What we learned from Specialty Coffee Expo 2023
On April 21st, the specialty coffee industry gathered to exchange, network and compete on a global stage for 3 days. The 2023 edition brought Coffee Expo back at its' peak with more than 12,000 attendees, 20% higher than the 2022 edition.
Vuna team was on the ground in Portland, Oregon and here are our top 3 learnings:
Moving from coffee quality assessment to value assessment: The evolution of the cupping tool is here to stay. But how will it unfold?
Loud news, silent ripples: How the new Fairtrade Minimum price policy is meeting producers' needs but failing to rally the industry.
Specialty Coffee Expo is not just a conference: As the nights fill with evening events, who takes center stage?
Want to share your own learnings? Drop it in the comments!
1. Moving from coffee quality assessment to value assessment.
This shift has been in the works for 3 years. The SCA reveals how to evolve the cupping tool the global industry uses to discover value in coffee with four distinct criteria:
A physical assessment of green coffee
A descriptive assessment of the coffee
An affective assessment of the coffee
An assessment of the extrinsic attributes of the coffee
While still in its beta testing, these tools shift the attention from a single cupping score to the concept of value assessment and value distribution.
While the consensus on this is generally positive, how will the tools be taken up by the industry? How long until we see meaningful change in the way buyers assign value to a coffee? Click here to read more
SCA Coffee Value Assessment — Specialty Coffee Association
2. The new Fairtrade minimum price fixes a long overdue price adjustment.
In the face of economic recession, inflation and climate change, producers rightfully demand a new minimum price of $.180/lb. We expect the industry to support this adjustment and continue to pay above it to reward origin, quality, etc.
But what we missed at Expo was a concerted effort from the Fairtrade system to use the biggest coffee stage to advocate and rally the industry behind this historical event in coffee (pricing) history!
Throughout the entire show, only one Sunday panel discussion took the task at hand, with excellent interventions from Silvia Gonzalez (UCA Miraflor - Nicaragua), Armia Zuhri (Permata Gayo coop) and Colleen Anunu (Gimme Coffee).
The question on our minds is: was this enough to promote the new pricing scheme or did we lose a huge opportunity to influence and lead the industry?
3. Specialty coffee expo strikes a wonderful work/fun balance, but is it for all?
If you ever attend Expo you soon come to grips with an overwhelmingly pleasant plethora of evening cocktail & food truck parties, get-togethers, and a whole lot of barista events!
While is fun is definitely guaranteed, Vuna’s competition, Coffee Champions League, filled a void: celebrating and rewarding origin based coffee professionals! An event prepared with them and for them with all the right ingredients:
a nail biting, teams competition on coffee knowledge!
plenty of networking with peers from all over the world
copious amount delicious hot food & drinks, and great music
We cant wait to bring Coffee Champions League to more coffee events near you!
Now let’s hear it from you! Comment on our Expo learnings or better, share yours with us!