Happy and Prosperous 2011 to all!

Yes, it's a new year and we are all busy again. Consumption is steady and new orders have started to flow in as Christmas inventories have been sold. Before entering the market scenario for the nearby months, I want to tell about an enlightening visit to The Dominican Republic this early January.

As I am always looking for outstanding coffees and exotic origins, I decided to catch up on an invitation by Bent and Begona Ahm to visit their Karoma Estate in the Santiago Province.

After a remarkable weekend in the Cabarete beaches in DR's North Coast, I drove with my wife Vivi to the city of Santiago in the Northwestern DR to meet with Begona and Bent at their home.

There, at Las Lagunas,  we made a short stop when Begona showed us the school that receives about 60 children daily for elementary education. The Karoma Estate supports this school on a regular basis and Begona took the opportunity to deliver a series of academic materials to the schools principal.

The next Stop was at Mr. Jose Tavarez's Estate. Here the Karoma Estate has supported the quality improvement program, a brand new covered and ventilated tunnel  drying patio was just concluded.

Covered patios are necessary as the harvest period coincides with part of the rainy season, Bent has been able to convince quite a few neighbors to invest in quality over quantity and this has been paying good dividends for the locals.

At Mr. Tavarez home, beside the patio, his wife proudly served us with a fresh brewed micro lot coffee, no sugar added and a delicious taste, this tells a lot. After this interesting stop, yet another 300 feet up the winding rock and dirt road on the 4wheeler and a stop to view the Karoma Estate from above, a couple of neighboring Estates were also visible inside the Las Lagunas Valley in the Cordillera Central.  

Begona and Bent are the pioneer coffee producers in this area. They started the farm back in 1992 in a 200 hectare area where they planted Caturra, Tipica, Bourbon and Pacamara varieties.

Today, following the Karoma Estate  steps and support, many other now quality oriented producers have joined forces forming a new important coffee zone in DR. The Karoma Estate has set a series of standards and guidelines for maintaining excellence in coffee agriculture, social and environment practices. These have spread through the valley thanks to Bent's and Begona's efforts and example.

At the farm, they have separated 25% of the Estate for Natural reserve and to protect the water resources. They have also added shade and other plant varieties to the coffee and forest areas, identified and protected the biological assets, contributing to the conservation of the local envrionment.

The estate also offers a small center for technological transfer to neighbors and visitors and a weather station. In collaboration with USAID, the Karoma Estate installed a coffee preparation water residue Bio-digester producing bio methane gas for cooking, motors, heating and light.

All pulping solid residues flow into a worm composting facility for later use in general agriculture organic fertilization. The Bio-digester program has been extended to most neighboring estates supported by Bent and Begona. This is remarkable as the whole community has embraced the basics of zero waste, sustainable and zero negative impact agriculture.

Needles to say that the time spent with Begona and Bent at the Estate and through the local plantations in the Valley, was the highlight of our visit to DR. The quality of the Karoma Estate coffee is so outstanding that clients from Asia and Scandinavia have asked them to expand the supply. Now Begona and Bent have started to export the neighboring Estate coffee to very demanding roasters around the world.

During our stay at the Estate, Vivi and I also had the chance to enjoy another DR premium beverage, sitting at the dry patio door, ultra cold..."Cerveza Presidente" Hummmmm....

Begona and Bent Ahn are exporters of the Karoma Estate and other Fine Dominican Estate coffees, you can find them at:

Karoma S.A. - karomaexport@yahoo.com, bentahm@yahoo.com

Thanks to Begona and Bent Ahn for such open and warm hospitality. Also congratulations for your vision and actions in specialty coffee agriculture!

Dominican Republic is probably where visionary artist painters and photogrefers search for the image of the perfect " Natural Paradise" , don't leave the planet without visiting D.R.!

Market

Prices remain very firm and the outlook regarding the supply flow from the main sources of green coffee is still unchanged in my mind, we are walking into a tight and funneling corridor.

Brazil looks less aggressive in sales since the New Year, an expected 80% of their usual 30 million bags exports/year is already covered and this has made differentials shorten in up to 10 points for the fine cup coffees. Central American shipments are arriving but Guatemala is late again and crop reduction caused by bad weather in the Western Mountain rim seems evident by now.

Colombia continues to send mixed signals regarding a higher overall export performance when comparing to last crop but time will tell us what the reality is. Unfortunately, whatever the Latin American coffee supply becomes in 2010/11, it is important to have in mind that Brazil, will finish a 50 million 10/11 crop and enter a 11/12 crop cycle with no carry-over , a 50 million bags demand for internal and export markets and an estimated 40 million bags incoming crop starting June 2011.

The potentially tight supply picture has already made many roasters lock in some August 2011 through June 2012 delivery supply contracts, only very few exporters are willing at this point to offer this position and the differentials are only getting tighter.

Our Nucoffee Micro lots and other fine coffees are arriving to USA Warehouses and repeating what Elvis did after each show, Our Micro lots are " leaving the building!!"

All Micro lots are bagged in a Brazilian version of the Grain Pro bags inside the regular jute bags, this preserves freshness and flavor intensity for a longer period.

Look at our offer list below and request the samples that reach your interest. For more information about each lot, request an access password and code and log into www.nucoffee.com.br  then go to  "trace your coffee" .

From Hawaii's Parry Estate in Kona, we  are now sold out for this 10/11 crop, last years lack of rain and the strong interest  on any available lots has drained the availability of most high quality Kona Coffees. I recomend that you reserve the bags for the 11/10 crop as these are also target of strong demand already. 

We have just moved to Fort Lauderdale. Our new office has an improved coffee lab, more space and is closer to the Hollywood/Ft. Lauderdale airport and the beaches!

 The address is: 500 S.E 15^th Street Suite #118, Fort Lauderdale - FL, 33316

For now, our wishes of a great 2011!

Christian Wolthers

P# 954-797-0078 / F#954-3219266

info@wolthersamerica.com