A sign is seen outside Starbucks headquarters on July 3, 2024 in Seattle, Washington.
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More than ten years ago, Starbucks Purchased first coffee farm in Costa Rica. Now, the coffee giant has added two more products to its portfolio.
The Seattle-based company said Thursday it invested in another farm in Costa Rica and its first in Guatemala, hoping to get closer to its goal of protecting coffee supplies from climate change.
In recent years, extreme weather such as rising temperatures, frosts in Brazil, and three consecutive years of La Niña have affected coffee production and put pressure on supply. For Starbucks, which buys 3% of the world's coffee, the shortage could mean scrambling to find Arabica beans and offering customers higher prices. According to statistics, as of August, coffee consumer prices have increased by 18% in the past five years. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Roberto Vega, global vice president of Starbucks, said: “The frost in Brazil has affected up to 50% of sales, so we may have a very serious impact on product supply, and this situation is throughout the coffee belt. becoming more and more common.
The Coffee Belt refers to the equatorial regions with ideal conditions for growing coffee beans.
On February 3, 2023, a worker was cutting and collecting coffee berries at a coffee plantation in Heredia, Costa Rica.
Ezequiel Becerra | AFP | Getty Images
At the two new farms, Starbucks will study how blended coffee varieties perform at different altitudes and soil conditions. The hybrid plant's properties include greater productivity and resistance to coffee leaf rust, a fungus that grows at higher temperatures and rainfall.
“We can develop new hybrids, but the fact that a hybrid works in one country and under certain conditions doesn't mean it will work everywhere,” Vega said.
Vega’s team also hopes to address other challenges facing coffee farmers that are not a direct result of climate change.
For example, the company's new farms in Guatemala are small, with poor soil and low productivity. Starbucks hopes to turn a profit by restoring the soil and then use the experience to teach other farmers how to do the same thing.
“The farm is not necessarily in good condition, and that's what we want. We want a farm that really reflects the challenges farmers face today,” Vega said.
Second farm in Costa Rica, next to their existing farm Assas ManorStarbucks plans to use drones, mechanization and other technologies to address the labor shortage faced by many Latin American farmers.
Starbucks eventually plans to buy two more farms in Africa and Asia, expanding its agricultural portfolio across the coffee belt.