12/08/2012

The coffee supply chain

The coffee supply chain

Description of the Coffee Supply Chain The coffee supply chain is here briefly described using its different life cycle phases: - agricultural phase (cultivation of green coffee), - roasted coffee production phase, - additional processing phase, - transport and distribution phase, - consumption phase, - waste management phase. The agricultural phase includes the cultivation of green coffee with different treatments such as soil management, fertilization, pest treatment and harvesting. Each of these treatments can be exploited in different ways depending on cultivation practices (conventional or organic), typology of plantation (shaded or sunlight crops; monoculture or polyculture crops), harvesting method (manual or mechanized), etc. After the harvesting, coffee beans can be processed in two different ways following the dry method or the wet one: - the dry method (also called the natural method) is the oldest and simplest one and it is used for about 90% of the Arabica coffee produced in Brazil, most of the coffees produced in Ethiopia, Haiti and Paraguay, as well as for some Arabicas produced in India and Ecuador; also almost all Robustas are processed by this method. It is not practical in very rainy regions, where the humidity of the atmosphere is too high or where it rains frequently during harvesting. The dry method involves the following steps: sorting and cleaning - the harvested cherries are usually sorted and cleaned, to separate the unripe, overripe and damaged cherries and to remove dirt, soil, twigs and leaves; this can be done by hand or by flotation in washing channels; drying - the coffee cherries are spread out in the sun and turned by hand for 3-4 weeks; in larger plantation a machine-drying can be used after the coffee has been pre-dried in the sun for a few days; hulling an hulling machine removes all the outer layers of the dried cherry (skin and pulp). The solid wastes generated (skin and pulp) are used as fuel for thermal applications; storage - after hulling dried green beans are stored and remain in this form until shortly before export. - the wet method (also called the washed method) requires the use of specific equipment and substantial quantities of water and the coffee produced by this method is usually regarded as being of better quality and commands higher prices. It is generally used for Arabica coffees (with the exception of those produced in Brazil and the Arabica-producing countries mentioned above as users of the dry method) and it is rarely used for Robustas. The wet method involves the following steps: sorting and cleaning - it can be done by washing the cherries in tanks filled with flowing water; pulping this is done by a machine which squeezes the cherries between two serrated metal plates so that the skin and the pulp of the fruit are detached from the seed. The mucilage-coated seeds and fruit skins (with pulp) are separated into different streams. The skin and pulp are carried away in a stream of flowing water and the pulp (solid waste used as animal feed or fertilizer after a composting process) is separated from the waste water (pulp water) that can join the wastewater stream or recovered in the pulping process. The beans, enclosed in their mucilaginous parchment covering, are sent to the next stage; washing (mucilage removing) - because the pulping is done by mechanical means it normally leaves some residual flesh as well as the sticky mucilage adhering to the parchment surrounding the beans which has to be completely removed to avoid contamination of the coffee beans by products resulting from the degradation of the mucilage. There are five different methods of removing this mucilage (natural fermentation, chemical methods, warm water soaking, enzymatic fermentation, attrition), but the most popular one combine fermentation and attrition. The beans are placed in large fermentation tanks in which the mucilage is broken down by natural enzymes until it is dispersible, when it can be washed away. For most coffees mucilage removal takes between 24 and 36 hours, depending on the temperature, thickness of the mucilage layer and concentration of the enzymes. When the fermentation is complete, the coffee is thoroughly washed with clean water in tanks or in special washing machines; drying - to reduce the moisture of the washed coffee it is dried either in the sun, in a mechanical dryer, or by a combination of the two. The use of hot-air drying machines becomes necessary to speed up the process in large plantations where, at the peak of the harvesting period, there might be much more coffee than can be effectively dried on the terraces. However, the process must be carefully controlled to achieve satisfactory and economical drying without any damage to quality; storage - after drying, the wet-processed coffee, or parchment coffee as it is commonly known, is stored and remains in this form until shortly before export.
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The coffee supply chain

The production phase includes the coffee processing and packing stage. Coffee processing includes the following steps: storing, cleaning and weighting; roasting; cooling; blending; grinding. The only waste of this phase is the parchment layer that still cover the bean removed with the use of a mechanical process. Sometimes coffee powder may be subjected to different processes to develop product varieties (additional processing phase) such as instant coffee manufacture or decaffeinated coffee. These processes may be done in the same firms or in other manufacturing companies. The packaging step includes many different types of primary and secondary packaging for roast coffee (aluminium cans, paper filters, etc) depending on the choices of the company. The transport and distribution phase includes all the transport activities, related to raw materials, by-products, wastes depending on production capacity and localization of firms, and distribution of the product in the sell market at a local, regional, national or international level, depending on the strategy and production capacity of the firm. Especially transport from coffee growers to roasting companies (generally of other countries) is very relevant in this phase. Transport activities can occur also elsewhere in the life cycle (other than where already mentioned), either between any two subsequent life-cycle stages or within a given stage, depending on the site-specific means of processing and the level of supply-chain integration. The consumption phase, in the case of roasted coffee, cannot be considered as an insignificant stage in a life cycle perspective, because the product consumption need further preparations or treatments that involve energy consumption. Nevertheless, the consumption step is very difficult to measure and/or estimate because it depends on so many different factors: consumer nationality and tastes (the amounts of coffee and water used to make French coffee and Italian espresso differ greatly) or the type and brand of coffee machine used (in particular for energy consumption) amongst others and these differences are highly significant (30%). The waste management phase (end of life) includes the procedures for treatment of packaging wastes (cardboard boxes, coffee chaff, coffee grounds, etc.). This phase can also have great impacts on the environment depending on the chosen method of waste management (for example, reuse, recycling, landfilling, etc).

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The coffee supply chain

References - The International Coffee Organization (ICO) www.ico.org.

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The coffee supply chain

- Salomone R., 2003, Life Cycle Assessment applied to coffee production: investigating environmental impacts to aid decision making for improvements at company level, in Food, Agriculture & Environment, Vol. 1(2), 295-300. Chanakya H.N., De Alwis A.A.P.. 2004, Environmental issues and management in primary coffee processing, in Process Safety and Environmental Protection, 82(B4), 291-300.

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