THIRD ANNUAL AFRICAN FINE COFFEE CONFERENCE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 NAIROBI 001059

SIPDIS

AID/W FOR AA/AFR, AFR/DP, AFR/SD, AFR/EA,AFR/EGAT/EG

E.O.12958: N/A
TAGS: EAGR EAID ECON ETRD KE PGOV SENV
SUBJECT: THIRD ANNUAL AFRICAN FINE COFFEE CONFERENCE
AND EXHIBITION, ARUSHA, TANZANIA, FEBRUARY 16-18, 2006.



1. USAID/REDSO through the Regional Agricultural Trade
Expansion Support (RATES) program, supported the
Eastern African Fine Coffees Association (EAFCA) to
once again successfully implement and host the Third
African Fine Coffee Conference and Exhibition, known by
many as the World?s WILDEST Coffee Conference (WWC),
held in Arusha, Tanzania from February 16 - 18, 2006.


2. EAFCA was founded in 2001 through a USAID grant
under the sustainable tree crops program. Since 2002,
EAFCA has received substantial assistance from
USAID/REDSO's RATES program and has undergone a major
transformation to becoming a leading internationally
recognized force in the specialty coffee industry. This
third WWC attracted over 400 producers, traders and
coffee stakeholders. In addition to the key regional
players, approximately 200 of the attendees were
serious buyers and roasters from outside the African
continent. This annual conference and exhibition
developed by the USAID REDSO/RATES team has also been a
major factor in the marked increase of sales in African
fine coffees to the USA, Japan and Europe since the
RATES project inception. This year saw EAFCA taking
over most of the critical functions of organizing and
managing the event and highlights their progress in
reaching their goal of financial sustainability within
the next three years. Revenues generated from
conference fees and the exhibition booths, combined
with travel related expenses paid by the participants
(all who were self funded),totaled a GDA estimated
value at 1 - 1.5 million U.S. Dollars. EAFCA is
expected to generate 100 per cent of their operational
costs for FY 06 (approximate net revenues of 200,000-
250,000 U.S. Dollars) from the event.


3. The event attracted a number of international coffee
industry luminaries including Mary Williams, co-founder
of Starbucks, Jerry Baldwin, founder of Peets Coffee,
Nester Osorio, executive director of International
Coffee Organization (ICO),Rick Peyser, president of
Green Mountain Coffee, Ted Lingle, executive director
of Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA),Mick
Wheeler, executive director of Specialty Coffee
Association of Europe (SCAE),were among the many
distinguished presenters and participants on the three
day program. The conference theme of ?Africa: The
Future of Specialty Coffee? was especially appropriate
in light of the bullish market projections by Judith
Chase-Gaines, a renowned coffee market analyst.


4. USAID RATES assisted EAFCA to hold national level
?Taste of Harvest? cupping competitions to select the
top five coffees per EAFCA country. At the conference,
a team of internationally known cuppers, many who came
as volunteers under the USAID supported Coffee Quality
Institute's (CQI) Coffee Corps, judged the "Taste of
Harvest" coffees presented by the ten member countries
of EAFCA (Burundi, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi,
Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The
judges included Lindsey Bolger (USA),Sunalini Menon
(India),Arnoldo Leiva (Costa Rica),Stephen Leach
(USA),and Daniel Mulu (Ethiopia). The top two winners
from each country that scored over 80 on the SCAA
specialty coffee scoring criteria (a score of 80 or
higher is required to be considered specialty coffee by
SCAA standards),were presented awards. Of the 40
coffees tasted, thirty scored over 80 with several top
scorers from Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia
approaching an impressive 90 on the international scale
rating fine and specialty coffees. This is a strong
indication of the progress EAFCA has made in being able
to identify top coffees in the region.



5. As a service to its membership, EAFCA has provided
an intensive year of cupping, milling, brewing and
grading trainings. The trainings have been implemented
by USAID RATES/EAFCA in association with the USAID
supported CQI Coffee Corps volunteers. It is clear that
the message of quality and consistency is being
communicated: five of the eleven Starbucks premium
"Black Apron" coffees originate from EAFCA members. A
number of buyers and roasters have commented that they
are now seeking out and purchasing more coffees from
the EAFCA origins because of the fact that their
customers are demanding the unique and distinctive
flavors of the coffees. Suppliers are also able to more
consistently provide these better quality coffees to
the buyers because of successful EAFCA training
programs.


6. Conference presentations ranged from market pricing
and stock analyses to the experiences of exporters and
importers. Panel discussions were held on a number of
relevant topics including the feasibility of a regional
African coffee auction, certification and
sustainability, processing, relationship coffees and
the demystification of the European, Japanese and US
markets. USAID Washington staff Carol Wilson and Chris
Kosnik gave a presentation on the future of USAID?s
support to the coffee sector. The President of Ecologic
Finance, William Foote, gave a presentation on
financing coffee cooperatives in East Africa to
purchase inputs for producing high quality coffee.


7. The keynote speaker at the final dinner was world
famous primatologist and UN Messenger of Peace, Dr.
Jane Goodall, whose TACARE project has been supported
by USAID Tanzania for a number of years. The Jane
Goodall Institute (JGI) also receives support for their
conservation coffee marketing efforts through the RATES
Partners Fund. In her speech, Dr. Goodall highlighted
the relationship that coffee has with conservation of
the environment and wildlife and with the quality of
life. The AA for EGAT, Jackee Schafer, and USAID
Tanzania mission director, Pamela White, joined Dr.
Goodall for dinner and were thanked for USAID?s support
to JGI?s efforts to support small holder coffee
farmers. The farmers are being encouraged to protect
lands that will provide the leafy corridor for chimps
to travel from the Gombe Park to other
regions/countries with chimp populations. With the
marketing of a Jane Goodall brand coffee, these small
farmers should substantially benefit from the sales of
their coffees under the JGI label sold through roasters
such as Green Mountain Roasters and others who
expressed a very strong interest in marketing these
coffees. Green Mountain executives visited the
cooperatives in Kigoma area prior to the conference and
were very encouraged with the coffees they cupped and
the level of the production in the region surrounding
Gombe.


8. As in previous years, the Arusha conference was
effective due to the wide range of coffee industry
players from African small holders who recognize the
value of investing in attending such an event to the
largest coffee roasters and buyers from leading
worldwide companies and international markets. The
giant Ueshima Coffee Company Ltd. (UCC) of Japan
attended for the first time and, like Starbucks who
attended for the second consecutive year, indicated
interest in purchasing more African origins as a result
of their attending the conference. Market development
progress was indicated by the fact that virtually all
the major coffee import houses were present and had
exhibition booths. Present companies included Neumann
Gruppe, Volcafe, ED&F Mann, C. Dorman and Taylor Winch.

EAFCA, with the assistance of RATES, is already
undertaking preparations for the next WWC 4 event to be
held February 15 - 17, 2007 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

For more information about the conference please visit
www.eafca.org - www.worldswildestcoffee.com BELLAMY