3rd World News: Solar power makes strides in coffee industry

[mach1]

Ten years and two million dollars later...


Lowell firm's solar dryer provides coffee safe for environment

By KATHLEEN DEELY, Sun Staff

LOWELL Raul Raudales is consumed by coffee.
He drinks only a cup a day, but he has been eating,
drinking and sleeping the beverage for the past 10
years.

That's how long it has taken the Honduras native to
develop a machine that could revolutionize the
coffee industry.

On the top floor of a nondescript house on Stevens
Street, with a shrine to the almighty bean in the
corner, Raudales and his partner Richard Trubey
have invented a way to dry freshly picked coffee
berries with solar energy.

It's not something most of us think about when we
reach for our morning pick-me-up, but to go from
tree to cup, coffee beans go through a rapid
transformation. Long before they are roasted, coffee
berries must be dried. In most of the 120
coffee-producing regions of the world, this is
done by burning something.

"They are either burning diesel or firewood or
human labor," said Raudales, whose company
Mesoamerican Development Institute, creates
renewable energy solutions for Mexico and
Central America.

These days his number-one focus is coffee.

In most Third World coffee countries, berries are
dried several ways. A popular method is to rake
them onto a plastic-covered patio to bake in the sun.
This can take up to 15 days and involve back-breaking
labor, said Raudales.

Or they are dried with firewood, diesel fuel or
electricity. Firewood, a traditional method,
burns through forest land at a steady clip three
square centimeters per cup of joe. These methods,
Raudales calls "dinosaurs," emit carbon dioxide,
can cause global warming and are costly.

Growing up in Honduras, a major coffee-producing
country, the engineer was hip to the industry's
outmoded ways. And with coffee being the second-most
popular traded commodity after petroleum worldwide,
he knew the industry was ripe for an overhaul.

So when the Department of Energy caught wind
he was developing technology with renewable energy
to help Third World countries, international heavyweights
started lining up.

The World Bank, the Global Environment Facility
and the Inter-Amercian Foundation have collectively
shelled out $1 million to help the Lowell company.

"There are many problems in Central America,
the environment and poverty. Without new solutions
we can not expect to solve these problems,"
said Raudales.

Although there is an initial cost up front with solar
dryers ($40,000 per unit), they run on nothing but
sunlight.

Here's how it works: After being plucked from the tree
and drying briefly in the sun, the berries go into an
18-foot-high aluminum dryer, which is heated overhead
by solar thermal collectors. The coffee crop drops down
into a chamber to dry on a tray for 24 hours. Once dry,
berries come out the bottom and are ready to be roasted.

The dryers are manufactured in Lowell and Chelmsford
and sent to coffee cooperatives for assembly. Raudales
hopes this dual business model will fuel the economy
on both ends.

"Connecting this system with a cup of coffee
promotes industry, activity in the Merrimack Valley
and across the globe. It's good for the environment.
It's not just another cup of coffee," Raudales said.

Thus far the company has sold dryers to Costa
Rican and Nicaraguan coffee farmers and Raudales
has a pending agreement to sell 500 to Honduras.

Starting next week the idea comes full circle The
institute will sell solar-dried beans, under the name
Cafe Solar, at Market Baskets in Lowell, Chelmsford,
Westford, Andover and Lawrence stores.

Cafe Solar is also being brewed at UMass Lowell/Amherst
and Bentley colleges, where students are studying
Raudales' design in bio-diversity studies.

"This completes the cycle. It took 10 years to
give it back to us," Trubey said.

"And two million dollars later," Raudales adds.

Cafe Solar's blend of Costa Rican and Nicaraguan
coffee kept concert-goers alert at Boarding House
Park all summer long and is now on tap at organic
cafe Life Alive on Middle Street in Lowell.

"By simply drinking a cup of Cafe Solar, you are
protecting the environment and slowing down
greenhouse gases. People are not aware wha^t's
used for fuel," said Trubey.

Packaged in shiny black bags, Cafe Solar makes
enough eco-friendly claims to turn any
environmentalist giddy. With certified fair trade and
organic stamps underneath the words "Solar-dried
coffee. Solutions for a sustainable future" and a
tropical bird and turbine from a Lowell mill for a logo,
the coffee should turn some heads.

"Lots of companies think they can put a picture of
a bird on a package and that means they are
environmentally friendly. Well, we can actually
stand behind our product," said Raudales.

In the short time it's been available in the Merrimack
Valley, Cafe Solar has won fans.

"I make two cups in the morning with a French press
and I don't need any more coffee for the rest of the
day," said Dan Leahy, a Lowell lawyer whose son
turned him onto the coffee.

Leahy has been sipping solarly since he met the
company owners a year ago. He was so impressed
with the concept that he helped broker the deal with
the Demoulas family, which owns Market Basket.

Since Mesoamerican Development Institute is the
only company using solar technology for coffee
production, they are considered pioneers in the
industry. But coffee insiders warn they have their
work cut out for them.

"I think it's a fabulous idea, a great invention. But
it's going to be a big battle bringing something like
that to market," said Mark Howell, president of
Commonwealth Coffee Company, who roasts beans
for Cafe Solar in Franklin.

Cafe Solar coffee can also be purchased at

http://www.mesoamerican.org

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Big coffee companies agree to set standard
Reuters Reuters
Saturday, September 11, 2004

HAMBURG Some of the world's biggest coffee companies announced a voluntary code on Friday to improve conditions and environmental standards for coffee workers and growers in producer countries.

The code follows complaints by consumer and environmental groups that the companies exploit low prices and poor working conditions in a world market glutted with excess coffee.

But critics said the companies could help more by cutting oversupply.

The first coffee produced under the new code should be available for sale after the harvest that starts late next year, said Annemieke Wijn, a director of the sustainability program at Kraft Foods in Germany. She is also a board member of the German coffee industry association DKV, which developed the code along with the German government.

Called the Common Code for the Coffee Community, it aims to help poor producers by creating a market for coffee that has been produced without banned pesticides or any slave, forced or child labor in places where trade unions are permitted, working conditions are fair and producers are allowed to sell their coffee freely.

Coffee produced this way will be certified under the code. Farmers and cooperatives would be urged to gain certification.

The parties to the agreement include Nestlé, Tchibo, Sara Lee and Kraft. Producers involved include Brazil, Vietnam, Kenya, Colombia, Indonesia and the main Central American exporters.

Wijn said the U.S. coffee industry would be asked to join the code this autumn.

The signatory companies are not committing to buy certified coffee. Instead, the industry will "intensify business relationships with producers of good quality" and "provide a price differential for high quality coffee."

Ian Bretnam, deputy director of the Fairtrade Foundation, said, "Anything that improves workers' conditions is welcome, but it seems to be largely focused on plantation workers and doesn't address the fundamental problem of the slump in prices."

Angus Downie of the Economist Intelligence Unit said the code would probably not help lift world prices, which have recovered only slightly since hitting a 30-year low in 2002.

"The only way to get prices back up is to cut supply," he said. "These schemes do have a habit of not working in the medium to long term."

But the involvement of the leading roasters in the code meant it could make a difference.

"They're riding on the back of the organic movement," he said. "Consumers want to know more about where their food comes from and can be prepared to pay more."

[Texas Carnie Roadshow]

Sorry, I started drinking coffee when I was 14, and stopped maybe a few months ago. It makes my pee smell funny.
I don't like that.