A Brief Overview Between Coffee and COVID-19 Pandemic

Zenodo, May 2020 ©2020 by the author – Open Access – Distributed Under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Kurniawan Arif Maspul, kurniawanarifmaspul@gmail.com

Citation: Maspul, K. A. (2020). A Brief Overview Between Coffee and COVID-19 Pandemic. Zenodo, Article 5199509. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5199509

Abstract

Coronavirus has had a significant impact on shifting business and human structures; coffee is no exception. Here the author explains integrative information in several countries anticipating the drastic changes caused by COVID-19. Creative think is very relevant to keep the business or any establishment to keep it running well. As also mentioned before, the government of any country supported the businesses, including the coffee shops, which is the external strength to keep the entrepreneur's resilience and activities. Finally, it is highly recommended to support well-being during times of change and uncertainty.

Introduction

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a respiratory illness that started in animals and is now being transmitted between humans. The symptoms include coughs, fever, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. First identified in Wuhan, China, the virus has (as of March 19) affected more than 308,000 people in 188 countries. Some 13,000 have died, while around half have already recovered. On March 11 the World Health Organisation labelled the outbreak a ’pandemic’ (Time Out, 2020). The record also has been counted till today about the spread of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 developed into a global public health crisis, with more than 188 countries and regions affected. To date, more than 4 million people have tested positive for the virus and more than 281,893 deaths have been counted (John Hopkins University & Medicine, 2020).

The Pandemic COVID-19 has created new issue also in the coffee industry globally, the main coffee importing and consuming markets in Europe, North America and Asia are in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis. Governments have put measures like social distancing and lockdowns in place. These have had a huge effect on cafés, micro-roasters, restaurants and other out-of-home outlets (Centrum tot Bevordering van de Import uit ontwikkelingslanden, 2020). The same issue also in Indonesia, Especially in the food and beverage (F&B) business will immediately feel the impact, the government instructed the community to do social distancing by working and learning from home during the COVID-19 period until at least May 29, 2020 (Kumparan, 2020). This phenomenon also has an impact on mid-level entrepreneurs, including coffee that has experienced a 50-90 percent decrease in sales due to restrictions on human space so that the café restaurants and coffee shops are quiet until they are closed, and the implementation of regional quarantine in export destination countries (Gareta, 2020).

COVID-19 affected most of the businesses all over the world due the lockdown, it has been shuttered and all borders has been closed (Kupferschmidt, 2020). In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Saudi authority on March 15th 2020 announced the closure of all retails included the coffeeshops. (Saber Yezli, 2020) Currently lockdown and social distancing is the exit strategy, whether that approach can strike the right balance between keeping the virus at bay and easing discontent and economic damage remains to be seen (Kupferschmidt, 2020).

In the United Arab Emirates as of March 22, there have been 153 cases recorded in the UAE (Time Out, 2020). While the Corona Pandemic being mainstream issue in UAE, National Emergency Crisis and Disasters Management Authority UAE (الهيئة الوطنية للادارة الطوارئ و الأزمات و الكوارث) announced for temporarily closed for some places for a period of 2 weeks, “The National Emergency and Crisis and Disaster Management Authority announce the temporary closure of all public and private beaches, parks, swimming pools (public and private), cinemas, fitness centers from Sunday (March 22) for a period of two weeks - subject to review and evaluation. Restaurants, cafes and food and beverage outlets may operate for home delivery requests during this period provided they abide by the required sterilization and public health procedures” (Wam, 2020). In March 23rd, Dubai Municipality announced the regulation according to the “In line with precautionary measures announced by The Ministry of Health and Prevention (وزارة الصحة) and National Emergency Crisis and Disasters Management Authority UAE (الهيئة الوطنية للادارة الطوارئ و الأزمات و الكوارث), Dubai Municipality announces the closure of all restaurants, cafes, cafeterias, coffee shops and all establishments offering food services in shopping centers/malls, and all locations in Dubai and halted all their activities for 2 weeks starting from 23rd March 2020 with exception for restaurants and cafes at hotels and hotel apartments serving their guests” (Temporarily Closure of Restaurants and Cafes in Dubai, 2020).

International Coffee Organization (ICO) (International Coffee Organization, 2020) summarised the demand side of COVID-19 impact on the global coffee sector as follows;

· The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is a dramatic public health crisis with significant impacts on economies around the world.

· The spread of COVID-19 represents an unprecedented economic shock in an interdependent world, as demand and supply are scaled back around the globe and across sectors.

· The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to have a profound impact on the global coffee sector, including production, consumption and international trade.

· This brief provides a preliminary assessment of the demand-side effects of COVID-19, specifically the impact of a global recession on coffee consumption.

· The analysis is based on a sample of the top-20 coffee-consuming countries, which represent 71% of global demand, covering the period 1990-2018.

· The results show that a one percentage point drop in GDP growth is associated with a reduction in the growth of global demand for coffee of 0.95 percentage points or 1.6 million 60-kg bags.

· Additional demand-side effects relate to the impact of social distancing measures on out-of-home consumption as large parts of the hospitality industry are under lockdown and workplaces are closed.

· Further analysis, in particular of the supply-side effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, is necessary to understand the overall impact on the global coffee sector and all actors along the global value chain. These effects will be assessed in future issues in the ICO Coffee Break series.

Most of world coffee events also has been postponed or canceled to be held in 2020, such as Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) postponing the World of Coffee in Warsaw to October 15-17 2020, Melbourne International Coffee Expo (MICE) also has been postponed to November 3-6 2020, and Re:co symposium and The Specialty Coffee Expo in Oregon has been canceled on April 2020 therefore will be announced for the next schedule (Apostolopoulos, 2020). SCA also gathered some webinar series to as resources and responses to the myriad impacts of the COVID-19 on the global community, such as COVID-19 and Specialty Coffee Survey Response Webinar Series, Ask an Expert: Mental Health and Stress Webinar, United by Sustainability Webinar Series, and so on (Specialty Coffee Association, 2020).

Building Resilience and Leading your business in crisis

It has been interested when discussed about the resilience itself, especially when it related this term to the current situation. The term "resilience" originated in the 1970s in the field of ecology from the research of C.S. Holling, who defined resilience as "a measure of the persistence of systems and of their ability to absorb change and disturbance and still maintain the same relationships between populations or state variables." In short, resilience is best defined as "the ability of a system to absorb disturbances and still retain its basic function and structure" (Bahman Zohuri, 2017). While Carpenter (Carl Folke, 2002) mention about the resilience is “the amount of change a system can undergo and still remain within the same state or domain of attraction, is capable of self-organization, and can adapt to changing conditions. defined ecological resilience as the magnitude of disturbance that a system can experience before it moves into a different state (stability domain) with different controls on structure and function, and distinguished it from engineering resilience. More recent work emphasizes the possibility of a system to adapt to change as a major component of ecological resilience, in addition to recovery or reorganization after disturbances (Carl Folke, 2002).

In the term of specialty coffee, resilience itself could be have another perspective like what Erika (Koss, 2019) write on Specialty Coffee Association Magazine, “Is resilience really a new approach in the goal to “empower” coffee communities? Resilience is not the same as “sustainability,” but too often these are used interchangeably. Can resilience approaches really accomplish our humanitarian and development goals that will allow the poor and vulnerable not only to “bounce back” but to “bounce forward”? Can resilience measure varieties of “disturbance” and its impact on the “equilibrium” of diverse peoples – especially when so many coffee communities lack a firm foundation from which to bounce?” The resilience that addressed during this situation is about how to make the coffee roasteries and coffeeshops will build their resilience in continuing their business activities.

Due to COVID-19 not a small number of businesses faced closure, included the coffeeshops. Some coffee roasters also been tried to rebrand the products through digital marketing activities such as online webinars, gather the new way to brew the coffee not in the coffeeshops but to use at their home. On the other hand the coffee professionals also being held some coffee education classes through online with time of period of week until month, such as Specialty Coffee Association due to the lockdown and social distancing period has been updated the curriculum to deliver coffee skills and sustainability program and learners of SCA courses can be delivered online both course and exam (Specialty Coffee Association, 2020).

Bill George was written about 7 Lessons for Leading in Crisis, and it is been interesting to know and applying with the current situations, the 7 lessons are: 1. Face reality, starting with yourself 2. Don’t be Atlas; Get the world off your shoulders 3. Dig deep for the root cause 4. Get ready for the long haul 5. Never waste a good crisis 6. You’re in the spotlight: follow your true north 7. Go on offense; focus on winning now (George, 2010). It provides a roadmap to use of the well developed and evidence-based Safe Practices. The most difficult lesson to learn is to face reality and own our roles in safety issues; however, this is the critical beginning necessary to survive crisis. In the area of our business itself we can use this model which provides a means of organizing tactics and the Safe Practices about the what, when, how, and why for action.

Government and Community Initiatives

Some tools and support features that provided from some online social media (Facebook & Instagram) to support the business during the COVID-19 in helping the resilience of their businesses. To stay connected with existing costumers through social media will help to maintain the business. Ecommerce also has been raised as an alternative option to keep the resilience of the business such as coffee roastery and coffeeshops, Coffee shops with an online presence seem to be faring better. For example, Stumptown Coffee Roasters has reported a 250% increase in online sales during the past month. In addition, Ireland’s Café Velo has experienced a 1200% sales increase since this time last year, and Indonesia’s Due Coffee now gets 80% of its orders online (Kanniah, 2020). Some countries due to the lockdown many coffee consumers are going to purchase the coffee accessories and coffee beans online for their daily caffeine needs. But some challenges may be presented on the periphery of the periphery countries that e-commerce is not widely adopted or not common useful, the COVID-19 will be given a big impact and hard to build the resilience.

In Indonesia Minister of Industry Agung Gumiwang Kartasasmita supports the #SatuDalamKopi campaign initiated by the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Creative Economy of Indonesia, and Tokopedia to stimulate the national coffee industry amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This campaign has been actively followed by 800 coffee professionals in Indonesia. (Gareta, 2020) Meanwhile several online resellers raised in the United Arab Emirates, such as Bean Burds company that selling the coffee beans from local specialty coffee roasteries. While other previous platform based on the mobile app such as Sippy, also been actively to reselling the local specialty coffee roasteries. SCA on the series of “COVID-19 and Specialty Coffee Survey Response” (Specialty Coffee Association, 2020) also urged on pivoting to online sales, establishing the e-commerce platform which faring a lot better in the current environment. Some of the coffee roasteries also been shifted their businesses to resell some of the coffee equipment and accessories through their website.

The current lockdown scenario has accelerated the trend towards online shopping for at-home consumption, forcing retailers, roasters and consumers alike to adapt to this new reality. Reliant on out-of-home consumption and less price-competitive, the high-end market, composed of small roasters, may suffer the most. However, this market may also show a high level of innovation, marketing power and consumer loyalty to fight the crisis (Centrum tot Bevordering van de Import uit ontwikkelingslanden, 2020). Some Coffeeshop also has been shifted from coffeeshops into a walk up and take away business, some retailers all over the world are making this shift and transforming their businesses during this COVID-19 time (Specialty Coffee Association, 2020).

Meanwhile besides best practices on coffee brewing methods, Perfect Daily Grind (Grant, 2020) also do research on instant coffee that been raised in the market during the COVID-19 “As millennials increasingly demand speed and convenience from their products and service providers, they’re turning to forms of coffee that are convenient and quick to prepare, but still taste as good as a four minute pour-over. This can be seen in the ever-growing popularity of cold coffee beverages, ready-to-drink beverages, and specialty instant coffee. This demand for convenience that doesn’t compromise on quality can also be seen in the rise of specialty instant coffee. Businesses are beginning to sell quality instant coffee that can be consumed on the go, requiring only hot water and a cup. While instant coffees have had a reputation for being poor quality, modern manufacturers are investing in labor intensive processes to preserve their flavor and aroma such as small batch brewing, secondary drying and an extended freezing process. Many manufacturers are also creating their products using better quality Arabica beans instead of the usual Robusta.”

In the United Arab Emirates on April 23rd 2020, the Dubai Municipality (بلدية دبي) issued a circular in regards to intensification of cleaning and disinfection in food establishment after partial reopening phase, that coffeeshops can open partially with some restrictions such as maintain the social distancing during the order and table arrangement 2 meters each to another as well as the maximum guests in the square meter place (Dubai Municipality, 2020). Most of the coffeeshops in the country started to open its doors to served dine-out or takeaways services with some restrictions. To the date May 12th 2020, the Dubai Economy (اقتصادية دبي) issued the protocols for the stage 1 of reopening all establishments and retail trades included the coffeeshops, with the additional amendment “All coffee stations should follow 2m social distancing guidelines and queuing is avoided, no water dispensing machines allowed, the stations to be sanitized after every use or once every hour at minimum” (Dubai Economy, 2020).

Conclusion and Discussion

In the current situation it is highly recommended to support well-being during times of change and uncertainty, besides the creative think is very relevant to keep the business or any establishments to keep it running well. As we mention also before the government of any countries were supported to the businesses included the coffeeshops and this is the external strength to keep the resilience of both the entrepreneur and their activities.

References

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