Coffee

Botany

The coffee-trees are shrubs of the tropical areas of the kind Coffea of the family of the Rubiacées. The species Coffea arabica (historically in the past cultivated) and Coffea will canephora (or coffee-tree robusta ), which is those are used for the preparation of drink. Other species of the kind Coffea were tested for this purpose or are still locally used, but never knew great diffusion.

The coffee-trees are shrubs with persistent and opposite sheets, which generally appreciate a certain shade (it is in the beginning rather species of underwood). They produce Fruit S fleshy, red, purple, or yellow, called cherries of coffee , with two cores containing each one a coffee bean (the coffee cherry is the example of a Drupe polysperme). When a cherry is pulped, one finds the coffee bean locked up in a transparent semi-rigid hull with the wrinkled aspect corresponding to the wall of the core. Once released, the green coffee bean is still surrounded by an adherent silver plated skin corresponding to the tegument of seed.

Coffea arabica , which produces a fine and aromatic coffee, requires a climate fresher than Coffea will canephora (robusta), which gives a drink rich in Caféine. The culture of the arabica more delicate and less productive thus is rather reserved for grounds of mountain, whereas that of the robusta puts up with grounds of plain with higher outputs.

The seedling mother of the majority of the seedlings of arabica of the world is preserved at the Hortus Botanicus of Amsterdam.

Although it is technically possible to produce genetically modified varieties of coffee , containing a Gène toxicity with the insects or producing a grain without Caféine, none is marketed, for the moment. The only experiment of plantation in full field organized by CIRAD in French Guiana was destroyed by militants anti-GMO.

The principal disease of the coffee is caused by the Champignon Hemileia vastatrix , or rust of the coffee , which gives a characteristic coloring to the sheets and prevents the Photosynthèse plant. In 1869, this parasite destroys completely, in the 10 years space, the plantations of the Sri Lanka, formerly prosperous. Since, this parasite became ubiquist. It proliferates especially on the seedlings of arabica. The robusta seems to be rather resistant there.

The Scolyte S of the coffee ( Stephanoderes hampei ) attack indifferently the seedlings of robusta and arabica by destroying the grains. The threat posed by these insects is considerable, the more so as their resistance to the Insecticide S increases.

History

Etymology

The Arab word " qahwa" ( قهوة ), this drink indicated coming from the province of Kaffa, was transformed into " qahvè" in Turkey then " caffè" in Italy… and still uses in French slang Kawa or American Java has (without bond with the island indonésienne).

Origin in Ethiopia and Arabia

The coffee-tree is probably originating in Ethiopia, in the province of Kaffa, but the question is not absolutely distinct. The most widespread legend wants that a shepherd of Abyssinie (current Ethiopia), Kaldi, noticed the invigorating effect of this shrub on the goats which had consumed some. Its culture is spread initially in the close Arabia, where its popularity doubtless benefitted from the prohibition of alcohol by the Islam. It is then called K' hawah , which means reinvigorating. The archaeological data available today suggest that the coffee “would not have been domesticated” before the 15th century: perhaps the development process drink, length and complex, explains the late discovery of the virtues of seeds of coffee-tree, with the first access not very gravitational. Recent discoveries (1996) of a British team archaeological, which remain to be confirmed, let foresee the possibility of a consumption having started as of the 12th century, in Arabia.

Expansion in the Muslim world

The effects of the coffee were such as it was interdict with the call of orthodoxe and preserving Imams with Mecque in 1511 and with the Cairo in 1532, but the popularity of the product, in particular near the intellectuals, pushed the authorities to cancel the Décret. In 1583, a German doctor of return of a voyage ten years to the the Middle East, Léonard Rauwolf, was the first Westerner to describe the beverage: a drink as black as ink, useful against many evils, in particular the evils of stomach. Its consumers take the morning of it, without being dissimulated, in a porcelain cut which passes from the one to the other and where each one takes a sound glassful. It is made up of water and the fruit of a shrub called bunnu . These comments draw the attention of merchants, that the experiment of the trade of spices made sensitive to this kind of information.

A threat for the law and order?

At the 15th century, the Moslems introduce the coffee in Perse, Egypt, North Africa and Turkey, where the first coffee, Kiva Han, open in 1475 in Constantinople (currently Istanbul). The passion is such as a Turkish law of the time on the divorce precise that a woman can divorce her husband if this one does not manage to provide him a daily coffee amount.

In Mecque, on June 20th, 1511, the pasha Khair Bey noticed a drinking group of men of the coffee. He noticed his particular qualities and gathered a group of well-read men and lawyers to decide if the drink were in conformity with Coran, which prohibits any form of intoxication. As Antony Wild notices it, it is easy to forget that the coffee is certainly a powerful drug, whose introduction required a cultural consensus, but not medical in Occident. Also, by surging debates accompanied the beginning by the introduction of the coffee into the Islamic world.

In 1511, Khair Bey makes close all the coffees and conducts a campaign of misinformation against the misdeeds of the coffee when he learns that criticisms against its capacity would emanate very from coffee drinkers. The closing of the coffees causes revolts, which encourages the governor of Egypt to cancel prohibition. The coffee consumption can then continue its rise. One counts a thousand of coffees to the Cairo in 1630. Such a prohibition will be met again in Europe after the opening of the coffees and, curiously, for the same reasons, to believe that the coffee catch develops the critical spirit, probably by supporting the intellectual exchanges between consumers.

The coffee arrives to Europe at the neighborhoods of 1600 by the Venetian merchants. One advises with the pope Clément VIII to prohibit the coffee because it represents a threat of infidels. After tastehaving tasted it, this last baptizes on the contrary new drink, informant that to leave the only infidels the pleasure of this drink would be damage. The coffee is very quickly snuffed monks for the same reasons that it is to it Imams: it makes it possible to take care a long time and to keep the clear spirit. The Moslems, jealous of their seedlings of Coffea arabica , prohibit their export. In 1650, a Moslem pilgrim, Baba Budan manage to bring back seven seedlings in India, which it plants with Mysore and whose descendants remain still today.

Introduction in Europe and into the New World

Towards the Years 1650, the coffee starts to be imported and consumed in England, and of the coffees open with Oxford and London. The coffees become places where the liberal ideas are born, from their frequentation by philosophers and well-read men. The Lampoon S and make out are distributed in the coffees. In 1676, this agitation encourages in England the prosecutor of the King to order the closing of the coffees, quoting crimes of lese-majesty against the king Charles II and the kingdom. The reactions are such as the edict of closing must be revoked. Flows of ideas supplied with the coffee will modify the United Kingdom deeply. One counts there more than two thousand coffees in 1700. The famous insurance company Lloyd' S is in the beginning a coffee founded in 1688.

In 1670, the first coffee opens in Berlin. In Paris, the Café Procope is the first to be opened in this city and, in 1686, one invents a new manner there of preparing it: by making percoler warm water in the coffee retained by a filter. The history of famous the coffees of Vienna begins with the Bataille of Vienna of 1683. demolished Turks, one seizes string bean bags which prove to be coffee. In the middle of the 18th century, each town of Europe has coffees, and, in 1732, Jean-Sebastien Bach composes an ode with the coffee. The coffee crosses the Atlantic in 1689 with the opening of the first establishment to Boston. The drink gains in popularity and obtains the national drink row after the rebels throw to the sea the surtaxed by the British crown during the Boston Tea Party. This operation knack is prepared in the coffee of the Green Dragon .

The coffee starts to be cultivated in the English colonies, in particular with Ceylon, but the plantations are devastated by a disease and are finally replaced by plantations of The. The Dutchmen make it cultivate in Indonesia.

In 1714, the captain of French infantry Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu conceals a cutting of a seedling offered by Holland to Louis XIV and preserved in the royal greenhouses to plant it on the slopes of the Peeled Montagne in Martinique and at Saint Domingue. Fifty years later, one counts 19 million seedlings in Martinique.

The first plantation with the Brésil is established in 1727 by Francisco of Mello Palheta. Its industry depends on the practice of the Esclavage which is abolished in 1888.

Western popularity until our days

During the 18th century, the drink becomes popular in Europe, and the European colonists introduce the culture of the coffee into many tropical countries, like a culture of export to satisfy the European application. At the 19th century, the demand for Europe was often higher than the offer and stimulated the use of various substitutes to the close taste, like the root of Chicorée.

The principal producing coffee areas are the South America (with in particular the Brésil and the Colombia), the Vietnam, the Kenya, the Ivory Coast, and others still. Hawaii has a small production of coffee of great quality and high price, but among many the developed varieties, the coffee expensive and most famous pointed Bourbon is from now on the (cultivated in the French island of the Meeting), which is explained by its scarcity and the endemic character of the seedlings necessary for the culture. Each package is sold approximately 459 euros the kilogram, they are three times more than the Blue Mountain (see Blue Mountains) coming from the Jamaica.

The countries where one consumes the most coffee per capita are indicated in the histogram opposite. For comparison, the values for the The are indicated. A third source of cafeine not included in this graph comes from fizzy drinks, in constant increase. The evolution of the consumption of these three sources of cafeine in the United States is presented in the graph below. It seems astonishing to see the place which Brazil in the classification of the consumer countries occupies. That is due probably to the fact that local consumption must escape the official figures on which this graph is built.

Culture and preparation

Plantations

Although the image of the coffee plantations is often associated with that of immense fields such as one can meet some in various countries, as with the Brésil, the worldwide production of coffee comes, for approximately 70 %, of mainly family exploitations of surface lower than 10 Hectare S, generally in lower parts of five hectares.
the grounds which these small producers cultivate are often fixed on the mountainsides, sometimes up to 2000 m of altitude: it is parcelled out pieces, on which the coffee is associated with food crops such as the Maïs, the Manioc or the Banane plantain. This traditional culture is generally respectful environment, in particular because this mode of culture requires few pesticides and artificial fertilizers.

That they are the small farmers or the farm laborers, the culture of the coffee makes live a very great number of people, because the gathering, very seldom mechanized, requires an important time of labor which forms the essence of the production costs. Thus, for only Brazil, one estimates at 230.000 to 300.000 the number of Fermier S living of the coffee and to 3 million the number of people employed.

The time necessary with a young coffee-tree which one plants to begin to produce is from 3 to 4 years. Then the shrub can live during many decades. The summit is folded back to avoid a too great development in height.

The plantations can be made with full overdraft, which facilitates the organization of the farming operations and increases the fruit-bearing production, but decreases longevity and resistance to the diseases of the coffee-trees. The plantations can also be made in semi-shade (one speaks about coffee of shade), which corresponds better to the Autécologie of the species, but reduced the Productivité and complicates the Gestion. Many variations exist on the modes of culture of shade, since the plantation directly in forest until erudite shafting arrangements of shelter cut according to the stage of fructification of the coffee-trees or until systems of Polyculture. The plantations of shade generally induce better a Biodiversité, however very variable in quality according to the systems employed and compared to the natural initial state.

Collect and preparation of the grains

Collect

When the Fruit S arrive to Maturité, 6 to 8 months after the flowering for the arabica, 9 to 11 months for the robusta, the harvest of the coffee can start. Two methods are employed: the gathering or the picking off.
The gathering consists in gathering manually only ripe cherries at point. It is the most expensive technique which obliges to pass by again several days of continuation on the same shrub but which gets best qualities of café.
The picking off consists in on the contrary scraping the branch of all its cherries, the process possibly which can be mechanized. One collects by this expeditious technique a heterogeneous mixture of more or less ripe cherries, at the acid coffee origin more (because of the still green fruits).

Drying or washing

The fruit of the coffee is a type of Drupe, i.e. the broad beans are covered with the flesh of a fruit. After harvest, the coffee must be quickly removed from its fleshy envelope by drying or washing .

Drying is practiced on surfaces of drying, where the coffee cherries are spread out and regularly raked. In a few days, the fleshy part is dehydrated and disaggregated partly.

Washing can relate to only quite ripe fruits (collected by gathering). The process consists, after having broken the skin of cherry, to make soak the fruits in water long enough so that a Fermentation ensures the degradation of the fleshy part. One obtains washed coffees , described like “clean and brilliant”, generally less acid and of better content of mouth. The technique, often mechanized, requires to have of tanks and a sufficient water provision.

At the conclusion of drying or washing, the coffee bean is still locked up in the core of the fruit (the endocarpe): it is the coffee hull (after drying) or the coffee parche (after washing). Trier is needed, in order to eliminate any rotted broad bean, faded or damaged. Sorting can be mechanized, in the industrial facilities, using cameras with Capteur of photoscope (CCC), but this operation is done still often manually, in the Developing country.

The coffee can be preserved, protected by its hull during a certain time. Certain harvests are even thus out-of-date to improve savor of the coffee.

The last operation of preparation, making it possible to obtain the raw coffee , thus consists in peeling the grains mechanically. It also removes the grain from its silver plated fine skin (the tegument ). The hulls are generally recovered and developed like fuel.

In fact the dried or washed grains, then peeled are exchanged on the international markets.

Decaffeinization

Taste of the coffee without the excitation: it is to satisfy such a request that the processes of decaffeinization were developed. The reduction in the content cafeine is made at the expense of gustatory qualities. Moreover, the decaffeinization is never total. In the majority of the cases, five to ten decaffeinated coffee cups per day get a cafeine amount equivalent to that of 2 coffee cafeine cups. This study of an American team tested nine decaffeinated coffee marks by Gas chromatography. All, except one, contained cafeine proportions some very significant: from 8,6 Mg with 13,9 cafeine Mg, for on average 85 Mg in an equivalent coffee amount not decaffeinated, is sufficiently - according to Dr. Mark S. Gold, professor of psychiatry at the University of Florida, to cause a physical dependence with the coffee in certain consumers of decaffeinated.

Several processes exist. Their general principle consists in soaking the grains in water then to extract cafeine from the liquid thus obtained by addition of organic Solvant or by Adsorption on Activated carbon, and finally to remake to soak the grains in the liquid impoverished of cafeine so that they reabsorb the others made up always present. The solvent, mainly the Acetate of ethyl found in the fruits, is never in contact with the grains, only with the water in which the grain soaked. There exists also a method of decaffeinization using a jet of Carbon dioxide under pressure.

Torrefaction

Arrived at destination, the grains are torrefied (strongly heated, one also speaks about burning or netting), which develops to them Arôme and their dark color gives them. They are then ground.

With torrefaction, the grains double size. At the beginning of the application of heat, the color of the green grains passes to the yellow, then with brown the grooves. It is at this time that the grain loses its moisture. When the temperature inside reached approximately 200 °C, oils leave the grains. In general, more there is of oil, more the coffee has savor.

During torrefaction, the grains fissure in a way similar to that of the puffed up corn which explodes under heat. Two moments ago “of explosion”, which are used as indicators of the level of torrefaction reached.

The grains become darker and release more oil until one puts an end to torrefaction, by withdrawing them from the source of heat.

Until the 19th century, the grains were bought green and their torrefaction was done with the stove.

Grinding

Last stage of the preparation, the torrefied coffee beans must be ground.

The granulometry is essential with the quality of drink and must be adapted to its method of clothes industry. The shorter the exposure to extreme water is, the more grinding must be fine to release the flavors quickly whereas if the contact with water is prolonged, grinding must remain thicker to avoid producing a too impregnated coffee, with the strong and bitter taste. However, if grinding is really too coarse, it can result only one insipid and diluted drink from it.

The ground coffee degrades and loses rather quickly its flavors because the surface of contact with oxygen in air is increased considerably. To taste a good coffee fully, it is thus recommended to grind the grains at the last time. Failing this, the vacuum conservation of the ground coffee avoids a too great loss of flavor.

Formerly, the coffee beans were crushed with the stone grinding stone or the mortar and the rammer. The invention and the manufacture of the Coffee mill, inspired by the pepper mills, however accompany the diffusion by the coffee in Occident: many professional models or servants follow one another. As of the 17th century, under the reign of Louis XIV, one manufactures coffee mills out of iron, but it is as from the 19th century that the coffee mills really penetrate of many hearths, in particular the models of the company Peugeot brothers of which the first date of 1832. Today, electrical energy often replaced the crank.

Varieties

See also: Varieties, coffee vintages and assemblies

According to the species and the variety cultivated, according to the source and the mode of preparation of the grains, the coffees present a large range of savors, appreciated for their diversity by the amateurs, the varieties with dimensions and rarest reaching very high prices.

Consumption

Preparation of drink

If there exist many means of preparing drink quickly: instant coffee, to dissolve simply in a cup of warm water, or coffee machine, the amateur of coffee to them will prefer the traditional methods resorting to the grains coldly ground or marketed ground vacuum (or the Café in dosette, recent alternative of the filter coffee and the expresso) as well as the use of the Cafetière manual or semi-automatic.

One counts five modes of preparation of the coffee, each one conferring on drink obtained organoleptic properties and quite distinct compositions.

Decoction

One uses this method in the preparation of the Turkish Café (or Greek coffee ), where a superfine coffee grinding mixed with water and sugar (for 300mL from water, 1 sugar, and 3 coffee) is pulp in an Arab coffee machine or any other pot going on fire (it is about the oldest method).

Infusion

This method requires the use of a piston coffee machine. In a container out of glass, a filter in the shape of a piston allows the separation of the marc of drink by isolating it the bottom from the container. Thus one tastes the coffee starting from a coarse grinding in a plantation.

Filtration

It is the most current method today. The Filter coffee is prepared while making pass slowly from ebullient water in a filter filled with coffee.

Percolation

It is the process used by the Italian coffee machines. This type of coffee machine consists of two compartments (1) & (2) separated by a carry-filter (5) which contains a coffee amount. While heating, the water placed in the tank in isolation evaporates, then goes up thorough by the vapor under pressure; in the passing, it crosses the coffee and overflows in top of the chimney to fall down finally in the coffee pot. The apparatus is used at the same time with the preparation and the service.

These coffee machines function ideally on plates (electric or cookers with hearth wood/coal). On gas, it should be lowered fire when water starts to go up. If water has suddenly missed in the tank, there is risk to burn the joint and the coffee.

Percolation under high pressure

The percolation under high pressure is a process which makes it possible to carry out a Expresso (or espresso coffee ). The difference with the preceding method comes from the pressure which is established by means of a system of pumping: rotary pump for the professional machines or with vibration for the general public, the older machines use a piston hydraulic or actuated manually with a lever. The optimal pressure on grinding is of 15 bars. It allows a fast preparation of the coffee, from where the name of the beverage thus obtained.

Service

The coffee can be been useful such as it is, or mixed with milk or cream. It is frequently sweetened, and one adds sometimes chocolate or spices to him as the grooves, the Nutmeg, or the Cardamome. It is in general been useful hot, but of drinks frozen containing coffee recently spread themselves. The taste for the coffee is not spontaneous, but must be cultivated, since its savor is strong and bitter.

Among the most widespread alternatives of drinks to the coffee, one can mention:

the coffee with milk , or coffee laths , obtained by mixing a volume of Lait for a volume of coffee;
the Latte macchiato ( milk mottled ) which differs from the coffee laths by the fact that this drink contains more milk in liquid form and in the form of foam.
the white coffee , a coffee in which one adds a little fresh Cream or a milk cloud; in French-speaking Switzerland, the coffee added with milk is called “reversed”.
the Hazel nut , a coffee expresso in which one adds a milk cloud.
the cappuccino , a expresso on which one deposits of the milk foam, generally powdered with cocoa powder;
the chocolate coffee , a coffee in which one dissolves an equal volume of Chocolat;
the coffee ice cream , a cold drink with the coffee and the Ice cream;
the Irish coffee , a Alcoholic drink prepared with a volume of Whiskey for three volumes of coffee.
the Coffee Viennese , or espresso idiot hammered , a preparation made up of a lengthened expresso rather clearly, to which one adds hot milk beaten with whipped cream, and like the cappuccino, the coffee Viennese is decorated of chip or drinking chocolate.

Stimulative properties

The coffee contains Caféine, Alcaloïde having, inter alia, of the stimulative properties. For this reason, it is especially consumed the morning or during the work hours, and, sometimes, late in the night, by those which want to remain waked up and concentrated. The decaffeinated coffee, or “decaf”, of which the essence of cafeine was withdrawn, makes it possible to benefit from the taste of the coffee without stimulation. There exist also herb teas whose taste approaches the coffee, but which does not contain cafeine.

The dependence with the coffee (with cafeine) is very widespread and weaning gives place to observable symptoms.

During the preparation of a coffee, the Caféine appears in the last. When water crosses the coffee grinding, it initially will impregnate flavors and then only of cafeine. One finds the diagram opposite for the Théine. Therefore, contrary to an preconceived idea, a lengthened expresso will be more exciting that a tight coffee. The rate of Caféine also depends on the type of coffee. The arabica, more expensive than the robusta, contains more savor and less cafeine. For this reason one often finds mixtures of arabica and robusta.

Gustatory properties

As for other products, such as the Wine, the Arôme plays a paramount role in the pleasure which one tests to drink a coffee cup. This flavor is perceived by the nasal mucous membrane either directly, by the Nez, or rétronasalement by the Pharynx when the volatile compounds go up towards the olfactive mucous membrane .

One counts at least 800 chemical compounds in the coffee. Their proportion and their nature determine the specificity of the coffee in question. As example, and to quote some majority compounds, one finds: the Vanillin, guaiacol and the 4-Ethylguaïacol (ic phenol and spiced), the 2,3-butadione (flavor of Butter), the 2-Methoxy-3-isobutylpyrazine (earthy), the methional (Potato and sweetened) and finally the 2-Furfurylthiol (flavor, simply, of coffee). Others made up get feelings of Noisette, Noix, Caramel and, in a way more surprising, Champignon, Viande, etc

The majority of these compounds are degraded with the Air and the Lumière, which explains the usual council to preserve the coffee ground in a vacuum container airtight, safe from heat and light. To preserve the coffee in the form of grains and to grind it at the last time minimize the surface of contact with the air, and thus the probability of degradation of the flavors.

Therapeutic properties

A study undertaken over 12 years in Finland, country which holds the record of the coffee consumption with an average of nine cups per day by adult, by the National institute of public health of Helsinki on 14.600 elderly from 35 to 64 years without antecedents of cardiovascular diseases, has just delivered astonishing conclusions which the researchers are not explained. It would seem that the more important coffee consumption by an individual is, the more the risks of diabetes of the type II would tend to decrease.

A new Canadian study, carried out on more than 40.000 people (!), published in the review " Arthritis and rheumatism" (paid e.a. by France July 2nd, th and th 2007) a reduction in the risk of Goutte at the men in the event of coffee consumption suggests. This reduction can reach 40% starting from 4 cups per day. This relation however was not found with decaffeinated and the The. According to this study, the coffee would be beneficial also against:

the Alzheimer
the Diabetes of the type 2 (in which insulin does not play any part)
the Cancer of the liver and undoubtedly some other cancers (the study continues)

Caution: contrary to an generally accepted idea, the expresso is less cafeine than a simple filter coffee or a coffee resulting from the percolation! And as one wrote on this page, let us recall that the coffee Arabica contains 2 times less cafeine than the Robusta.

One should not however not draw from hasty conclusions: on the one hand, one knows according to the current scientific knowledge that the coffee positively acts on the cardiovascular Système, but the mechanism of action remains unknown; in addition, the coffee has an effect hypertensor and is disadvised to the patients reached of serious or chronic cardiovascular disorders. Let us note however that a recent study suggests an anti-hypertenseur effect of the coffee beans green on an animal model of hypertension.

Is the coffee good or bad for health?

It is true that the coffee increases the blood Pressure in the occasional drinkers but it has also virtues: it brings Minéraux (Potassium), Vitamine PP and of course of the Caféine which stimulates the nervous system, intellect and digestion. However, it decreases also the absorption of some vitamins B and the Fer and can also disturb the sleep.

Social aspects of consumption

A coffee is also the place where coffee typically is consumed. A “coffee” can in addition mean cultural or social event, or simply a place favourable with personal work, the relaxation, creation or the meetings.

In the Culture of the coffees, one distinguishes the literary coffees and their derivatives, the Café-concert S, the Manga coffee, etc

Other uses of the coffee

The coffee extract is employed in confectionery and Pâtisserie for to aromatize ices, Bonbon S, Macaron S,… like making the traditional mocha coffee (a sponge cake coated with a thick layer of cream to the Beurre, the Sucre and the coffee).

The cafeine, which can be extracted the coffee, enters, for its stimulative properties, in the composition of some Soda S, certain drinks énergisantes or some Médicament S in particular appreciated by some students passing of the sleepless nights to revise.

The coffee beans, after torrefaction and infusion, are distilled in order to produce creams or the Liqueur of coffee.

Economy

The coffee is the second goods exchanged in the world, behind the Pétrole. One considers at 125 million the number of people living of the Caféiculture, including 25 million small producers. 400 billion coffee cups is drunk per annum, that is to say approximately 12.000 cups a second! The economic issues and social are thus extremely important.

The International organization of the coffee to which almost all the producer countries but also the principal consumer countries adhere, collects uninterrupted the data elements statistical.

Production

Being coffee, the measuring unit is the bag of 60 kg.

For several years, the annual worldwide production has exceeded the 100 million bags (120 million in 2002,102 million in 2003) what corresponds to 6 to 7 million tons, whereas in 1825, one produced only 100.000 tons. More than 80 million bags are exported each year (88 million in 2002,84 million in 2003).

This production does not cease increasing; it increased by 20% between 1997 and 2005, is twice more quickly than the request.

The largest producer is Brazil by far, particularly the State de São Paulo where is located the first port coffee-tree of the world: the port of Santos, followed by Colombia and Vietnam (the most important producer of robusta ).

The culture of the coffee is seldom a tradition. In the case of the Vietnam, it results entirely from a political will, encouraged by the the World Bank, which led the country to become the first world producer of robusta, whereas he was only the 31e in 1987. Contrary, certain African countries in the forefront of which the Ivory Coast largely reduced their production.

The statistical data on the world agricultural production of coffee differ slightly according to whether they come from FAO (established on a évaluatif mode) or OIC (established on a declaratory mode). These data are however followed monthly by the OIC and are recut between them, which makes Organization the real source of reference recognized for the international markets. At all events, beyond the specific crises of overproduction and of the unaccounted-for material, volumes produced, exchanged and consumed follow a bullish tendency.

Imports

The coffee is the commercial culture par excellence: it is produced exclusively in the South but is consumed primarily in North. The industrialized countries consume approximately 70% of the coffee produced in the world. The the United States are the large-scale consumers, but the Europe has the rate of consumption per capita highest: up to 10 kg per capita and per annum in the Scandinavian countries. In comparison, the majority of the countries of the South has a yearly consumption lower than 4,5 kg/hab. In Central America, more 90 % of the coffee is intended for export. However, the consumption of certain countries of the South, like the Brazil, increases quickly.

The importing countries belonging to the International organization of the coffee are the Germany, the Austria, the Belgium, Cyprus, the Denmark, the Spain, the Estonia, the Finland, the France, the Greece, the Hungary, the Ireland, the Italy, the Japan, the Latvia, the Lithuania, the Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, the Norway, the Poland, the Portugal, Czech Republic, the the United Kingdom, the Slovakia, the Slovenia, the Sweden, the Swiss , the the United States of America and the European Community.

Five purchasers acquire almost half of the worldwide production: Kraft, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble and Sara Lee, whose annual sales generate profits about the billion $ US, and Tchibo.

The course of the coffee

The course of the coffee is fixed in the purse S of raw materials: the Bourse of New York treats primarily the coffee arabica and that of London the robusta. The acts of purchase and sale of the coffee in the long term rest on contracts. While being involved between supply and demand, the stock exchange speculation influences the courses artificially and tends to exacerbate their variations.

The coffee always was however not subjected to the stock exchange Spéculation. In 1962, with leaving the Colonization, producer countries and consumer countries sign the first International agreement on the coffee (AIC), which guarantees a regular provisioning of the market at prices acceptable for each part. With this intention, the AIC envisaged a system of quotas of export and retention and imposed a price range. Three generations of agreements followed one another until in 1989, where the lack of consensus between exporting countries and importers leads to the abandonment of the AIC.

The OIC does not seem any more to consider new mechanisms of intervention on the market, which it considers too difficult “to maintain”. The exporting countries however created in 1993 the Association of the coffee producer countries (ACPC), on the model of OPEC, to try to restore the policy of restriction of exports and to make go up the courses. The advertisement of its plan of voluntary retention of exports caused a strong reaction in North, in particular on behalf of the United States, which then left the OIC. The ACPC however did not succeed in preventing the crisis of the years 1990: the abstention from the Asian producers, the difficulty in financing the retention for countries passing through an economic serious attack, and the importance of the stocks held by the large companies coffee-plantations of North were right of its company.

In spite of the failure of the agreements of products, their partisans point out that the coffee and the agricultural produce in general are not ordinary goods because the physical characteristics of the perennial cultures limit the possibility for the producers of adjusting the offer forthwith, which agrees badly with a logic of market. According to certain economists, in the absence of regulating mechanism of the production, the offer or the world prices, the mechanism of the market and competition between producers and consumers would give place to a phenomenon of “excessive reaction”, characterized by the appearance of a cycle of overproductions and shortages

The crisis of the Years 1990

The extremely aggressive arrival of the Vietnam on the market of the coffee, combined with the enormous expansion of the culture in Brazil, are the two main reasons called upon to explain the fall of the course of the middle of the years 1990. The decline of the prices ceased since 2004, probably thanks to the increase in consumption in China, Russia and in Brazil and with a specific reduction in the worldwide production in addition.

This crisis put nearly 25 million small producers in great difficulty everywhere in the world. During three years, the price of the coffee fell from at least 50% and one returned at the prices charged 30 years before. Many small farmers had to sell at a loss several years of continuation, which naturally led them to the bankruptcy. Directly ascribable unemployment with this crisis has probably affected approximately 1,6 million people, among poorest of the emergent countries.

The countries most dependant on the coffee for their exports had to face during this period with a serious imbalance of their trade balance, which led to an increase in their debt. This crisis was a catastrophe for the development, of which the effects will be still felt for a long time.

Equitable trade

The coffee is one of the leading products of the Equitable trade. It was selected as a symbol in particular because it was the product more exported after the Pétrole and that its price was fixed by the stock exchange prices of the international markets, although it is mainly produced by small farmers and undertaken family.

The purchasers having this label commit themselves buying the coffee at a minimum price even if world rates are lower than this threshold (the purchase price follows the market price when this one exceeds this threshold, it was the case between 1994 and 1997). This minimum price, coupled to a prefinancing of harvests and a guarantee of purchase over several years made it possible many small producers to improve their living conditions and not to plunge in misery at the time of the crisis of the coffee of 1997 when the dramatic fall of the courses (- 65%), caused by the overproduction, returned the purchase price of the coffee lower than its production costs.

The label guarantees also the payment of a development incentive intended for the installation of food programs, health or education.

At famous brands (Nestlé, Kraft, etc) the label " trade équitable" never represent more than 5% of the sales in 2007.

Biological coffee

Another type of production, considered as more ethical, is the Organic farming, the only guarantee without use of Pesticides.

Certain products combine the standards equitable and biological.

Coffee like factor of economic development: example of Brazil

The high courses of the market in 1830 encourage the contractors of Brazil to pass from the exploitation of the Or to that of the coffee, up to that point reserved for local consumption. This decision is accompanied by important investments, such as, for example, the creation of a network of almost 7.000 km of railroads between 1860 and 1885 to face the need unceasingly more important for labor. The principal areas concerned with this development are those of Rio de Janeiro and the provinces of the south of the country to the fertile grounds and the favorable climate (São Paulo), principal producing of coffee.

Between the abolition of the Slavery in 1888 (Brazil is the last country to do it) and the year 1928, the labor force is reinforced by an massive immigration: 3,5 million workers flows of the Portugal, of the Italy, the Spain, Germany and Japan mainly (See the articles: Japanese Immigration in Brazil, German Immigration in Brazil, Italian Immigration in Brazil). In São Paulo alone, the number of new immigrants is of 201.000 between 1884 and 1890 and more than 733.000 between 1891 and 1900. The output of the production of coffee leaps. In 1880, São Paulo produces 1,2 million bags (25% of the total production), in 1888 2,6 million (40%), in 1902,8 million bags (60%). The coffee then accounts for 63% of exports of the country. The profits garnered by this trade allow an economic growth supported the country.
Le deadline 4 years between the plantation of a coffee-tree and the first harvest amplifies the seasonal variations in the price of the coffee. The government is thus seen constrained, to some extent, to support the prices by subsidies in period of strong production. This policy of support of the prices has like perverse effect an inflation of the plantations with São Paulo, which involved an enormous overproduction with the beginning of the year 1930

Quotations on the coffee

“Black like the Hot devil

like the Pure hell

like an angel

Soft like the love. ”

TALLEYRAND

See too

The
Coffee (establishment)
Cafédomancie
Coffee mill
International organization of the coffee
Guillaume Massieu, a cantor of the coffee at the 18th century
Melitta, the filter paper coffee
Liste of principal marks sector: '' Café ''.

Random links: