Coffee industry mourns the untimely death of Roberio Silva

The Executive Director of the International Coffee Organization (ICO), Roberio Oliveira Silva, has died in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, aged 53. Silva died on 30 December, 2016. He had led the ICO since 2011 and was well known throughout the coffee world for his work to improve the cooperation between producer and consumer nations to achieve a more sustainable future for the coffee industry. Silva joined the ICO after 25 years working in commodities, including stints as the Director of the Coffee Department in the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply; Commodities Secretary in the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade; Executive Secretary of the Brazilian Chamber of Foreign Trade; Secretary‑General of the Association of Coffee Producing Countries; and Secretary‑General of the Brazilian Federation of Coffee Exporters. In an interview with GCR in 2013, Silva said that some of the ICO’s most important work lay in ensuring there was a sustainable balance between the cost of coffee production and the price paid for the commodity on the market. “It is important because coffee provides the livelihoods of millions of farmers around the world,” he told GCR. “They depend on coffee for their survival, and this is what makes it so important.”