The coffee world has been turned upside down since the Covid pandemic. Delayed shipments, high coffee prices, challenges for producers, traders and roasters. Added to this are frost and drought in Brazil – nothing is as it was just recently. 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 speak with people who are analyzing the current situation, clarifying questions, and asking important new ones. Everyone working in coffee in any capacity is already feeling the changes, or will be within a few weeks at the latest.
In this episode of Coffea Economica, I speak with 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. Mark talks with Philipp Schallberger about things that sometimes seem trivial to him because they are so everyday – but for his customers, who are green coffee traders and roasters, this information is anything but obvious. Coffee production is reported on occasionally in romantic terms and often in clichéd ways. Mark talks about the daily challenges, about rising prices for fertilizer, about poor 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 I'd do it really well."
- "I often think about leaving coffee production behind. But I don't do it. Making coffee gets hold of you. But I also don't want to get old and still be making coffee and always dealing with the same problems."
- "Picking coffee is hard work. People who do it well can earn good money. But there are other jobs here, and I have to compete with those jobs. I have to make the job attractive."
