Friday, August 01, 2003


o moon, kiss me darkly, deeply

even those of us who prefer premium european-style artisanal chocolates have fond memories of the hersheys' little kiss. before you were old enough to know better, they were heavenly. . .

they have nostalgia value. but soon they may actually be more worth eating, as hersheys prepares to introduce its first dark chocolate kisses.

and in another interesting thing that caught my eye, international development organization technoserve recently put out a press release on its huge business case study.

this study would identify ways to reform the coffee trade and market practices in an effort to take a stab at doing something about the world-price depression known as the coffee crisis.

the press release was entitled something like "all sectors of the coffee industry get together!" but in fact, our lovely friends at technoserve had forgotten the only 2 sectors that can actually create profound change. . .

producers -- coffee growers and workers -- and consumers. that's right: the reason there is a coffee trade period is because some of us like to drink the stuff. markets supply. if there's a supply problem, one aspect to solving it is demand.

thus, the consumer. but sometimes with all due respect to my dearest friends in the coffee industry, i have to jump up and down and cry out "we drink coffee! we exist! we, your customers! talk to us! acknowledge us!"

all we want is the highest-quality coffee at a fair (to producer and consumer) price, which shouldn't be difficult, considering that coffee prices are still in the toilet, while the supermarket cans raise their own prices and lower their quality every year.

for what you pay for your supermarket brand x, for heaven's sake, you should be drinking premium beans. but of course the mega-multinationals are not interested in giving consumers a good deal. . .

thus, the need for us coffee lovers to rush over to aid the good work of the scaa, to become consumer members, and to support our local independent roasters/coffeehouses simply by buying and enjoying our daily coffee from them.

this is why i frankly threw in the towel and just called technoserve's p.r. department myself. yup, they were stunned. why was this dopey nice middle-class married lady calling the great and wise masters of international development?

once they picked themselves off up the floor, i politely and sweetly told 'em that once their fancy business report came out, they should consider the consumer. at least they humored me. . . .

although it seemed kinda clear as if their attitude was "not as if those little people who drink the product are of any importance, have any knowledge."

supply and demand. supply and demand. where do these fancy development economists get their advanced degrees?

what's the best thing to do? increase the quality! quality begets price begets quality, as one of my pals in the industry is famous for saying.

reaching the producers can be done through their agencies and groups, like good ol' juan valdez. and reaching struggling farmers and workers to offer them alternatives can be done through that wonderful charity, coffee kids.

because the fact is, until we can get the quality up, and thereby demand, we also have to produce less coffee. we need to give farmers and workers ways to move to a different livelihood without destroying their economies and social fabric.

if only technoserve could see this! hello, technoserve: paging your common sense. . . .

posted by fortune | 6:41 PM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments