Category Archives: The Economist

How African cocoa-growers are moving upstream into chocolate

April 4th 2007

FUN though it is to pretend that a magic bunny provided the chocolate in your Easter basket, it is much more likely to have been grown by smallholders in West Africa, the region that produces 70% of the world’s cocoa. The crop is an important source of income for many countries—the largest producer, Côte d’Ivoire, earns over 20% of its export revenues from cocoa. But although global sales of chocolate amount to some $75 billion a year, growers capture only a tiny fraction of this: around $4 billion a year from the sale of cocoa beans.

Read it on The Economist’s site…

A competition promotes trade in coffee based on quality, not just quantity

Jan 25th 2007 | VIÇOSA

ONE morning last month in an airy hall at the Federal University of Viçosa, Brazil, the only sound to be heard was a chorus of zestfully inelegant slurping. Twenty-four black-aproned judges were wielding their distinctive tasting spoons at the Cup of Excellence competition, searching for the country’s best coffee.

“My objective is to differentiate coffee,” says Susie Spindler, who started the competition in 1999 and now conducts it in seven Latin American countries. The competition is open to any grower in each country, tasting and scoring is systematic and blind, and the winning beans are sold worldwide in an online auction. By focusing on quality and transparency, Ms Spindler has not just ferreted out sublime coffees from some unexpected sources, but has connected the best growers to buyers who are prepared to pay for quality.

Read it on The Economist’s site…