To say this month is off to an interesting in coffee start is an understatement! With coffee prices soaring again on the C-Market at the same time as global economics are experiencing high volatility and throwing currencies into a spin, people are understandably wondering what comes next!

Some are asking if the volatility that we saw in Cacao will be witnessed in coffee. To answer this question I wanted to get an expert onto the podcast who understands what happened in Cacao earlier this year.

This week on The Daily Coffee Pro Podcast by Map It Forward podcast hosted by founder, Lee Safar, our guest is Antonie Fountain, managing director and co-founder of VOICE Network (cocoa) and VOCAL Alliance (coffee) https://www.voicenetwork.cc .

In this series, Lee and Antonie explore the state of the cacao industry, paying particular attention to the impact recent price spikes are having on producers and the sustainability of the market at large.

The timing of this series (recorded in mid-late July) is good considering the parallels we’re starting to see between the two markets. While we’re not yet seeing the same supply shocks that lead to the shocking price hikes in cacao, we are starting to see those strains eventuating in top-producing countries and everyone should be watching this situation carefully in my humble opinion.

The 5 Episodes of this series:

1. Understanding the Cacao Market - https://youtu.be/GLtcVB1Fi6M

2. Unpacking the Cacao Crisis - https://youtu.be/2mWKqvRSfXc

3. What's Driving Cacao Farmer Poverty - https://youtu.be/Rfwmt7t3X7I

4. Big Corporations' Influence on Cocao - https://youtu.be/-N-UPlV1o9E

5. The Sustainability of Cacao - https://youtu.be/UZkNKrgB-aQ

Also, recently we had a series with Felipe Croce from FAF Coffees in Brazil who spoke eloquently on this same subject. Check out this article in Qahwa World where Felipe describes the way he sees solutions for the coffee industry in the future.

If you get a chance to take our online survey (see below), I’d be very grateful!

Have a wonderful week ahead!

Peace Love and Peanut Butter 

Lee