Each year GCR invites industry leaders to share their hopes, fears and expectations for the year ahead, in what is expected to be one of rejuvenation and unity for the global coffee market.
Looking back, one understands how difficult it is to predict the future. If someone three years ago would have described a near future with a pandemic, heavily increased commodity prices and a chaotic shipping situation, we probably wouldn’t have believed them. But it happened and it affected the whole world, us in the coffee industry as well.
Although the last few years have been challenging, I’m confident that a lot of what has happened has made many in the value chain stronger and that we will see results of this in the coming years.
The development and what we have in front of us has strengthened my faith in Löfbergs’ purpose to contribute to a world where people and coffee can grow. I would even say it’s more important than ever. Our perspective has always been to build for coming generations. It means we have a clear focus to meet global challenges, not least in the sustainability field, in producing countries, as well as on our home field.
Here, the power of doing things together cannot be underestimated. One example is International Coffee Partners, where we, together with some other family-owned coffee companies, strengthen small-scale coffee farmers and their development possibilities. Another example is connecting to Era of We, a digital end-to-end platform which aims to shift the value of coffee brands back to coffee farmers and consumers.
During the pandemic, consumption patterns have changed somewhat, but we still drink coffee to the same extent. So even in times of uncertainties, we can be sure of one thing, we have a product that will be in demand in the future as well.
Perhaps it’s like someone said, ‘the only thing we know about the future is that it will be different’. Together with others, we at Löfbergs will do our very best to make different mean better. And I believe the chances for this are good.
This article was first published in the January/February 2023 edition of Global Coffee Report. To read the research paper, click HERE.