Grown on Colombia's mist-covered mountains and sold in Japan's upmarket delicatessens, Emerald Mountain coffee is a grower's dream.
The beans, exported by the National Federation of Coffee Growers and marketed in Japan by Mitsubishi as part of a joint venture, are sold for $30 per pound.
That is more than 40 times what price-hit farmers are getting paid these days at New York's Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa Exchange, where coffee futures and contracts are traded.
Emerald Mountain coffee was first sold in Japan in 1989 in small quantities as gift packages. Today, the Federation sells 100,000 60-kg bags of Emerald Mountain every year in Japan, said Roberto Velez, the federation's commercial manager. "We wanted Emerald Mountain to spearhead Colombian coffee in Japan. We wanted it to be the jewel of the crown," Velez, who is charge of the program, told Reuters in a recent interview.
Emerald Mountain is also sold in bottled coffee under an agreement with soft drink giant Coca-Cola Co. The canned, ready-to-drink coffee, which can be served cold or hot, is sold at a price equivalent to $1.20 in vending machines throughout Japan.
Coca-Cola, which markets and sells the cans, uses up to 70 percent, or 190 grams, of Emerald Mountain coffee in each can, Velez said.
"We sell them the Emerald Mountain brand along with the beans and Coca-Cola markets and sells the cans in Japan. The agreement gave us much more exposure and Emerald Mountain coffee became a product of mass consumption."
Emerald Mountain, which is produced in several of Colombia's coffee-growing regions, is notable for its distinctive acidity, Velez said.
The Emerald Mountain model, an example of branding, niche markets and networking, may be replicated as Colombia seeks to capture added value by selling more speciality beans and less commercial grade coffee, Velez said.
Speciality coffee commands a premium in the marketplace and allows growers to get more for their beans, which fetched around 73 cents per lb in Wednesday trade in New York Board of Trade.
The Federation, a private organisation, which represents the nation's 500,000 growers, plans to spend $2.3 million in the next 3 years to double its exports of speciality coffee. From the 2002/03 harvest of 11.7 million 60-kg bags, Colombia - the world's second-largest coffee producer - exported just 700,000 bags of speciality coffee.
The plan includes boosting exports to new markets in Asia, Russia, the Middle East and former communist countries in Eastern Europe as consumption remains stagnant in the United States and Western Europe.
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