Growing coffee is a grind, writes Tom McKinlay.
The thick crema on the demitasse confirms the promise of the aroma. You know it is going to be good, because you have been buying this one coffee, from one specific sub-region for some time. It is special.
Well, enjoy it while you can, because specialty coffee from boutique regions could become a thing of the past, Trade Aid food manager Justin Purser says.
Coffee is heading in a blander, more mass-produced direction altogether.
''If I were to predict what the future of coffee looks like, it involves mass production with mechanised harvesters in monocultural environments in Brazil and Vietnam. I think that is where we are heading,'' Mr Purser says.
''So we are going to lose all the artisan, backyard, hand-produced coffee that the industry holds so dear.''
Today marks the halfway point of Fair Trade Fortnight, a fortnight in which Mr Purser has spoken in Dunedin, sharing stories from Trade Aid's efforts to get a sustainable return for the producers of coffee and cocoa.
Mr Purser has visited the countries in which our coffee is grown many times, and the picture is not promising.
''Prices have been so low for so long that farmers are struggling to motivate the next generation. So we have a lot of ageing tree stock, cocoa and coffee for example, and ageing farmers and nobody coming up behind them.''
The average age of farmers in prized coffee-growing countries such as Colombia and Kenya is the wrong side of 50. Coffee prices have gone backwards for growers, hardly responding even in times of shortage.
The problem is an imbalance of power, Mr Purser says.
''It is control over prices, which is ultimately unevenly balanced in the hands of the buyers. We always have options, farmers do not.''
Everyone is implicated, Mr Purser says.
Trade Aid imports almost all the fair trade organic coffee into New Zealand, then sells it on to 90 different roasters. In all it imports about 1000 tonnes of coffee a year.
It tries to keep costs out of the supply chain and pre-finances orders at no interest, which helps farmers. But it is nothing like enough to meet farmers' needs.
At the end of its journey the coffee might become a $4 flat white, or a plunger coffee, made at home for about 60c. Either way, the farmer's cut is about 10c.
In order to make it economically sustainable for the grower, that 10c needs to double, but for that to be possible, consumers have to be prepared to pay the extra.
''We can't turn decades worth of downward pricing trends around overnight, but by working on the most direct supply chain we can, educating our customers about the situation and why it's important that we all move together towards a higher pricing structure for farmers, then we can move the bar,'' Mr Purser says.
There is a large element of enlightened self-interest in this, he says.
''If you like Bourbon coffee grown in Colombia ... then you are going to have to do more to ensure that it is available in the future.''
