Does Kenya need to ‘bet the farm’ on Arabica coffee farming? Coffee exports have been declining for years, and haven fallen way behind the values achieved from tea and horticulture for this growing East African economy. But it is still a major cash crop. With estimates of up to 5 million people directly or indirectly… (continued)
Coffee exports are hugely important for the Kenyan economy. It is estimated that there are over 700,000 smallholder coffee farmers in the country, as well as around 3,000 large estate farms. Kenya is renowned for high quality Arabica coffee, and despite producing less coffee per year than its peak in the 1990s, it maintains its… (continued)
Africa once dominated the global coffee market. At the height of their production, African countries made up four of the top 10 coffee-producing countries in the world. However, exports from the continent have shrunk in recent years. African coffee-producing countries have struggled to keep up with strong competition from coffee powerhouses like Brazil and Vietnam,… (continued)
Collecting and analysing large amounts of data is revolutionising almost every industry. The surge in accessibility to data means that we have a much greater analytical capacity for almost any process, device, or phenomenon that can be measured. Manufacturers are capturing data about each and every step in their production in order to maximise its… (continued)
The Kenyan coffee workforce is dwindling. Experienced farmers are getting older, and many young people are leaving the industry to pursue different careers. The coffee industry must take steps to sustain itself in a turbulent market, and one route to this goal is through technology. The profile of the average coffee producer is changing. In… (continued)
What Saudi Arabia is to oil, Brazil is to coffee. This agricultural powerhouse produces about a third of the world’s coffee beans. It is hard to understate the impact that the Brazilian crop has each year on global supply and prices. One of the reasons Brazil is so influential is that its coffee farms are… (continued)