Thirty seconds for a coffee? But I want it now! Plus, Starbucks and Nestlé face allegations of child labor in their supply chains, specialty coffee spreads in India, and drinking coffee could extend your life.
‘Starbucks and Nestlé Face Scrutiny Over Labor Practices in China’ – via The Washington Post
Starbucks and Nestlé are two of the largest purchasers of coffee, and both claim to abide by specific sustainability standards when making buying decisions. However, according to a new report, coffee farms in both companies’ supply chains have allegedly violated these standards.
The non-profit China Labor Watch published the report based on undercover reporting at 26 farms in the Yunnan province of China, where most of the country’s coffee is grown. As Vic Chiang and Christian Shepherd in the Washington Post report, the investigation alleges that the labor violations occurred on “ghost farms,” small, often family-run farms that informally supply coffee to the larger estates certified by Starbucks or Nestlé. According to Chiang and Shepherd, these ghost farms were “sometimes using children as workers, excessive hours and lax safety standards to meet their targets.”
The report authors describe this practice as “coffee laundering” because it allows “coffee produced under unethical conditions to be ‘laundered’ into the global market under the guise of being ethically sourced.”
Both Starbucks and Nestlé’s certifications are meant to ensure certain labor standards are met, such as ensuring workers are paid a minimum wage and given medical care—and they have zero tolerance guidelines for child labor. However, because the certified estates sourced additional coffee from these ghost farms, labor violations remained under the radar.
According to China Labor Watch’s founder, Li Qiang, such informal outsourcing arrangements are common in the country. “It makes violations difficult to track for consumers and obscures accountability in the supply chain,” he said.
Approached for comment by the Washington Post, Starbucks and Nestlé “said they had strict rules to prevent the kinds of labor violations being alleged, and both companies pledged to investigate further.”
This isn’t the first time these two companies have faced allegations of labor violations—including child labor—in their supply chains. It has happened multiple times over the past decade.
‘The Specialty Coffee Wave Sweeping Small-town India’ – via BBC News
In 2021, Harmanpreet Singh opened Buland Café in Jalandhar in northern India. Three years later, Buland has expanded to 40 locations across the city and is especially popular with young coffee drinkers. “It’s a thriving scene,” Singh told Sadaf Hussain for BBC News.
Buland Café’s growth is just one data point indicating that the specialty coffee scene in India is growing, expanding out of big cities and influenced by homegrown brands like Blue Tokai and Cafe Coffee Day.
While coffee has long been popular in India, recently, more people have been interested in specialty coffee, BBC News reports. Moreover, more people are willing to pay higher prices for specialty coffee. “Clients have become more knowledgeable about the roasts and are interested in the origins of their coffee,” said Bharat Singhal of Bili Hu Coffee.
Singhal says that demand is spreading to smaller cities, and much like in other parts of the world, growth is driven in part by social media trends. “People want good coffee but they also want to be in a space that’s trendy and which they can post online.”
‘Brian Niccol Wants Starbucks Customers to Get Their Cups of Coffee in ‘Under 30 Seconds” – via Nation’s Restaurant News
Brian Niccol wants you to get your coffee quickly—he’s aiming for 30 seconds or less.
The new Starbucks CEO is doing the rounds once again to convince customers that he is reinvigorating the coffee giant after a year of disappointing sales. So far, he has promised the return of comfy seating, baristas writing names on cups in Sharpie, and to pare down the company’s ballooning menu.
Now, he’s pitching convenience. “You’re going to have an experience where when you walk in and you interact with the barista, it’s going to be really quick for that brewed cup of coffee,” Niccol told Good Morning America. “My hope is we can get you a brewed cup of coffee in less than 30 seconds.”
For more labor-intensive drinks, Niccol’s goal is to decrease wait times to four minutes, and wants the company’s app to predict wait times more accurately. If you’ve been to a Starbucks over the past few years, you’ve probably seen piles of drinks lined up at the end of the bar, waiting for someone to grab them while other customers wait impatiently for their drinks; Niccol wants to change that.
Crucially, he also announced that Starbucks won’t be raising its prices—for now at least. “The approach we’ve taken right now is we’re going to hit the pause button on any pricing for this fiscal year,” he said.
More News
‘New Investment Firm Sojourner Acquires Hawaii Coffee Company’ – via Daily Coffee Company
‘Coffee Traders Cough Up $7 Billion in Margin Calls in Wild Month‘ – via Bloomberg
‘Coffee Becomes a Luxury in Greece due to Prices Hikes‘ – via Tovima.com
‘Woman-run Cafe Shakes Off Stigma that Operating a Coffeeshop is a Man’s Job‘ – via The Star
‘This 11 Foot Tall, 3,200 Shot Super Latte Is Now The World’s Largest‘ – via Sprudge
‘EUDR ‘No Risk’ Status Proposal Dropped‘ – via Tea & Coffee Trade Journal
Is Coffee Good For You?
We cover a lot of health-related coffee news in this roundup. Usually, it is related to a specific condition or ailment, but occasionally, we get news of something broad—existential even—like a study that says coffee can extend our lives.
In a new paper, researchers in Portugal reviewed 50 studies to explore coffee’s impact on all-cause mortality (death from any cause, including disease or accident). They found that regular coffee consumption can add nearly two years of “healthspan,” or length of time free from disease, to a person’s life.
The study was published in Ageing Research Reviews and found that “regular coffee consumption seems associated with a preservation of muscular, cardiovascular, mental and immune system functions and seems inversely associated with the incidence of the most frequent diseases affecting the elderly.” Between two and three cups a day seems to be the sweet spot.
“We know that the world’s population is aging faster than ever, which is why it’s increasingly important to explore dietary interventions which may allow people to not only live longer but also healthier lives,” said lead author Rodrigo Cunha from the University of Coimbra in a press release. “Our review underlines the role regular, moderate coffee consumption can play in mediating against the biological mechanisms which naturally slow or fail as we get older.”
Beyond the Headlines
‘Fresh Cup’s 2024 Coffee Gift Guide’ by Fresh Cup Contributors
‘Wages for Hospitality Work’ by Ashley Rodriguez
‘The Purpose of the Coffee Industry Is What It Does’ by Fionn Pooler
