The 26th edition of Gulfood, the first major live, in-person F&B industry event since the pandemic first shook the world opens on Sunday at the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC). The event will run from February 21 to 25.
China-based coffee chain Luckin Coffee, which has been slowly recovering its business months after it was delisted from Nasdaq following an accountancy scandal, filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Friday in the midst of turmoil in its C-suite and financial woes.
Coffee growers feared 2020 would be a bitter year for business. But the sector was saved from ruin by a blend of rising home consumption, good prices, and better-than-expected production yields in some countries.
This year, the nonprofit ACE helped facilitate a socially distant online auction program through its ongoing Private Collection Auctions series, which is similar to its ongoing Cup of Excellence green coffee program but focused on coffees from individual partner groups rather than a country’s producers at large. Auction prices soared at the first-ever Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE) Ngorongoro Tanzania Private Collection Auction, with the top bid coming in at $65 per pound.
Green coffee trading company Sucafina has continued its multinational expansion and brand consolidation with the formal launch of Sucafina NZ Ltd. in New Zealand, including spot offerings in Auckland and Christchurch. In an appeal to quality-focused smaller roasters, Sucafina said the New Zealand business will offer that specialty green coffees packaged in 20-kilo boxes.
Some species are so forgotten that they have not been seen in the wild for decades like C. stenophylla which was rediscovered recently by Kew researchers carrying out fieldwork in Sierra Leone and C. affinis had not been seen in the wild since 1941. While Arabica and Robusta make up more than 99% of all coffee production, there are more than 120 other species that have been identified within the Coffee genus.
