Starbucks buys 2 new farms to ensure coffee supply

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Recently, Starbucks announced that it will invest in a new farm in Costa Rica and Guatemala to protect its coffee supply chain from the severe impact of climate change and to further strengthen its global coffee supply system.

In recent years, the rising global temperature, severe frost in Brazil and other places, coupled with the frequent extreme weather brought by La Nina for three consecutive years, have caused great damage to coffee production and led to increasing supply pressure on the production chain. The rising temperature has brought problems such as drought and coffee leaf rust to the growers, which will not only affect the supply, quality and taste of coffee, but also endanger the livelihood of farmers.

Especially this year, it has become more urgent to strengthen the adaptability of the coffee industry chain to the climate, as the extreme drought in Brazil caused the price of raw Arabica beans to hit the highest level since 2011 in September. In the year to August, the consumer price of coffee has risen by 18% in the past five years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

For Starbucks, as a buyer of 3% of the world's coffee beans, the decline in coffee production not only means that the company urgently needs to find raw materials to replace, but may also lead to a rise in the price of subsequent products.

Roberto Vega, vice president of global coffee agronomy, R & D and sustainability at Starbucks, pointed out that up to 50 per cent of the company's sales have been affected by the frost in Brazil and its supply has been hit hard, and this extreme weather phenomenon is becoming more and more common in coffee growing belts. "if we do not strengthen the resilience of crops, coffee supply will continue to decline."

In the face of this serious challenge, Starbucks will focus on the growth performance of hybrid coffee varieties at different elevations and soil conditions at two newly invested farms. These hybrid varieties not only have higher yield, but also have strong resistance to diseases such as coffee leaf rust.

It is understood that as early as 2013, Starbucks bought its first self-owned coffee farm, Althacia Manor (Costa Rica Hacienda Alsacia), to study disease-resistant and climate-resistant coffee varieties. Located on the slope of Costa Rica's Poas Volcano, it covers an area of 2.4sq km and is now the headquarters of Starbucks' Global Center for Agricultural Innovation (global agronomy center).

The new farm in Costa Rica, located next to Hacienda Alsacia, plans to introduce mechanization, drones and other technologies to help solve the labor shortage challenges facing Latin American farmers, according to Starbucks' website. On another American farm, Starbucks is located in the Antigua Heights of Guatemala, and its operating model is very close to the most common small farmers there to learn more about soil and productivity recovery.

Starbucks also revealed that it will buy two more farms in Africa and Asia in the future and expand its agricultural portfolio to cover the entire coffee belt. Through the research and practice of the new farm, Starbucks hopes to cultivate coffee varieties that are more adaptable to climate change, higher yield and better quality, while helping farmers to improve production efficiency and reduce costs, so as to promote the sustainable development of agriculture.

Picture from: stories.starbucks

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