on the future of the markets for coffee, tea and cocoa

COTECA Hamburg, International Trade Show for the Coffee, Tea & Cocoa Business
at the Hamburg Fair site from 4 to 6 June

Top speakers from several continents will be featured at the conference at COTECA Hamburg, the International Trade Show for the Coffee, Tea & Cocoa Business. Its slogan is “Markets in transition”. It brings together high-ranking representatives of business, the academic community, government and society, to discuss the challenges and opportunities for coffee, cocoa and tea in tomorrow’s markets. They will present current developments in the three sectors, show the trends and outline future scenarios. Their key subjects will be the impact of climate change, sustainable cultivation, price development and consumer trends. The international conference on 4 and 5 June will be held in the framework of the COTECA Hamburg trade show, which will have its premiere at the Hamburg Fair site from 4 to 6 June.
Cocoa and tea are the subjects of the first day of the conference. The list of eminent speakers starts with John J. Mason from Ghana. He is the founder and Chief Executive of the Nature Conservation Research Centre (NCRC) - the leading conservation NGO in Ghana. His subject is the future of the global cocoa industry under the influence of climate change. Mason was one of the first to draw attention to the long-term threat of climate change to the cocoa sector in his country.
The opportunities and potentials of sustainability in cocoa growing will be discussed by Elena Mihaylova of UTZ Certified, a coffee certification organisation, and Alex Arnaud Assanvo of Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO), a group of organisations that supports fair global trading. Other speakers will include Joachim Prey of GTZ (German Technical Cooperation) and Nicola Oppermann of Kraft Foods. The speakers will analyse the current situation and look at the prospects for future developments. Andreas Christiansen of the German Cocoa Trade Association will address pricing in the cocoa sector. Fausto Moncayo, a cocoa and chocolate producer from Ecuador, will present the market for fine cocoa, which is currently the fastest growing cocoa segment.
Tea is the focus of the second block of subjects. The impact of climate change on tea growing will be examined by Ali Raja Rizvi of the Tea Board of India, a government controlled organisation which regulates India’s tea trade, and Kerstin Linne of the GTZ. They wish to show how small and large producers can adjust to it, and what adaptation measures they can take.
New consumption trends will be presented by Kai Ellerbroock of Market Grounds, a leading supplier of speciality beverages, and Thomas M. Grömer of Aiya Europe, Japan’s leading producer of high-quality Matcha tea. The issue of whether certified tea is more a niche product or more a future trend will be addressed by Imke van Gasselt of UTZ Certified, Mieke van Rennen of the Tropical Commodity Coalition (TCC), a group of NGOs that wishes to improve global growing conditions, and Lee Byers of FLO.
Coffee is the topic on Saturday, the second day of the conference. Coffee is the second most important commodity worldwide, following petroleum. Many millions of people live directly or indirectly from coffee growing. At the present time the sector is faced with enormous challenges – with increasing droughts, flooding and other extreme weather conditions, which are raising more and more challenges for the growing regions. At the same time, there is a rise in the demand from highly populated countries such as China, Russia and Brazil.
The first block of subjects addresses the impact of climate change on coffee growing. It presents the potential dangers, and strategies for adaptation. Information is given by experts such as agricultural scientist Prof. Jürgen Pohlan of Bonn University, Peter Baker of the Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux International, Kerstin Linne of GTZ, and Christoph Schmitz of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. The energy inventory of coffee is addressed by Stefan Dierks of Tchibo, and the economic aspects of climate change by Michael Opitz of the Hanns R. Neumann Foundation.
The global consumption trends for coffee are the subject of Nils Erichsen, President of the Speciality Coffee Association of Europe (SCAE) and Tentscho Brandenburger of Viva Coffee, a coffee manufacturer. The keynote speaker here is Andreas Steinle of Trend Research Institute.
An overview of the future of global coffee production is given by keynote speaker José Dauster Sette of the International Coffee Association, based in the UK. Insights into Brazil’s world of coffee will be given by Robério Oliveira Silva, a high-ranking representative of the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, whose forecasts of Brazil’s coffee crop have a major influence on international coffee exchange prices. Brazil is one of the world’s major coffee producers. Other speakers on “Coffee markets of the future” are Allen Onzima of the East African Fine Coffee Association from Uganda, a non-profit organisation with support from ten African countries, and Wolfgang Heinricy of the Neumann Kaffee Gruppe, a global leader in green coffee trading.
The final panel discussion addresses the issue of how far sustainable coffee growing is the route for the future. The panellists will be leading representatives of international certification companies and organisations such as Rainforest Alliance, UTZ Certified, 4C Association, TCC and FLO.
COTECA Hamburg, the International Trade Show for the Coffee, Tea & Cocoa Business, covers the whole value chain for all three segments – coffee, tea and cocoa – from raw commodity to finished product. It celebrates its premiere at the Hamburg Fair site from 4 to 6 June, and is to be held every two years. It has the concept support of the German Coffee Association. For further information and the full conference programme, please visit the website www.coteca-hamburg.com
 

Last update: 07.05.10

Gudrun Blickle