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“Starbucks Corp has bought its first farm, with plans to use the 600-acre property in Costa Rica to develop new coffee varieties and test methods to eradicate a fungal disease known as coffee rust that is vexing the industry.”
See the [url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323639604578368741173186364.html]Wall Street Journal here.[/url]
Is this good for Costa Rica do you think?
Scott
Yeah, just read about it. We will find out if they start monopolizing things. Scott, are there other outlets like Starbucks in Costa Rica, that is owned by Costa Ricans?
Does Starbucks charge up the ying yang for a cup of java?
If Starbucks can figure out how they and others can eradicate coffee rust, it will be a boon to us all.
What with my “. . . that and a dime’ll get you a cup of coffee.” mentality, I’d say that Starbucks charges a lot (a lot more than I’d pay) for a cup of coffee.
I agree with [b]David[/b] that the issue of coffee rust that has been lingering around for years, must be solved. We, too, used to operate a coffee farm but never made any money on it, although the neighbors and workers who maintained it, fertilized and picked it, did 🙄
We thoroughly enjoyed doing so, but would never purchase another one.Our experience has been similar to crf’s above. We farm our coffee on shares with a neighbor. When there are expenses, we split them. After he pays the pickers, we split the profits.
We think the coffee plants are beautiful. Their roots hold the soil on our steep slopes. And the maintenance and picking provide our neighbors with some income. Those reasons alone are worth continuing to cultivate it.
Whether we’re making money or losing a little is anybody’s guess. We’ve never actually kept accounts.
Finally an article/question where I can jump up on my soap box!
Speaking from a point of experience (my wife and I owned two coffee shops for about 11 years) I can relate the following with some degree of professional expertise.
To Scott’s question, I don’t think it’s either necessary or necessarily a good thing for Five Bucks (what my kids say……) to gain a foothold in Costa Rica-the initial assault is generally the portender of things to come………and it’s up to the individual to determine if the invasion is indeed warranted. I personally wish they would choose Guatemala, Peru, or Mars, but what’s done is now history.
To David’s point, eradicating coffee rust would indeed be a boon to all coffee growers and would have a significant impact, world-wide. Ultimately, this would, or should, cause the cost of coffee to fall, if production were able to increase to offset current losses to rust. Getting rid of the bane of rust would be a good thing, indeed. A lot of Tico coffee farmers (or others) would be able to put more product into the market and hopefully the offset in price would not negate the increase in production. Tricky math, but it can work. Let’s all hope for a positive outcome and best wishes on the rust eradication experiment.
While I can appreciate, more than one can imagine, the altruistic exterior motive, I have seen so many instances of corporate creep over the years that this one leaves me a little cold. How about funding research within CR through a college? I would indeed sleep easier at night. Starbucks has indeed done a lot of good things over the years and this would move them to the top of my list. Not to sure about the 600 acre farm thing, though. Like I said, I think we have all seen this before. I will remain hopeful that the motives are pure and that the results will allay my concerns. As Yoda would say, “wary I am…”
No offense intended to Starbucks fans and I hope none is taken. I always respected them as a competitor and never, ever talked them down. It’s just that this news leaves me a little queasy and I have some long term fears for the small shop owners in Costa Rica, over the longer term.
PS: For what it’s worth, the all time favorite coffee in our coffee shops was Costa Rican Tarrazu. Just an incredibly delicious coffee with a built in problem. The problem was nobody could stop at one cup. As a coffee shop owner, that was a nice problem to have………..and helped my retirement program out quite a bit!
I just realized I used “longer term” twice in the same sentence. My high school English teacher just rolled in her grave. Sorry about the grammatical glitch. Think I need another cup of coffee!!
[quote=”beansandbooks”]I just realized I used “longer term” twice in the same sentence. My high school English teacher just rolled in her grave. Sorry about the grammatical glitch. Think I need another cup of coffee!![/quote]
Your information is valuable and comes from someone who obviously knows the business better than 99% of us so I thank you for that and, I frankly don’t care too much about grammar being 100% correct as you can clearly see from my writing 😛
I consider myself a “professional scribbler” because my writing would never get past a professional editor ..
Thanks again …
Word is out that the North Koreans are working on the GMO thing for coffee and are adding a nuclear attack resistant gene into the mix. That way, after they reduce the rest of us to radioactive rice krispies, they can relax with a nice cup of coffee, just prior to going out on the links where the Supreme Leader will once again astound what’s left of the world by carding a 17 on an 18 hole championship course. Hope they spare Augusta National so the new world course record can be set there.
😀
[quote=”Scott”]”Starbucks Corp has bought its first farm, with plans to use the 600-acre property in Costa Rica to develop new coffee varieties and test methods to eradicate a fungal disease known as coffee rust that is vexing the industry.”
See the [url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100014241 27887323639604578368741173186364.html]Wall Street Journal here.[/url]
Is this good for Costa Rica do you think?
Scott
[/quote] corporatism is international right now. American companies are not for the USA. Bad trouble for American people who think these corporate boards b
have their best interests upfront it is about money 😕So, we are all happy that there might be a coffee that resists rust? No one has a comment on using GMOs to produce that plant? I guess Maravilla doesn’t drink coffee…..
Remember, it is actually the seed you are ingesting, although toasted (not really) & roasted to make it palatable…:roll:
[quote=”VictoriaLST”]Gee, guys. You suppose a GMO coffee might resist rust??? HAHAHAHA![/quote]
The ‘how’ and ‘why’ of genetic modification of coffee is discussed here:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3437269/
I suspect this is more genetics than most will follow (or want to), but rust (CLR) and references to progress are discussed in section 10.3. As is pointed out, regardless of benefits to consumers & growers, the biggest problem will be consumer acceptance and approval (sect. 11).
PEH
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