Every year, the Algrano Market Trends Report helps to better understand the coffee world. This year, Algrano brought in author Erika Koss, who worked with Luiza Furquim on the 60-page report. Many figures, graphics, and analyses help producers and roasters make decisions about where their coffee journey should go.
"Perhaps the times of heavily fermented coffees are over," says Raphael Studer in the YouTube conversation. Sales figures are declining, and more and more producers are shying away from elaborate post-harvest processes.
In their joint podcast discussion, Raphael and Philipp speak of a "sensory market correction." Raphael goes on to say that the specialty coffee industry may have been somewhat "naive" to believe that tastes could be changed. He further explains that super fruity coffees will always have their place. However, specialty coffee roasters are becoming increasingly flexible and are even more responsive to their customers' needs, as exemplified by Bonanza Coffee.
Information for producers - and roasteries
There are too many reports for roasteries, says Raphael, and too few for coffee producers. The Algrano Report (download here) is therefore intended for everyone who works with coffee. Above all, however, Algrano aims to show coffee producers how specialty coffee roasteries purchase and where the market is moving.
Because changes are happening faster on the processing and consumption side than where the coffee grows.
There are very simple reasons for this: a new coffee product is launched in a few moments, while a newly planted tree only yields a solid harvest after three years.
Consolidations and new laws
2023 was also a year of consolidations in the coffee sector. Some are normal, as Raphael says, for example, when an established company buys market shares by acquiring a specialized, smaller company. This happened, for example, when Interamerican Coffee acquired the Norwegian specialty dealer Nordic Approach.
However, consolidations are only an expression of a deeper crisis, Raphael continues. Many green coffee traders are taking increasing risks, achieving razor-thin profits to gain more market share. Meanwhile, interest rates have risen, money has become more expensive, and the financial burden is threatening more and more traders. Raphael speaks plainly about this in the podcast discussion starting at minute 09:45.
With the EU's Deforestation Regulation and Supply Chain Due Diligence Act, the legal conditions for coffee companies are also tightening. Even smaller roasteries will eventually have to prove that they operate sustainably – verifications carried out by a third party serve as a benchmark.
