The coffee world has been turned upside down since the COVID pandemic. Delivery delays, high coffee prices, challenges for producers, traders, and roasteries. In addition, there were frost and drought in Brazil – nothing is as it was just a short while ago. This podcast is intended to be a compass for everyone in the coffee industry to navigate through the coming months.
In this episode: Mark Bolliger, Finca Rosenheim, Villa Rica, Peru
In this special edition of our Kaffeemacher podcast, I talk to people who analyze the current situation, clarify questions, and raise important new questions. Everyone who works with coffee in any way is already feeling the changes, or will be in just a few weeks at the latest.
In this episode of Coffea Economica, I talk to Mark Bolliger from Finca Rosenheim in Villa Rica, Peru.
Mark Bolliger, Finca Rosenheim, Peru
Mark Bolliger is a coffee producer in Peru and runs Finca Rosenheim. With Philipp Schallberger, Mark talks about things that sometimes seem trivial to him because they are so commonplace – but for his customers, who are green coffee traders and roasters, this information is not at all self-evident. Coffee production is sometimes reported romantically and often with clichés. Mark talks about the daily challenges, increased fertilizer prices, bad roads, and why he doesn't produce organic coffee.
- On organic coffee: "I make coffee for economic reasons. If someone would pay me what I need for organic coffee, then I would do it, and do it really well."
- "I often think about leaving coffee production behind. But I don't. Making coffee consumes you. But I also don't want to grow old and still be making coffee and always have the same problems."
- "Picking coffee is incredibly hard work. The people who do it well can earn well. But there are other jobs here, and I have to compete with these jobs. I have to make the job attractive."
