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- Issue #4: The Specialty Coffee Association
Issue #4: The Specialty Coffee Association
Examining the role of trade organizations in the beverage world
Big Drinks is a bi-weekly newsletter about the beverages we drink, where they come from, and how we enjoy them. Each issue hopes to approach a topic and explore it from a new angle with help from experts. Subscribe to get each new issue directly to your inbox.
I: The Touch, The Feel Of Coffee
Working through complex angles of newsletter construction feels like a slog: you can have countless interviews, detailed notes, and unique perspectives that ultimately just can’t hold a candle to tweet you errantly read on a Friday afternoon.
The Specialty Coffee Association is the combined merger of the Specialty Coffee Association of America and the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe. At it’s core, it’s a trade organization, and they can explain what they are better than I can. Nick’s critiques are informed and more complex than can be captured in one go — further down the Twitter thread, Nick makes it clear that the SCA has many unique and wonderful programs, but that info just isn’t always making it out into the world.
As a trade organization, the SCA has been undergoing a sort of identity crisis. As the leading worldwide organization designed specifically to promote specialty coffee and not just coffee in general, there are hundreds of thousands of people whose livelihoods are impacted in some way by whether or not the SCA successfully promotes specialty coffee to a coffee drinking audience.
Generally speaking, trade organizations are loosely defined though most serve a singular purpose: political influence and generic advertising. We don't often see prime examples of the former (lobbyists aren’t paid to be vocal in public about the lobbying they do), but we’re all pretty familiar with the latter.
As a kid, commercials advertising the concept of cotton seem strange. What’s the deal with cotton? Isn’t it already what my shirt is made of? Why do I need to see an ad about cotton during Seinfeld? Why was I watching Seinfeld as a seven year old?
The reality is that campaigns like The Fabric Of Our Lives, produced by Cotton Incorporated, are less about selling us the product and more about influencing our opinion. The figures collected in that Sourcing Journal article show that overwhelmingly Americans view cotton as a premium fabric that they prefer over all other fabrics. It’s likely that sentiment was true in 1989 when the first The Fabric of Our Lives commercial aired, but the subtle indoctrination of a catchy jingle was easily able to reinforce this idea into a strongly held belief. If a traditional television ad was designed to make you go out the next day to buy a new cereal, the cotton campaign was designed to make you check the label every time you went shopping for the rest of your life.
That example shows how much influence a trade organization can end up having on the everyday lives of the general American populace. The Beef Checkoff Program, a marketing entity designed to increase demand for beef in American households launched their “Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner.” campaign in 1992. It’s estimated that 88% of Americans recognize that slogan.
It’s unlikely to think that the Specialty Coffee Association is just sitting on “Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner.” money that can easily be funneled into a campaign to advertise coffee during must-see-TV. The SCA is a member driven trade organization that functions to serve the specialty sector of coffee. As a specialized trade organization, the membership is much smaller than, say, the amalgamated cotton industry. It’s estimated that specialty coffee only makes up around 20% of the entire coffee industry as well.
“As of July, about 5000 of SCA’s 11000+ members are company members (versus individual members, e.g. baristas).”
This quote from Kim Elena Ionescu, Chief Sustainability and Knowledge Development Officer of the SCA, highlights the size of the organization. For perspective, the Brewer’s Association (which we talked about in Issue #1, in our, uh, wine newsletter) has 5,200 brewery members and 46,000 homebrewing members. As an organization, the Brewer’s Association has focused a lot of efforts on gatekeeping what craft beer is and isn’t with their Independent Craft Brewer seal, a designation that the association allows you to use on your products if you meet their criteria.
Quality seals and designations are a smaller version of national television ad campaigns: the ultimate goal is to create awareness of the product that the trade organization was formed to promote. And while the Independent Craft Brewer seal isn’t an ad campaign recognized by 88% of Americans, it’s probably safe to say that most craft beer drinkers have seen it before. The SCA isn’t really designed to be a gatekeeping organization set to define what is or isn’t specialty coffee, however.
When I asked Kim if there were SCA members who fluctuated between specialty and commodity coffee buying, she had a quick answer:
There absolutely are. To my knowledge, we have never done a survey asking that question of our members, so I don’t know what the percentage is, but I’m guessing it’s not small and that it will continue to grow as SCA membership (and attendance at SCA events and participation in SCA education) continues to grow outside of the US and UK.
Are there any parameters that exist for someone who wants their company to become a SCA member, i.e. they have to have some record of buying only specialty coffee or a percentage of their buying is specialty coffee?
Nope.
It’s an interesting big tent approach to promoting specialty coffee. While the Brewer’s Association seems dead set on waging war against large, corporate breweries, the SCA seems to have a broader approach in their purpose to “foster a global coffee community and support activity to make specialty coffee a thriving, equitable, and sustainable activity for the entire value chain.”
The entire value chain. That’s an important distinction, as while the SCA’s membership is primarily roasters and retailers in the United States and Europe, there has been a big focus on coffee farmers and coffee farming within the SCA, elevated by the coffee price crisis. As a trade organization most representing roasters and retailers who are purchasing coffee from farmers, it seems against a standard market model for the organization to advocate for better revenue for farmers. But Kim had some distinct thoughts about this:
I want to answer that question a couple of ways. First, I’m going to quote something I heard Juan Luis Barrios, who is a coffee producer and the Second VP of SCA’s Board of Directors, say a couple of years ago about the challenge presented by SCA’s members having “antagonistic interests” as well as their common interest in promoting the growth of specialty coffee consumption. That phrase stuck with me because I think it’s tempting to focus on what unites us as specialty coffee stakeholders, not only because it avoids conflict but also because specialty coffee’s origin story is one of an underdog fighting the top dog and requiring everyone and everything we’ve got in order to win the fight, so even though specialty coffee is arguably no longer a niche market (which is a common question, but not the question here), those old habits die hard.
Second, and more to clarify the limits of our activism as opposed to expressing a position, as a trade association SCA can’t “promote higher prices to farmers” for anti-trust reasons, which is something I learned a lot more about during the PCR work last year and would love to talk about sometime (competition law, that is).
II: In Service
Competition law and anti-trust legislation had a brief uptick in the news when former US Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg had claims lobbied at him that his former employer was at the center of a price fixing scandal in Canada (and I can watch this clip 100 times a day and still find joy in Applebaum’s expression). At the SCA’s Re:co Symposium in 2019, focused on the Coffee Price Crisis, the first speaker of the day had to spend his hour explaining what can and cannot be discussed by the group in order to keep the event form violating anti-trust laws. So while the SCA can’t officially lobby for paying coffee farmers more, there are other ways to express how farmers are generally underpaid. From Kim:
I think specialty coffee has charted a different path to growth than most products we’re used to consuming, which is to increase the value of the product instead of reducing the cost (by increasing the efficiency of its production). We’ve created an enormous amount of value, but we’re seeing now that too little of that value is reaching growers and that should lead us to question where it’s going and whether it’s an equitable, sustainable distribution of that value. I don’t think it is.
It’s a big topic issue that the SCA has been focusing on, but while the work the organization is doing around the Coffee Price Crisis is exciting, the split in their membership shows some of the cracks that the organization has. Kim estimates that there are “currently in the range of 2000 small company members, and that is more than all of the large, medium, corporate, and associate members put together, but it’s only half of the number of individual barista memberships.”
With more and more younger coffee professionals looking to emphasize the professional nature of their career, individual SCA memberships have become the dominant force of the organization’s membership base. And while it’s been great to see baristas connecting to big concept ideas about coffee sourcing, that divide was most evident during 2020’s Re:co Symposium. Initiatives were developed to gift scholarships to attend the visual symposium this year as more and more baristas lamented the high cost of attending the event, and almost immediately many of those attendees shared on social media on how some of the presentations weren’t really accessible without an economics degree.
It was another tweet from Nick Cho from that same thread that really clarified some of the dissonance that I had been seeing over the last few months:
This idea really hit home a lot of the thoughts that had been pinging around in my head. With an overwhelming number of individual members and an organization working to develop programming for them, the SCA is really in a transition period. Serving its members doesn’t look like a massive commercial campaign or a quality seal designation. And part of that growth is the SCA serving specialty coffee beyond its membership.
III: On The Farm
Karla Boza Carbonell is a coffee producer from El Salvador and a SCA LEAD Scholar. The LEAD program works to connect its scholars to industry events and conferences along with access to mentors and SCA education. But that doesn’t mean Karla always knew what the SCA was:
I wasn’t aware of SCA’s existence up until a few years ago when our farm sent samples to Rainforest Alliance and we were invited to RA’s annual breakfast during EXPO. We sold our coffee as a commodity, so I attended EXPO not knowing anything about the specialty industry. I knew there was a difference among coffee shops and coffee quality, but I never related this to there being an entire industry dedicated to this.
And the SCA’s reach to Karla’s neighbors in El Salvador is almost non-existent, aside from the big year trade show, EXPO:
The coffee farmers who sell their coffee as commodities aren’t very familiar with the SCA. Those who sell their coffee as specialty are aware of what the SCA is. However, I don’t think they are very familiar with what they do outside of EXPO, who the SCA is for, or how to get in touch. There is little to no SCA presence in El Salvador.
For a coffee producer in El Salvador, Karla has seen way more direct impact from the Salvadoran Coffee Council, a government run organization, along with Rainforest Alliance and the International Women’s Coffee Alliance. A lot of these organizations have sponsored trainings for famers and connections to coffee industries in different countries: without Rainforest Alliance, Karla’s family wouldn’t have been introduced to the American specialty coffee industry, and the Italian government sponsored a program that foreign development agencies (like USAID) helped organize that sent her sister to Italy to better understand the Italian coffee market. The LEAD Scholars program also helped show more sides to the SCA to Karla:
Before, I felt that SCA was for roasters and baristas (the consuming end of the industry) as this is what you mostly see at EXPO and their other events. However, this has changed with my time in the industry and as a LEAD Scholar. I’ve been fortunate to meet some of the people at the SCA and discuss some of the projects they’ve been a part of, especially those concerning the coffee price crisis. I now know there are professionals in the industry interested in and concerned with what’s happening in producing countries.
While these types of programs might have created a scattered approach as to how the SCA can better serve its members, there are gaps in the needs of coffee farmers that aren’t being met by local and international organizations right now:
Unfortunately, as a government institution, the Consejo Salvadoreño de Café (CSC) isn’t very active as there is a lot of bureaucracy and no transparency. For example, the Minister of Agriculture selects the CSC’s president and he took a few months to do this. During this time, the CSC had no direction and it was at a standstill. The current president, Lily Pacas, has a different focus from the last president, so it’s almost like the whole institution is being rebuilt and as a result, farmers are dragged along and suffer the most.
The same was the case for a recent government initiative aimed at supporting farmers. There were roundtables where farmers discussed how we’re affected by market prices, low yields, and bank interest rates. This creates a vicious cycle where you’re so in debt, it’s almost easier/cheaper to sell your farm and forget about coffee. Despite having these in-depth talks with farmers and bank representatives, the CSC’s initiative was to give farmers baby coffee plants. Not only did they completely ignore the farmer’s requests, but they also gave farmers an additional burden (more plants which require MORE money to support) at a horrible time (the ideal time to plant trees is at the start of the rainy season and when they were distributed it was close to the end) of questionable quality (we’ve received these plants before and it’s extremely common for these to have terrible root systems and for the varieties to be mixed at the nursery - imagine thinking you’re planting Borbón only to be met with a rust-resistant variety 4 years later when it’s finally productive). This is not how you bring back an industry from its near death. Each year El Salvador is producing less and less coffee.
Similarly, international organizations lack this focus and connection with farmers. Very few genuinely take the time to listen to farmers and discuss realistic strategies to push coffee forward. And even then, with the best of intentions, there is still a clear divide between producers and consumers. Farmers are telling anyone who will listen what our needs are, but it’s almost like these needs are being yelled into a void. I wish all these organizations had representatives from producing countries who had a “vote” in their yearly agendas and activities. There needs to be more representation because the current state of coffee farms across the world should worry the entire industry.
The SCA isn’t necessarily equipped to fill these types of gaps, but it’s interesting to see what the organization is working towards in the realm of farmer assistance. And while programs dedicated to creating a more sustainable operation model for coffee farmers will undoubtedly benefit the roaster/retailer members of the SCA by stabilizing the the green coffee supply, those efforts pull heavily in one direction that doesn’t necessarily benefit the individual members.
It’s also difficult to see what scope the SCA has to offer coffee farmers when SCA membership isn’t directed towards them. Most industry groups have a singular focus: the Brewer’s Association isn’t necessarily designed to help hop farmers, and Cotton Incorporated doesn't really represent textile manufacturers. Seeing the scope of the SCA broaden out from it’s members to also connect to its members suppliers suggests some new sort of organization that doesn’t really have a template.
The success of that type of organization, however, also doesn’t have a template. It’s hard to say that time will show if the SCA’s mission to support and promote a specialty coffee community will be successful when the SCA doesn’t really have a specific definition for what the specialty coffee community is.
But measuring success on that grand of a scale isn’t very tangible. Instead, it’s easier to see where concrete examples of progress can be seen. Karla plans to use the education from the LEAD program to specialize in roasting:
Unfortunately with the pandemic, it’s been hard to access some of the educational and in-person benefits of the Scholarship, but this has been minor compared to the rest. The Scholarship supports an educational “path” for us in coffee, and I plan to specialize in roasting. This will definitely impact my farm as it will help me understand where our buyers are coming from and will also open new possibilities to sell our coffee locally.
There may not be an answer as to how the SCA can tailor itself specifically for it’s 11,000+ members while expanding to programs targeted at coffee farmers, but it is encouraging to see when its programs do make a strong connection on a person to person basis.
Major thanks to Kim Elena Ionescu for her time in providing these answers.
Kim Elena Ionescu is the Chief Sustainability and Knowledge Development Officer for the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA). At the SCA, Kim Elena develops strategy and leads action on behalf of coffee-centric businesses and organizations both large and small, in the United States, Europe, and beyond to tackle the challenges coffee faces now and in the future.
Prior to joining the association, Kim spent a decade buying coffee and creating and directing sustainability at Counter Culture Coffee in North Carolina, where she resides with her husband and two daughters. And although these days she is more likely to be found behind desks and podiums than cupping tables and espresso machines, Kim believes that innovation and collaboration across the coffee value chain are critical for our community to thrive.
Also, big thanks to Karla Boza Carbonell for her answers.
Karla Boza Carbonell is a coffee producer at Finca San Antonio Amatepec in El Salvador, currently pursuing an M.S. Geography degree at Virginia Tech. Her research focuses on market accessibility for farmers and she uses research to merge her passions for coffee, feminism, and transparency in the coffee industry. Karla is a Board Member of the Denomination of Origin (DO) Bálsamo Quezaltepec and a member of the El Salvador chapter for the International Women’s Coffee Alliance (IWCA). In 2019, Karla was awarded the SCA’s LEAD Scholarship. You can contact her at [email protected]
Extra thanks to Nick Cho for permission to link to his tweets and offering extra perspectives. Nick is the co-founder and co-CEO of Wrecking Ball Coffee.
Thanks to Josh Raub for additional input.
Artwork by Ashley Elander Strandquist. You can view her illustration work here and check out her printing business here.