Industry leaders discuss challenges and evolving realities facing the coffee industry
Credit: Vanessa Facenda
The European edition of World of Coffee 2025 took place June 26-28th in Geneva, Switzerland, drawing nearly 20,000 attendees from over 140 countries, while also featuring 430 exhibitors. The Education Program included more than 20 free lectures and 25 hands-on workshops on topics including roasting science, sourcing, business, marketing, sustainability, and more. One special event was the CEO Roundtable that explored industry-wide challenges with insights from global leaders.
Moderated by Dr Krisztina Szalai, secretary general of the Swiss Coffee Trade Association (SCTA) and Yannis Apostolopoulos, CEO of the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA), the special session – Coffee in Transition: Global Coffee Perspectives on Risk, Resilience, and Renewal – brought together senior leaders from across the global coffee value chain to explore the evolving realities facing coffee producers, traders, and roasters today. Panellists included: Germán Bahamón, CEO, Colombia Coffee Growers Federation (FNC); Nicolas Tamari, CEO Sucafina SA and president of the SCTA; Cyrille Jannet, managing director, Keurig Trading and VP of the SCTA; Gilbert Gatali, executive director of the African Fine Coffees Association (AFCA); and Dr Edwini Kessie, director of the Division on Agriculture, World Trade Organization (WTO).
The moderators and panellists all agreed that between shifting consumer demand and rising compliance burdens to climate risks and price volatility, the coffee sector is under unprecedented pressure, and discussed a number of topics pursuant to these issues during the 1 hour 30-minute session. Dr Edwini Kessie of the WTO said that the WTO and countries around the world are anxious about July 9th when US tariffs take effect, noting that tariffs do not bode well for coffee industry. Nicolas Tamari, CEO of Sucafina/president of the SCTA added that the tariffs came as a surprise and that “trade war is a disaster.”
Fair prices for producers was a key topic of conversation. Even though coffee prices have been high – almost tripling in the last three years – Germán Bahamón, CEO of the FNC, explained that rising costs of producing coffee (for all producers, not just in Colombia) continue to impact farmers, “producers need a sustainable way to produce coffee,” he stressed, adding “the producer is the only one who cannot be replaced.”
Gilbert Gatali, executive director of the AFCA, said the risks and opportunities for Africa are not that different from Colombia but shared that access to financing is difficult. “Farmers need collateral to access financing — it would be better to change the financial structure.” He added that compliance charges create unnecessary anxiety and challenges (eg, EUDR). “We need to give stakeholders time to achieve these things to reduce problems and stress.”
When asked how sourcing strategies are changing, Cyrille Jannet, managing director, Keurig Trading (a division of Keurig Dr Pepper) and VP of the SCTA, said that “volatility is here stay and risk here is to stay” so roasters cannot be anchored to just one or two origins, “we need to be ‘origin agnostic’ and we have to be flexible, adaptable, and not lose focus of the big picture.” (KDP buys approximately 25 million bags of coffee per year.)
Climate change, of course, was another major topic of the conversation, with all panellists concurring that climate change is no longer a risk, it’s a reality.
Bahamón said the “question is not when we will adapt, it’s how fast and bold. I believe the best defense is the best offense.” He said that in 2025, 5% of Colombia’s total exports will be specialty coffee. “Last year we launched a new varietal, Castillo 2.0 to face tomorrow’s coffee today, and this year we are introducing three more varietals: Cocoon (resistant), Castalia, Celesta. [Colombia] is not waiting for the storm to pass; we are transforming the way we compete.”
