Coffee

An alarming thought just raced through my mind - will I get my morning cup of coffee in Guatemala?

Of course, you coffee aficionados (how's that for using Spanish!) know that Guatemala produces some very fine Arabica beans. But, growing and picking them is a long way off from roasting and brewing them. Reminds me of life back on the farm, just because we grew barley doesn't mean we drank a lot of beer. (Ok, we did drink our share, but there was no "producer discount").

So the question remains - Do Guatemalans drink coffee?

According to the June 2009 Coffee Report of the International Coffee Organization, the per capita consumption of coffee in 2008 in Guatemala was 1.3kg. At the same time it was 5.8kg in Canada. In other words, we consume about five times more coffee!

Perhaps I should begin weaning myself to one cup a day.

Here are some other interesting coffee facts:
* There is a world coffee crisis - the supply of coffee far exceeds the demand. While this doesn't seem to affect the price of coffee at Starbucks or Tim Horton's, it greatly affects producers, especially the small, family owned coffee farms in coffee producing countries like Guatemala.
* We pay more for one cup of coffee than a producer receives for a pound of coffee beans ($1.19/lb). Some farmers receive even less - they're at the mercy of the "coyotes" the middlemen between farmer and trader.
* Fair trade coffee buyers work directly with the producer thereby cutting out the middleman and paying producers their fair share.
* It takes 1 to 3 years for a coffee tree to produce 2000 cherries needed to make 1 lb of roasted coffee.
* The International Coffee Organization, in its effort to combat the coffee crisis, offers a "Step by Step Guide to Promote Coffee Consumption in Producing Countries". One step in the guide includes disseminating positive health-related information on coffee to potential consumers.