A sign is seen outside the Starbucks headquarters at the Starbucks Center on July 3, 2024 in Seattle, Washington.
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For more than a decade, Starbucks She bought her first coffee farm in Costa Rica. Now the coffee giant has added two more to its portfolio.
The Seattle-based company said Thursday it has invested in another farm in Costa Rica and its first in Guatemala in hopes of getting closer to its goal of protecting its coffee supply from climate change.
High temperatures, frosts in Brazil, three consecutive years of La Nina and other extreme weather have hurt coffee production in recent years, putting pressure on supply. For Starbucks, which buys 3% of the world's coffee, a shortage could mean a search for Arabica beans, and higher prices for its customers. Consumer coffee prices had risen 18% over the past five years as of August, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“The frost in Brazil has already affected volumes by up to 50%, so we can have a really severe impact in terms of product availability, and this is something that is more regular in the entire coffee belt,” said Roberto Vega, vice president of global Starbucks. Coffee farming, research and development and sustainability.
The coffee belt refers to the tropical region with ideal conditions for growing coffee beans.
A worker cuts and collects coffee berries on a coffee farm in Heredia, Costa Rica, on February 3, 2023.
Ezequiel Becerra | AFP | Getty Images
At the two new farms, Starbucks will study how hybrid coffee varieties perform at different altitudes and soil conditions. Traits of hybrid plants include higher yields and resistance to coffee leaf rust, a fungus that thrives in high temperatures and rainfall.
“We can develop new hybrid cars, but the fact that a hybrid car works in one country and under certain conditions does not mean that it will work everywhere,” Vega said.
The Vega team also hopes to address other challenges coffee farmers face that are not a direct result of climate change.
For example, the company's new farm in Guatemala is small, with depleted soil and low productivity. Starbucks hopes to create transformation by restoring its soil and then use those lessons to teach other farmers how to do the same.
“A farm isn't necessarily in good shape, and that's exactly what we were looking for. We wanted a farm that really reflected the challenges farmers face today,” Vega said.
At the second farm in Costa Rica, which is located next to the current Hacienda Alsassia, Starbucks plans to use drones, mechanization and other technologies to address the labor shortage faced by many farmers in Latin America.
Starbucks eventually plans to purchase two additional farms in Africa and Asia, expanding its agricultural portfolio across the Coffee Belt.
