Hopefully this thread will not be just another- 'hey, lets attack the points being put forth', and more a- 'what are we, as a coffee industry, going to do about this problem?' It would be difficult not to see these arguments about the topic as naive or just plain ignorant of the situation. It is a well known fact among roasters buying green beans on the market, that Starbucks buys the best beans in the world. Roasters who do not know this, or accept this fact, have their heads in the sand and will suffer when the situation put forth in my first post comes to a head in five years. Yes, of course we all know they roast their beans extremely dark- hence the "Charbucks" comments. That is an easy fact to accept, because it means we can beat them on this front- so there is nothing to be worried about. It is difficult to face the fact that they do buy the best beans- helps with consistency, as does the dark roasting. A prime example of a missing high quality coffe- has anyone seen any Blue Batak Sumatran lately? If so, I would pay $15.00 per Kg green for that! We have been searching for months for another Sumatran of such high quality, but there is none available in Australia. The Sumatran we are stuck with is secondary quality. How many more quality coffees will become unavailable? Starbucks buys major percentages, or all, of these major estates. They insist on paying more per Kg than advertised. They insist of seeing this extra money goes towards schools, roads etc to improve the lives of those picking, and loabouring. -purely a manouvre to escape any finger pointing in their direction by activists against major corporations forcing slave labour. Starbucks is helping these economies. They are also insisting on multi-year contracts, locking supply to come- with their growth factored into these future contracts. Anyone can do the research on Starbucks. The question remains- how is this going to effect our industry, and what can happen to ensure we can continue to see the high quality beans coming this way?
