THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE COFFEE SECTOR

Technology has an impact on the process of planting coffee trees by helping farmers collect and share detailed information about their crops.

Science and technology are growing to boost the start. In the UK, engineers from Brunel University, London have invented the Magic Bean – “Smart seed”. After being planted, this seed will collect data on soil environment such as humidity, temperature, …and send them to the server every hour. Data will be stored on the “cloud” for further analysis. Farmers will easily check data via the website/application to know what the soil needs; thereby saving time, fertilizer and water as well as reducing waste. The research team is trying to perfect and minimize production costs, making the product affordable for universal use.

With technology, farmers in many parts of the world can share planting experiences, recommend suitable products, update information and even trade seeds.

By understanding the varieties, the condition of the soil, combining appropriate care and planting technologies, farmers can be proactive in the process of controlling, evaluating product quality and expect productivity before the end of the crop.

In addition, technology also supports the implementation of other breakthroughs such as developing new coffee varieties, improving the old coffee varieties, changing farming and harvesting methods to develop better products.

With technology, typically Blockchain, all information and processing methods are transparent and easily accessible to understand coffee thoroughly.

The world’s first blockchain chain in the coffee industry allows people to access the cloud, It provides information about every milestone in the coffee supply chain. By scanning the QR code associated with the purchased coffee lot, customers can see the time and location of all transactions, from the farm to the pre-processing, milling, exporting, roasting and retail. Blockchain enables transparency and traceability of coffee beans.

The Farmer Connect builds a coffee information platform based on Blockchain technology, providing a solution for tracking coffee at all transactions, with the ultimate goal of bringing benefits to sellers and consumers who are interested in finding out where coffee is planted. The company also sees the platform as a potential for farmers by storing transaction data. It will offer more advantages for farmers, especially when they find investors.

Roasting is more effective thanks to coffee knowledge. Using software like the specially-designed Cropster, this data is fed into the system and shared down the production line. The information feeds into the roasting process, incorporating cupping results and quality analysis.

This kind of focus on data allows much more precise fine-tuning of the whole cycle, from seed to cup. It is also the ideal solution for larger organizations with multiple facilities that need to share information across sites.

Furthermore, it helps bridge a cultural disconnect that can exist between farmers and roasters. Some farmers may initially be resistant to new practices and modern technology, but when they see that more attention to detail really can earn them more money, it is far easier to get them on board.

As in many other areas of the service industry, the big focus of coffee shops is currently on convenience, speed, and personalization. High street coffee shops want to make it quicker and easier to obtain their product and to make the whole experience a far more individualized one.

One example of how this is being done is in Starbucks’ experimentation with Apple’s iBeacon software.

For those who don’t know how it works, messages are sent out via low-energy Bluetooth transmitters to smartphones in close proximity.

These messages can then be tailored to the individual smartphone user to deliver information that is relevant and useful to that particular customer.

The key to this kind of technology is ensuring that the messages received have real value – if this doesn’t happen, such message may easily be perceived as being invasive, and users will quickly start to ignore them – or even block them altogether.

Starbucks is well known as a pioneer in driving customer loyalty to their brand through the use of technology, and many of their customers will be Starbucks app users already.
This means these customers will already be used to interacting with the coffee giant through their smartphones, and Starbucks will already have the necessary data to target the messages properly.

The more this software is used, the more the company will be able to collect data. This will enable these messages to be even more tailored to the individual customer, offering promotions and offers that a person is much more likely to appreciate and take notice of.

The next step takes us back to where we began – the coffee shop – but this time on the other side of the counter. Tech is also being used to help baristas take their art and craft to a higher level of precision – while at the same time facilitating consistency across outlets.

More precise measurements of recordable parameters like water temperature, volume, brew time, pre-infusion and more are leading to a better understanding of the science of extraction, in turn allowing better results.

Science and Technology now is a vital part of the development of the coffee industry throughout the world.