Coffee drinkers may well have a touch of Dunedin science in their cups as origin-tracing company Oritain teams up with the Brazil Specialty Coffee Association (BSCA) to guarantee the provenance of Brazilian regional coffees.
Oritain’s forensic science would provide a guarantee of Brazilian coffee’s provenance and origin, no matter where it ended up in the world.
Brazil is a coffee-producing giant, with forecasts for the 2023-24 year sitting at 66.4 million 60kg bags, a report released by the United States Department of Agriculture shows.
Oritain regional director for Latin America Gabriela Castro-Fontoura said the BSCA was the leading specialty coffee association in Brazil, representing more than 60,000 fine coffee producers.
It was the in-country partner of the Alliance for Coffee Excellence and ran the Cup of Excellence competition in Brazil.
"This is one of the most famous specialty coffee competitions in the world, if not the most famous," she said.
A statement by Oritain said regulation was demanding origin verification, and consumers were too.
Verification systems put in place by BSCA and Oritain were compliant with recent European Union anti-deforestation regulations, which vetoed imports that did not comply with environmental requirements.
Research commissioned by Oritain in May indicated Brazilian consumers were deeply concerned about the origin of their products, especially coffee.
Nearly 97% of respondents were positive toward manufacturers that disclosed origin, and 78.2% considered a product was only truly sustainable if its origin was known.
Coffee lovers in markets such as Europe, North America, New Zealand and Australia were also demanding proveable actions from coffee brands with regards to sustainability.
BSCA executive director Vincius Estrelea said putting in place traceability systems was "an essential way of walking the walk and avoiding greenwashing accusations".
"Sanctity of Brazilian origin is essential to our specialty coffee growers, roasters and exporters. Brazilian coffee is exported all over the world.
"We are looking for a way to provide a guarantee to regulators, investors, buyers and, most importantly, our valued customers all over the world that our coffee is 100% Brazilian and compliant with international regulations to combat deforestation, environmental harm, unethical labour practices and food fraud."
Oritain chief executive Grant Cochrane said Oritain and Nestle Brazil launched a partnership that covered three Brazilian regions in June. BSCA was building on that work and paving the way for unmatched traceability of Brazilian coffee, which Oritain could scientifically prove at farm, regional and country level.
The geochemistry of the land differed worldwide, even parcels of land only a few metres apart. As coffee grew, it absorbed a unique ratio of elements depending on the mesoclimate, altitude, precipitation, soil type and growing conditions.
Oritain could identify that unique ratio in the soil that was ‘imprinted’, creating an unchanging scientific link that ran through the land, the beans and the eventual cup of coffee.
Earlier this year, Oritain announced it had raised $US57 million ($NZ91m) in a capital raise led by venture capital firm Highland Europe.
