We think it’s important to keep you informed on the Coronavirus' effects on La Minita’s coffee suppliers and their operations as coffee supply and pricing may be affected as we move further into the year. Here is an update from the end of April, 2020. We will continue to provide news from origin as we receive it.
COSTA RICA
On March 4th we closed our farms and mills in Costa Rica to any foreign visitors – doing so on the early side helped keep La Minita employees safe and we have had no incidences of Coronavirus at our Costa Rican operations. We have applied distancing policies and increased hygiene controls. Most of our export office staff in San Jose are working from home. The exception is our quality control team who is still roasting and cupping. They are implementing modified cupping protocols by arming multiple sample sets so there is only one cupper per round.
On the mill side, our mills in Tarrazú and Rio Negro are still operating regularly. One change we had to make was in the hand sorting room for La Minita Estate coffee. We extended the hours of the working day and broke up the staff into two shifts so only 25 sorters are working at a time instead of the normal 50. The impact of this is that the sorters are working six hours a day instead of eight so we are helping them access a special government Coronavirus subsidy to supplement their income for the rest of the season.
Coffee exports are still flowing as usual. The only snafus have been with our shipping lines as they change dates and routes to accommodate changing international shipping needs but we’re still getting all our coffee on the water one way or another. A positive note to end on is that our farm Hacienda Rio Negro in the south had an excellent flowering during Easter week and we anticipate a great 20/21 crop.
COLOMBIA
See the update from our Jardin mill in our report here. Additionally, Vivian Vasquez , who works for our mill, sent this letter she wrote for La Minita’s customers:
Dear all,
I hope this message finds you well. Here in Colombia we are well considering the circumstances. Our country policies were to lockdown quite early therefore our levels of infected people are still low (6,000 people in total) and our levels of deceased also (250 people). We have been indoors since March 20th, so far, the most affected place is Bogota with about 45% of the country total affected people. It is such a big city with population close to 9 million people! In rural areas, coffee growing areas, there are still no people infected, as far as I know. Medellin has managed to organize their lockdown very well (no wonder!), and all transportation services, medical services, and companies have a technology development with BIG DATA that closely follows up all population and allowed or not, their movement around the city according to their ID numbers and their history of infection. Only 3 people have passed away in Medellin.
Senior citizens like my father are to follow quarantine for longer than anybody else, until the end of May at least. He is not happy and wants to go back to his office as soon as possible... anyway, we have to try to keep calm and drink coffee! The coffee crop is starting in some areas. Coffee buyers, mills and exporters can work every day - the food industry did not go into lockdown. Anyway, all buying stations and mills have to follow rigorous policies. Office work is done from home. I hope all of you are doing well and are keeping families and colleagues safe! Take good care of your selves!
Vivian
KENYA
Since February Kenya has been dealing with multiple issues that range from crop-devastating locust swarms, to low coffee volume, to poor cup quality due to late rains and the impact of Covid-19 on coffee farmers and the supply chain.
On March 19th, Kenya placed stay at home orders with very limited exclusions. No travel is allowed in or out of Nairobi until further notice. In the city they are requiring everyone have a face mask on when they leave their houses to run errands. A curfew has been implemented from 7 PM to 5 AM and violators of the curfew face imprisonment and large fines.
On the coffee front we have been in weekly communications with our partners at Taylor Winch in Nairobi. For the first time ever the Nairobi Coffee Exchange has begun to work via online platform after the auction hall was closed. The government deemed coffee a necessary industry and is working to implement safety measures to reduce exposure to the virus while reducing congestion in the coffee supply.
Taylor Winch’s mill on the outskirts of Nairobi is operating with a skeleton crew and adjusted schedule to minimize close contact within the building. Luckily all the main crop coffees were delivered to the mill before March 19th, so inbound logistics didn’t have any delays. For outbound shipments there are starting to be minimal delays in ocean freight. The shipping lines have been adjusting their schedules and reduced bookings have made space on vessels very tight causing containers to be delayed and sit at port.
With outbound shipping tight and higher market pricing for the new crop, spot Kenyas in the USA are a good value right now. While the new crop coffees might land a little later, the quality we have selected this year is outstanding and look forward to sharing these lots with you in June.
PERU
Peru has been under quarantine and curfew hours since March 16. The government decided to limit citizens’ movement early on in the outbreak and this helped limit the spread Covid-19 in the rural coffee-producing areas. Something unique to Peru are its rondas campesinas - rural community patrols. These are groups of locals who police the roads in and out of a town. Finca Churupampa reports that their local ronda in Chirinos only lets food deliveries and local Chirinos residents pass through the roadblocks into the town. At Finca Churupampa, they are working half days and have just started to receive the very first coffee of the 2020 campaign. This region of Cajamarca would normally have pickers coming from Piura to the west, but since regional travel is prohibited, neighbors have been helping each other out to pick up the slack.
The central valley is entering their peak harvest and they have also been challenged with finding farm laborers. Coffee exports are flowing, but at a slower pace as dry mills operate under the curfew hours.
EL SALVADOR
Our good friend and longtime supplier Carmen Elena Silva from Sicafe gave us her update. Carmen and her husband Rafael are healthy but are taking advanced hygiene measures to keep themselves safe. Rafael’s son is overseeing their mill, which follows all the sanitation requirements like personal protective equipment, masks, shoe cleaning, and hand sanitizer. There haven’t been any Coronavirus cases in Apaneca where the mill is located. Some of Sicafe’s employees are over 60 years old so they have been sent home to keep them safe but luckily, Sicafe continues paying their salaries. Even though it is export season in El Salvador and the coffee trade is permitted without restrictions, the industry has still slowed down. Part of this is delays with shipping lines, as we hear in many countries.
NICARAGUA
In Nicaragua, the Miersch family reports that their staff are in good health. There hasn’t been much of a government response to the crisis but a lot of Nicaraguans have taken it upon themselves to stay at home and take additional precautions. The Miersch staff are working from home if possible. Their harvest was already finished when the crisis hit so they have just been doing their farm labors as usual - pruning, grafting, farm maintenance. At the dry mill, they work in reduced shifts so employees can practice social distancing. They implemented the new SCA cupping protocol to keep cuppers safe.
One cool thing they are working on is a grafting of the Ethiosar variety at their Los Placeres farm.
Grafted Ethiosar seedlings at Los Placeres farm in Nicaragua
BRAZIL
For the time being, everything is progressing on the farm level as most farms are preparing for the harvest to start. Mills are operating normally as is in-country transport. Suppliers are seeing more problems and delays in getting shipping containers due to the decline in global trade. Expect more on this as Brazil’s harvest progresses.
GUATEMALA
Because the government made the call to shut down the country early on, there are not too many cases of Covid-19 in the countryside. It is thought that shutting down public transportation, while a severe measure, helped prevent spread. There is a curfew in place from 4 PM to 6 AM that limits working hours but our partners have still been operating. Our partner Beneficio Seco Las Cruces has been taking extra precautionary measures like taking temperatures at entry and exit of the mill and enforced use of masks by anyone inside the mill. Luckily the crop was mostly over when the virus hit so at the harvest level there was not a great effect. Coffee is still being transported and they see no foreseeable delays in getting it to port.