Kenya Coffee Prices Jump as Exporters Replenish Stocks

Kenyan coffee prices jumped 16 percent at an auction yesterday as exporters replenished their inventories amid reduced supplies ahead of the Christmas break, the Nairobi Coffee Exchange said. The average price for all coffee sold climbed to $341.22 per bag, compared with $295.16 at the previous auction a fortnight earlier, the exchange said today in an e-mailed report from Nairobi, the capital.

The benchmark AA grade increased 3.3 percent to an average of $426.71 a bag, the agency said. Supplies of the grade fell by a single bag to 4,245 50-kilogram (110-pound) bags, it said. “Buyers are scrambling for the coffee as we head into the festive season,” Kizito Keya, a coffee dealer at Mumba Coffee Ltd., said by phone from Nairobi. “We are remaining with one auction next week before we break off for the holidays.

Sales rose 2.3 percent to 16,127 bags worth $6.71 million, the exchange said. Supplies at the fifth auction of the 2010-11 season fell 2.7 percent to 23,421 bags, it said. The agency has been holding fortnightly sales instead of weekly auctions for more than two months because of low stocks.

Kenya’s coffee exports through the Nairobi Coffee Exchange, which handles the bulk of the shipments, fell 7.2 percent in 2009-10 to 36.197 tons after production declined, the agency said on Oct. 1. The country has yet to release an output forecast for this year, it said. Kenya harvests the bulk of its crop from October through December, while a secondary crop is reaped from April to June.

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Seattle's Best Coffee introducing lighter roasts

Starbucks lets its Seattle's Best Coffee brand try things it dares not touch: selling coffee through Burger King and Subway, franchising cafes to individuals, and beginning in December, roasting coffee lightly. Coffee roasts are a highly individual matter. Some coffee lovers sniff at light roasts, which they consider the purview of mainstream brands like Maxwell House and Folgers. Other coffee drinkers prefer certain lighter roasts, also known as northern Italian roasts, when they come from wizards like David Schomer of Espresso Vivace in Seattle.

Seattle's Best Coffee wants to help coffee drinkers bridge the gap between cheap, mainstream coffee and more expensive, specialty coffee — and that means adding lighter roasts, said President Michelle Gass. "Seattle's Best [blend], which we consider a medium roast, is still too strong for some consumers getting into premium coffee," she said.

So, the brand is adding two lighter roasts to grocery shelves in December — numbers one and two of a five-level system that Seattle's Best hopes will simplify the buying process for customers. Level three is the equivalent of the current Seattle's Best Blend and level four is the old Henry's Blend, which is used to make espresso at Seattle's Best cafes. Level five is the equivalent of a French roast.

Seattle's Best sells about $52 million in packaged coffee a year through stores other than Wal-Mart and warehouse clubs like Costco, according to A.C. Nielsen. Starbucks sells several times that much. Both are distributed by Kraft Foods, which is battling Starbucks over the coffee company's attempt to sever their relationship.

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Sugar ends higher, coffee falls amid euro crisis

ICE sugar futures reversed early losses to settle higher for the fourth straight day yesterday due to fund buying, while coffee fell as Europe’s debt crisis pushed the euro to a two-month low against the dollar and as investors worried about conflict in Korea. Cocoa futures settled stronger as the London market led the way up, ahead of the second round of presidential elections in top grower Ivory Coast. Volume was thin after the US Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday and the ICE agricultural markets dealt in a slightly abbreviated session.

ICE raw sugar futures found strength in follow-through buying from Wednesday as demand continued to be viewed as strong, particularly in China, dealers said. “This China (situation) where they seem to be running out of most everything, seems to be supporting the market,” said Jack Scoville, analyst for brokers The Price Group in Chicago.

ICE March raw sugar rose 0.30 cent or 1.1 per cent to end at 28.25 cents a lb, closing the week up eight per cent. Volume was light at around 36,305 lots, down nearly half from Friday after Thanksgiving in 2009.

Liffe March white sugar finished up $1.10 at $718.40 a tonne. “The algorithmic traders (system funds) are the likely buyers. There are few traders from the trade houses around due to yesterday’s Thanksgiving,” a sugar futures broker said. Dealers said the market faced stiff resistance above 30 cents a lb, having touched a 30-year high of 33.39 cents a lb on November 11, underpinned by low global stock levels.

“Concerns that total sugar recovery levels will fall in India’s cane are leading to fears that the country may not have the necessary surplus required to lift exports to a world that is crying out for more sugar,” Macquarie Bank said in a report. The European Commission has delayed plans to export a further 350,000 tonnes of out-of-quota sugar, after European Union governments raised concerns over the impact of the move on market prices, EU sources said.

Dealers said the softs had disconnected from market fundamentals due to an uncertain outlook for the euro and the threat of fresh hostilities on the Korean peninsula. “The recent bailout of Ireland was like putting a plaster on a wooden leg — we’re not getting to the core of the euro zone debt problem,” said Pierre Sebag of London-based sugar consultancy Sugar K.

A newspaper reported that euro zone nations were pressuring Portugal to follow Ireland’s lead and seek a bailout. Portugal and Germany’s finance ministry denied the report. Coffee futures settled lower along with the commodity complex, with investors still concerned about contagion stemming from the euro zone’s debt problems. ICE March arabica coffee futures dropped 4.75 cents or 2.3 per cent to finish at $2.0270 a lb, closing the week down four per cent, the biggest weekly loss since August 8.

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Drinking coffee with sugar boosts memory and attention span

A cup of coffee is what millions of us rely on to kick-start the day. But new research shows that morning pick-me-up has a much more potent effect on the brain if it is taken with sugar. Scientists at the University of Barcelona in Spain found taking caffeine and sugar at the same time boosted the brain’s performance more than taking them on their own. Researchers now believe each one boosts the effect of the other on brain functions such as attention span and working memory.

The findings come from brain scans carried out on 40 volunteers who were tested after they had coffee with sugar, coffee without sugar, sugar on its own or just plain water. The results, published in the journal Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental, suggest sugar-sweetened coffee may be the best way to prepare the brain for a busy day ahead. But it’s likely that coffee lovers who do not take sugar will get the same benefits from enjoying a sugary snack with their drink.

According to the British Coffee Association, UK consumers drink approximately 70million cups of coffee a day. More than half add sugar. It is well known that caffeine is a stimulant which works on the brain and can combat drowsiness and fatigue.

Previous studies have even suggested three cups of a coffee a day can significantly reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, possibly by triggering a chain reaction in the brain that prevents the damage done by the disease. It’s also well known that glucose, a type of sugar, is the main fuel which brain cells need to function properly. But the latest research indicates the two complement each other when it comes to bolstering the brain’s performance.

Researchers performed MRI scans on patients’ brains as they carried out a standard task designed to check their attention span and working memory. The tests were performed after they had consumed each of the drinks. Results showed that when the volunteers drank coffee with sugar there was reduced activity in the bilateral parietal cortex and the left prefrontal cortex - the two parts of the brain responsible for attention and memory.

But while activity levels dropped, the brain’s performance did not. Researchers said this shows the brain operates more efficiently when it has had a caffeine and sugar boost. ‘The two substances improve cognitive performance by increasing the efficiency of the two areas of the brain responsible for sustained attention and working memory,’ said researcher Dr Josep Serra Grabulosa. ‘The brain is more efficient under the combined effect of the two substances, since it needs fewer resources to produce the same level of performance than when volunteers took only caffeine, glucose or water.'

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Coffee franchise Tim Hortons to accept debit card transactions

Canada's favourite coffee chain, Tim Hortons, has announced that it will accept debit card payments at approximately 90 percent of its 3,000 locations. Several franchises in Toronto have already implemented the Interac system. Starting this month, Tim Hortons locations nationwide will give its customers the option of using their debit card to purchase any of their items in their restaurants or drive-throughs, according to a Canadian Newswire press release. For years, Tim Hortons did not use the Interac debit system over fears it would slow down service and make customers in the long line disgruntled. In the downtown core,many Tim Hortons sites maintain a large clientele.

“Tim Hortons' hospitality focuses on continuous improvement and fast, friendly service, whether it's new product innovation or the introduction of new payment methods such as Interac Debit,” said Tim Hortons Chief Operation Officer, Roland Walton. “Tim Hortons is proud to partner with a world-class Canadian payment network like the Interac network to bring more value and the speed and convenience of debit payments to Canadians coast to coast."

It was announced in March that Tim Hortons was going to establish 900 new stores in North America by 2013. The company is also slowly setting up upscale restaurants. In Toronto, at the Bay Street and Wellesley location, Tim Hortons has already gone upscale.

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Does the Tim Hortons crowd really vote Tory?

The Tim Hortons crowd is a blue collar bunch. They like their taxes low, the government out of their face and their leaders the kind you could have over for a beer. And, of course, they vote Conservative. Right?

After arguing last week that the image of the effete, Starbucks-drinking Liberal voter is more rhetoric than reality, a similar analysis of the more than 3,000 Tim Hortons locations from coast to coast to coast indicates a voter’s preference for a double-double does not make them a Tory or a Liberal, but rather just an average Canadian. A cup of Tim Hortons coffee can be found in virtually every part of the country, and this is demonstrated by the distribution of the chain’s outlets in the 308 federal ridings. There is almost no difference between the average number of Tim Hortons locations in each of the ridings currently held by the three national parties.

Contrary to public perception, the Conservatives come out last among the three federal parties with an average of about nine Tim Hortons shops per riding. The Liberals have an average of slightly less than 11 locations per riding, while the New Democrats come out on top with slightly more than 11. The Bloc Québécois has an average of only five locations per riding, perhaps indicating that Quebeckers have been slow to adopt the quintessentially Canadian chain.

The myth of the Tim Hortons crowd, however, is not completely without foundation. Of the top 10 per cent of ridings in terms of store density, the Conservatives hold 12 of them, compared to 10 held by the Liberals and eight by the NDP.

The general result of this analysis should come as no surprise. As mentioned in the study of Starbucks density and voting habits, polls have shown there is absolutely nothing that connects coffee preference to political ideology. The relevant poll conducted by Harris-Decima in 2009 showed that the proportion of Liberal, New Democratic, and Conservative voters who preferred Tim Hortons to Starbucks were virtually identical for each party.

But what of the caffeine-addicted, jittery Canadian? Six ridings, located in Toronto, Edmonton, Montreal, Ottawa, and Niagara Falls, made it in the top 30 in both Starbucks and Tim Hortons density. Each of these ridings have more than 30 stores selling either pedestrian Tim’s or pricey Seattle-based coffee, not to mention the plethora of smaller chains and independent coffee shops these neighbourhoods support.

These six ridings are divided up equally among the three national parties, with two of them voting Liberal, two Conservative, and two New Democratic. But the average vote in them broke for the Liberals with 36 per cent, compared to 28 per cent for the Conservatives and 25 per cent for the NDP.

Of the four party leaders, Gilles Duceppe’s riding of Laurier–Sainte-Marie, Stephen Harper’s riding of Calgary Southwest, and Jack Layton’s riding of Toronto–Danforth all have about the same number of Tim Hortons locations within their boundaries. But Michael Ignatieff’s riding of Etobicoke–Lakeshore eclipses the others in Tim Hortons density, with almost three times as many locations.

However, these four men spend most of their time on Parliament Hill. Though the Prime Minister is reportedly not fond of coffee, he should have no trouble finding a cup of hot chocolate in any of the more than 100 Tim Hortons locations in and around the national capital, a region represented by politicians from all political stripes.

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Green Mountain Coffee Roasters to restate earnings

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. said it will restate earnings, lowering them by about $5.8 million, for periods dating back to 2007 after it discovered errors associated with its Keurig single-cup coffee business. About $3.5 million is for overstated net income in the first three quarters of fiscal 2010, the company said Friday. The errors included misreporting of the cost of K-Cup coffee pods in inventory, marketing expenses for brewers, and changes in how the company recognized royalties, according to the statement.

The company said none of the errors related to misconduct by its executives or employees. Green Mountain also said no part of the restatement is connected with its relationship to M. Block & Sons Inc., which ships the company's Keurig single-cup coffee brewers. One part of an SEC investigation into how Green Mountain books revenue is focused on the company's dealings with M. Block.

Green Mountain said it continues to cooperate with the SEC. The company expects to file the restated financials by Dec. 9. The company's shares have more than quadrupled in the past three years as it expanded its Keurig business. Keurig generated more than 50 percent of sales in the year that ended in September 2009.

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