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2006 Tea & Coffee industry forecast: as 2005 ends--nearly as quickly as it arose--Tea & Coffee Trade Journal asked several key players of the industry for their thoughts on the new year, Gebruder Wollenhaupt's Marco Brinmuhl, Michael Cramer of Adagio Teas, Sunalini Menon of Coffeelab, India, and WholeCup Coffee's Sherri Johns are some of the executives that weighed in on the topic.

Article Excerpt
1 What are the most important changes you have witnessed in the past year in your segment of the industry (and the industry as a whole)?

We have seen an ever-faster pace in the demand for new and innovative tailor-made tea solutions, be it in new creative tea blends or in new packaging styles.

Marco Brinmuhl

G. Wollenhaupt GmbH * Germany

The most impressive change from 2004 is the explosive growth of the gourmet tea segment. Our sales are running at twice the level of last year, and conversations with other players in the industry seem to confirm this trend. The explosive interest and demand for tea--much predicted, and long overdue--is finally here.

Michael Cramer

Adagio Teas * New Jersey, U.S.

The important change that we have witnessed for the past year has been the quality movement in all links of the Indian coffee chain, starting from the coffee farmer, to the coffee processor and coffee brewer, to the coffee consumer.

An interesting aspect of the industry is that even though there has been an ascent in coffee prices, the past year has witnessed maintenance of quality. Farmers have realized that to sustain themselves in the industry, they have to maintain quality irrespective of the price situation. They have also realized that they should ensure an increase in productivity, rather than increasing the area under cultivation, which would result in containing, if not reducing the cost of production.

In India, the Care Culture has gathered momentum, with a number of card chains--both indigenous and overseas--making their appearance on the coffee scene. This is an important change that has been witnessed in the Indian coffee scenario. It is certainly a positive development, as it could increase coffee consumption. Imagine if each Indian was to drink one cup of coffee, would there be enough coffee beans from around the world to go around? The coffee industry, as a whole, has understood that quality would be the mainstay for their coffee produce and that they would have to adhere to sustainable methods of farming, to reap the rich dividends that they are looking for. The specialty and gourmet culture has commenced in producing origins, with steps being taken by the farmer to understand the intrinsic quality attributes of his coffee and the manner in which he should process and handle the same, to provide a special coffee-to-coffee connoisseurs around the world.

Sunalini Menon

Coffeelab * India

Even though the level may be different in the various countries, customers have again become more demanding with respect to quality, flexibility and taste. This is good news because the overall awareness for coffee increased again over the last 12...

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