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Posted on January 18 2021
January 18 2021
The 2020 Specialty Coffee Transaction Guide is now Live! Designed by Professor Peter W Roberts and his team at Emory University, the guide aims to help separate the specialty market from C-market commodity pricing; highlighting market trends in the speciality coffee sector. We’re proud to be one of this years 81 supporters, as well as
Posted on April 8 2020
April 8 2020
The Outbreak of COVID-19 Over the past few weeks, the Conservative Government has enforced unforeseen measures comparable to those imposed during World War II. Boris in place of Winston, and COVID-19 in place of Fascism. Admirable and amiable leaders in their own special way, both of whom were, and are, faced with diseases that threaten
Posted on March 27 2020
March 27 2020
We’ve all been affected by current global events in some way or another, and we have seen it have an unprecedented affect on our industry as a whole.
Posted on March 23 2020
March 23 2020
In light of the current situation, we would like to share some words of assurance and information as to how COVID-19 will affect our business, and in turn yours.
Posted on May 29 2019
May 29 2019
Friday the 17th May marked a new stage in Mercanta’s relationship with the Scottish coffee scene. Joined from London HQ by a few good women and men from the lab – plus the boss for good measure – we set about cupping three tables of coffee and welcomed clients and friends to our brand-new digs.
Posted on May 17 2019
May 17 2019
Adryll, as Customer Account Manager, brings an extensive skill-set to Mercanta’s global team of Coffee Hunters. Starting May 1, Adryll Lin joins Aster Lam in staffing Mercanta’s Singapore office. Adryll brings a wealth of experience from various coffee industry sectors to his new role as Customer Account Manager. He possesses a deep understanding of the
Posted on February 14 2018
February 14 2018
Here’s to year 20!! Mercanta has been participating in Alliance for Coffee Excellence’s Cup of Excellence program from the beginning and are ‘Lifetime Members’. Stephen Hurst explains why. Mercanta celebrated our twentieth anniversary in 2016, and it occurred to me that Cup of Excellence would celebrate their twentieth anniversary next year in 2019. Which got
Posted on September 10 2016
September 10 2016
Mercanta North America’s Megan Rindt visited this year’s Canadian Tea & Coffee show – and here’s what she saw!!! The Canada Coffee & Tea Show was a great event. Toronto is a beautiful city full of wonderful people and great roasters. Spending a few days at the show and a day café crawling gave me
Posted on August 2 2016
August 2 2016
Mercanta celebrated our 20th anniversary in style during this year's SCAE World of Coffee show in Dublin.
Posted on May 23 2016
May 23 2016
In March of 2016, the Financial Times featured an excellent piece on Stephen Hurst, Founder and Managing Director of Mercanta, Ltd. highlighting his role as a pioneer of specialty coffee in Europe. You can read the post below by clicking on pop-out icon on the embedded PDF below.
Posted on May 10 2016
May 10 2016
In honour of our 20th anniversary, the African Fine Coffee Association has chosen to highlight Mercanta's ongoing commitment to quality coffee in Africa by publishing a profile piece on our approach to sourcing and client care. The piece will appear in AFCA's April-June 2016 Newsletter.
Posted on December 17 2013
December 17 2013
“We have drawn a line in the sand which not many have dared to do. All our business is done on a fixed price, above the cost of production.” For the everyday high street coffee trader, the matter of coffee pricings is a minefield… indeed, probably something to stay well away from. And yet, nobody
Posted on October 18 2013
October 18 2013
Mercanta were recently privileged to welcome Adolfo Vieira Ferreira from Fazenda Passeio to the Lab to talk coffee. Here at Mercanta we are lucky enough to work with some wonderful producers. Adolfo from Faxenda Passeio is one of these and he paid us a visit recently. Hear what he had to say about his farm
Posted on December 2 2012
December 2 2012
Each Christmas Mercanta sponsors a charitable project in one of the coffee-producing origins we work with. This year we decided to support FUNPRES, a not-for-profit organisation that runs support and prevention programmes for victims of child abuse in El Salvador. We have just received a report back on the project’s progress… FUNPRES (short for ‘Fundación
Posted on March 8 2012
March 8 2012
Although Mercanta is not in the commodity business, we, and everyone involved in the green unroasted coffee business, are in some way affected by/connected to the ”commodity price” as quoted on the New York and London exchanges. The commodity price for coffee is a topic of endless debate, frequently misunderstood, and dare I say it,
Posted on December 2 2011
December 2 2011
Despite having de-commoditised the specialty coffee business many years ago, Mercanta does not exist in a vacuum. Events in the wider commodity coffee world are coming to visit the specialty coffee world, and they are coming quickly. Commodity coffee prices at $2.50/lb are the highest in 13 years. This, in itself, is a newsworthy item.
Posted on October 25 2011
October 25 2011
More than a million people have been affected by devastating tropical storms in Central America and Mexico in recent weeks. Over twelve days of torrential rain have caused landslides and serious floods, with El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua hit particularly hard. Needless to say many coffee producers have been affected – damage caused by
Posted on August 16 2011
August 16 2011
We’re excited to learn that our independent sister company, London School of Coffee (LSC), is now offering two modules from the SCAE’s brand new Coffee Diploma. LSC trainer and coffee industry veteran, John Thompson, will be teaching Green Coffee and Sensory Cup Tasting at LSC from September. About the Diploma Launched in June 2011, the
Posted on December 7 2010
December 7 2010
An interview with Stephen, Mercanta’s managing director, was published today in a World of Coffee report in The Times newspaper. The report is quite advertising-heavy, but still definitely worth a look. Everything that helps spread the word about specialty coffee is good publicity in our opinion! To view the report click here. Stephen’s interview is
Posted on November 5 2010
November 5 2010
A free-market thinktank, the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), has just published a research paper slamming Fair Trade. We have never carried Fair Trade coffee at Mercanta – simply because we don’t think the model works for the specialty coffee business – so we were very interested to see what the IEA has to say.
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