From keith@journeytoforever.org Fri May  4 19:52:38 2001
Date: Fri, 4 May 2001 20:53:00 +0900
From: Keith Addison 
To: Bioenergy List 
Subject: Should Guatemala's 'worst' coffee go up in smoke?

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10647
Planet Ark
Should Guatemala's 'worst' coffee go up in smoke?

GUATEMALA: April 27, 2001

GUATEMALA CITY - Sackloads of blackened, fermented coffee beans, 
likely to make any gourmet taster shudder, crept along a conveyor 
belt toward a blazing furnace at Guatemala's principal cement factory.

The Guatemalan cement company, as well as some coffee growers, are 
hoping the beans will burn well enough to become a potential new 
source of fuel for heavy industry.

However, many are skeptical of the idea of burning coffee for fuel.

Sponsored by the nation's private growers' association Anacafe, the 
coffee-burning experiment at Cementos Progreso is a test to see if 
low quality coffees permeating global markets could be taken out of 
global inventories without being put to waste.

Still in the experimental stage, the pilot plan is part of an attempt 
by a group of Latin American coffee producing nations to raise 
flagging world prices by putting low-grade coffee to uses other than 
human consumption. One idea is to use reject beans high in calorific 
value as an alternate source of fuel for heavy industry.

Guatemala, Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and 
Colombia have all agreed to put 5 percent of their coffee exports to 
similar uses and supplement a failing plan led by No. 1 producer 
Brazil to raise prices by withholding exports.

Inventories in consumer-country warehouses remain high in spite of 
the plan to retain exports and the price of coffee continues to 
plunge.

REJECT STOCK

In Guatemala, exporters sell reject "stock lot" beans that are left 
over after processing and are cheaper for buyers looking for coffee 
to mix into blends.

Anacafe recently bought 1,000 60-kg sacks of "stock lot" with its own 
resources and donated it to local cement monopoly for the pilot plan.

It has also approached a local glassmaker and a brick factory in the 
hopes that more areas of heavy industry will test the beans and 
approve their use as fuel on a permanent basis.

A 60-kg bag of "stock lot" currently sells at about half the price 
paid for standard coffee on the New York Coffee Sugar and Cocoa 
exchange.

"Stock lot" coffee is also roasted and ground for the internal market.

Cementos Progreso President Enrique Novella said the cement plant 
could be adapted to use coffee as a supplementary source of energy if 
the experiment proved successful, but it would always rely heavily on 
liquid fuel such as bunker.

"The results of this test-run will tell us whether we can do this at 
industrial level," he told Reuters.

THE MIRACLE CURE?

Is the plan a groundbreaking solution to the world coffee price debacle?

Not all are convinced.

"It's an absurd idea," Eduardo Gonzalez, veteran president of the 
Guatemalan Coffee Exporters Association told Reuters.

He said Vietnam and Indonesia, whose overproduction in recent years 
is cited by long-established producer nations as the root of the 
price crisis, would be happy to sell importers all the low-grade 
coffee they wanted if supplies of cheap coffee from Latin America 
were to ebb.

"We'd be playing straight into their hands," said Gonzalez.

He said that removing such Guatemalan coffee from the market would be 
a mere drop in the ocean compared with total world production, and 
would barely affect prices.

"Even if we burn all the inferior coffee in Guatemala, the market 
won't rise five cents," he said.

Hans Gustav Masch, who produces 46,000 60-kg bags per year in the 
prized gourmet region of Antigua - but sells most of it, including 
"stock lot" coffee, to the internal market - echoed his views.

"I personally think it's a real shame to burn coffee," he said. 
"We're just giving other countries the chance to jump in."

Masch also doubted such a move would stimulate the internal market.

He said he received a hefty premium from buyers seeking his top 
gourmet beans, but that more than half of his coffee ended up roasted 
and ground in Guatemalan supermarkets under his brand name "El 
Cafetalito."

The highest-grade Cafetalito coffee on sale retails at 25 quetzals 
($3.22) per pound. But Masch said there would always be a market for 
his bottom-of-the-range "stock lot" coffee which retailed at 11 
quetzals (1.41) per pound.

"A lot of Guatemalans simply can't afford to pay any more," he said.

Story by Greg Brosnan

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE

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