Description: This workshop will provide an in-depth look at coffee buying for specialty coffee roasters. It will cover specialty coffee supply from seed to cup. It will demystify the coffee 'c' market, which is the benchmark coffee price for arabica that underpins over 96% of coffee imported into North America. Finally, the workshop will answer all questions about contracts and logistics jargon that frequently comes up when buying green coffee. The material is advanced/intermediate, but all are welcome and all will learn!
Date: Saturday, April 13, 2024
Time: 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Room Number: S504BCD
Category: Business
Instructors
Kat Nolte Ferguson (she/her)
Specialty Managing Trader, Sucafina Specialty
Kat Nolte is the Specialty Managing Trader for Sucafina. She was studying philosophy and music at a liberal arts college in the Midwest when she decided to quit school, join a rock band and become a barista. After finding coffee, she completed her degree in accounting and music. She leveraged that business degree and two years working with subsistence farmers in rural Africa to enter the green side of coffee. Her career has spanned finance, trading, quality, sustainability and business advising to East African Cooperatives. Her passion is cultivating the success of farmers and roasters for a sustainable coffee industry.
Ilya Byzov (he/him)
Quantitative Trader, Sucafina
Ilya Byzov is a Quantitative Trader at Sucafina. His work focuses around understanding the drivers of the coffee futures market and predicting price by processing data across multiple internal and external platforms. As part of the North American trading team, Ilya sells coffee to commercial and specialty clients. As part of the Sucafina Innovations group, Ilya oversees developments in satellite image analysis for coffee supply chains.
Al Liu (he/him)
Director, Let’s Talk Coffee, Sustainable Harvest
Currently Director of Let’s Talk Coffee at the specialty green coffee importer Sustainable Harvest, Al previously served as Vice President of Coffee at Milwaukee-based Colectivo Coffee Roasters and as a trader at Atlas Coffee Importers in Seattle. He has extensive experience in building and strengthening supply chains in Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia as well as marketing and branding of both green and roasted coffee. Al served for two terms on the SCAA's board of directors and was an active member of the SCAA Sustainability Committee/Council.