Attending Digital Coffee Future’s “Coffee Prices and Technology Summit: Trends, Margins and Pay Gap” in October was a revelation, immersing me in the complex landscape where coffee prices intersect with the potential of technology. In an industry grappling with perennially low prices exacerbated by factors like economic fluctuations and unpredictable weather conditions, the summit aimed to explore the often-overlooked role of digital tools as a catalyst for change.

The conversation about coffee prices in the global coffee industry is as common as small talk about the weather, but knowledge hub Digital Coffee Future says it rarely includes discussion on how – and if – technology can play a role in mitigating the challenges that arise from coffee pricing instability and unsustainability. To address why, DCF hosted the Coffee Prices and Technology Summit: Trends, Margins and Pay Gap from 25 to 26 October. The online event brought together speakers from around the globe and every node of the coffee value stream.

Since 2021, Digital Coffee Future (DCF) has been working on a digital training program to address the needs of coffee producers. In September and October 2022, the DCF team—together with the Neumann Foundation and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)—guided 20 cooperatives from Central America through a pilot program.

As terms like container shortages, shipping delays or the vague “logistics issues” have become commonplace in reference to all kinds of consumer goods in the post-COVID era, a new webinar series from the firm Digital Coffee Future is set to explore some tech-forward, coffee-specific solutions. The three-part series, called “The Logic of Coffee Logistics,” begins Thursday, May 19, with additional webinars taking place June 2 and June 16.

For most of the coffee drinking public, coffee is a thing that is grown in a different country and that gets roasted somewhere closer to home, without much attention given to every step in between. This middle section of international commerce is generally referred to loosely as “logistics”, a sort-of unsexy catchall for the many stops on the supply chain an item must take to get from Point A to Point B.

In October, the organization Digital Coffee Future held its inaugural Traceability Summit, a two-day online gathering of coffee and coffee-adjacent professionals from around the world. Holding onto the tagline “Traceability is more than just a buzzword,” the meeting sought to define, dissect and promote digital traceability throughout the coffee value stream.

Alongside quality, knowing where our coffee comes is a hallmark of specialty coffee. But just as the definition of quality has evolved and developed over the past decade and more, so too have expectations around traceability and transparency in the supply stream. These expectations impact buyers and suppliers alike, who must adapt their practices and processes to share traceability information with their customers, clients, and partners.

A new virtual networking and information hub focused on promoting the effective use of digital technology in the coffee industry called Digital Coffee Future is holding its first Traceability Summit on Oct. 28-29. The online ticketed event will feature live panel discussions, meetings and networking opportunities, with the goal of defining and demystifying digital traceability in the coffee industry.

What is digital traceability? In terms of coffee production, there is a general idea of what it means—using the power of the internet or the cloud or blockchain or some such to provide transparency on what a coffee is and where it comes from—but really only painted in the broadest of strokes. But in practice, what is it though? What does it mean for producers, importers, and roasters or does the meaning change for each?

En este episodio platicamos con Jessika Heredia, donde platicamos un poco de sus origenes y contexto, la importancia de la digitalización del café y como están abordando estos temas tan relevantes como sostenibilidad y la trazabilidad.

Al pensar en “digitalización” vienen varios conceptos a nuestra mente: tecnología, datos, automatización, apps, big data, ¿robots? Pero, ¿qué es y qué tiene que ver con la cadena de suministro del café?

This edition of Digital Coffee Future focuses on collaboration between coffee producers and cooperatives.

For all the talk of sustainability in the specialty coffee world, many of the loudest cries come from the demand side of the equation.

In the year that will be remembered for an explosion of webinars and online-based education, Digital Coffee Future will stand out in the specialty-coffee industry as one of the great successes.

In the coffee sector, 2019 was distinguished by several publications presenting digital innovations as an opportunity to create a fairer and more sustainable coffee value chain.

Europe-based coffee professionals Elisa Criscione and Sara Morrocchi have created three upcoming webinars to explore the use of digital tools in the coffee chain.

This episode is a one and one. One conversation about coffee data and the importance of accessibility and another on coffee data and digitalization.

Kona coffee growers in Hawaii are now eligible for settlements in a 2019 class action lawsuit; Digital Coffee Future will host a series of webinars on the intersection of climate change and technology; Canadian chain Tim Horton’s has announced significant investment into the digital guest experience; UK press outlets cover the staying power of coffee consumption shifts.