Panamanian Coffee Production

Overview
 
Coffee is one of the world’s biggest export commodities, the top agricultural export for a dozen countries and one of the world's ten largest legal agricultural exports by value. (Source: FAO Statistics Division.) According to John Talbot of the University of the West Indies, “Coffee is the second most valuable commodity exported by developing countries, a distant second to crude oil,” but well ahead of third place sugar and other agricultural, forestry and mining outputs.
 
“The number of people who depend on coffee for all or most of their living is in excess of 75 million,” according to Ric Rhinehart, executive director of the Special Coffee Association of America (SPAA). According to Rhinehart’s estimates, coffee is a $90 billion a year industry. His explanation of this figure provides valuable insights into the commodity. In 2008, Rhinehart states, approximately 18 billion pounds of green coffee beans were sold for $22 billion, at an average of $1.24/lb.
 
“Here is a place where the math gets interesting,” according to Rhinehart. “All that coffee gets roasted, reducing its weight to around 14 billion pounds. Of that, roughly 70% is sold for home consumption at about $4.50/lb, yielding about $45 billion.” The other 30% is brewed and sold at higher prices for another $45 billion, approximately. Combining sales of roasted coffee with brewed sales produces the $90 billion annual estimate.
 
Others, including Antony Wild, the author of Black Gold, have suggested that the people and dollars involved in the coffee industry are far in excess of Rhinehart’s estimates.
 
Panama Coffee
 
It is my privilege to live in Boquete, “the Napa Valley of coffee” according to gentleman farmer John Collins of Finca Lerida. Boquete is located in the province of Chiriqui in the Republic of Panama. Here, roughly 100 plantations of varying size grow many coffee varieties along rainforest mountainsides. The comparison to Napa Valley is apt; Boquete’s coffee plantations are at least as picturesque as Napa’s vineyards. Here coffee is cupped daily and analyzed for its bouquet. Because of the high altitudes, the beans are very dense and uniform, mild with a medium body, good aroma and high acidity. These estate coffees are considered among the best in the world, and they consistently place in the top ranks at international cupping contests. Boquete coffees begin at $10/lb in the U.S. and often command much higher prices.
 
Finca Lerida’s coffee was recently ranked first among 119 coffees from 15 countries at the cupping pavilion during the Boston SPAA annual meeting. Adjectives overheard at such events are similar to those used at a wine tasting: nutty, fruity, floral hints, smoky, full-bodied, delicate, cle.....




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