Welcome to another edition of Field Notes! In this month’s newsletter: news about upcoming shipments from Sumatra, spot coffee highlights, information about delays at CTI NJ, and an update from Costa Rica.
Sumatra Shipping Soon
The combination of a late harvest and infrastructure issues caused by flooding resulted in significant shipment delays from Sumatra’s main crop this year, which affected buying plans for many roasters.
We’re happy to share that shipments from the fly crop are moving ahead on schedule, and we will have Mutu Batak, Suku Batak, Ondo, and Mandheling G1 on the water shortly. Transit times for these shipments are around eight weeks, and they are available now for forward booking. Right now there’s quite a bit of coffee available, but we expect it to move quickly as we get closer to the arrival date. If you are interested, reach out to your salesperson for details and pricing.
Spot Coffee Highlights
As we look ahead to the Fall arrivals season, there’s still plenty of great coffee available in our spot inventory. Fresh coffees from Costa Rica, Guatemala, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mexico, and more are in stock and ready to ship, with more arriving every week.
If you’re looking to fill a gap in your green coverage, we’d love to help. Take a look at our full offerings list and contact your salesperson or reach out to us via the form on our website for more information, pricing and sample requests.
Delays Continue at Continental NJ
Many of you are aware that we have been seeing significant delays with outbound shipments from CTI NJ since they completed a system update over Memorial Day weekend.
As of this week, we are still experiencing processing times of 5-7 business days for LTL shipments. We are hopeful that CTI will resolve the situation shortly, but for the time being we recommend continuing to submit orders well in advance to avoid coffee shortages.
This Month in Costa Rica
July has been a busy month for our team in Costa Rica. Exports for the 25/26 crop are being finished up and preparations continue for the upcoming harvest. We also held training events for members of our Doña Isa program in both Los Santos and Coto Brus, and were recognized by Costa Rica’s government for our Casas de Alegría project. Read on for more!
Doña Isa Training Events
Doña Isa debuted for the 24/25 crop as our first trademark coffee from Costa Rica sourced entirely from women producers. Members of the program receive additional premiums, plus technical support and training with the goal of improving agricultural practices, reducing costs, and mitigating environmental impacts.
The program has been a great success, and the membership has nearly doubled in its second year. At this month’s training events we arranged educational sessions about pruning, shade management, and fertilization practices. We also distributed new hedge trimmers to each attendee to help with weed management on their farms.
The coffees from these producer groups, Doña Isa Beneficio Rio Tarrazú and Doña Isa Beneficio Rio Negro, have quickly become staples for many of our customers, and we look forward to the continued growth of this project for the 26/27 crop and beyond!
Casas de Alegría Recognized
Our Casas de Alegría provide meals, learning, and a safe place to play for the children of farm workers during the workday at La Minita and Rio Negro. During the harvest season, these daycare centers care for over 700 children on a daily basis. This month, we received an award of recognition from Costa Rica’s RedCUDI (National Childcare and Child Development Network) for our efforts.
This is one our most important initiatives, and it is funded directly by your purchases of coffee from our farms in Costa Rica. We would like to thank our team in Costa Rica for their continued work on this project!
Doña Isa bags being prepared for shipment at Beneficio Rio Tarrazú
Members of the Doña Isa Beneficio Rio Negro program received hedge trimmers and other supplies at our recent training event
Laura Jimenez, who leads La Minita’s Casas de Alegría program, accepts RedCUDI’s award of recognition
That’s all for this month’s edition. Thanks for reading, and as always, if there’s anything we can do for you, reach out to your salesperson or fill out our contact form and we’ll get right back to you. See you next month!