on one hectare, and you get 47400 kilograms of organic fertilizer. That much fertilizer needs to be transported, moved, and applied to each tree, and the extra transportation and labor costs extra.

Growers also say organic farming is labour-intensive. If one hectare of land is weeded with herbicide, it can be done in one day by a worker carrying a sprayer, and it takes 4 to 6 weeks to weed the same area by hand. Wages in some coffee-growing countries are low, as little as $5 a day, while in countries such as Brazil wages can reach $60 a day. So, for the most part, organic farming is much more expensive than traditional farming.

In addition, organic certification costs $3,000 to $4,000 a year. Some of the growers we work with are fully qualified for organic farming, but choose not to be certified, partly or largely because of cost considerations.

Source: Coffee everywhere.

By Jeremy Totts and Steven Makadonia

Translated by: White

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