DST Revisited (Direct Specialty Trade)

For the benefit of the three of you out in the either world that read my blog, I thought I would post some more thoughts on the DST which occurred yesterday in Addis Ababa.  I had the distinct pleasure today of meeting K.C. O'Keefe a consultant working for ATEP in Ethiopia, who was charged with helping to put together the first DST at the Ethiopia ECX.  My conversation with K.C. albeit a short one, was enlightening, and as a result of that conversation, I feel compelled to modify my views previously expressed concerning the DST.  While my observations remain unchanged, as I witnessed the event as a complete outsider, and as such came to the event without any pre-conceived ideas, I now have some context which helps to put into perspective some of my earlier observations.

The first thing I came to understand is what an exceptionally bright young man K.C. is, and how passionate he is about growing the Direct Specialty Trade in Ethiopia.  This was exciting for me.  He presented to the round table today his vision for the specialty coffee industry in Ethiopia looking 5 years out.  While I am sure that his vision will not fully come to pass, his dreams and goals were both admirable and inspiring.  Afterwards I also found out that he was contracted to assist in pulling the first DST auction together in 4 short weeks.  This in and of itself goes a long way in explaining some of my concerns with the quality available at the auction, and the lack of bidders present.  It is nearly impossible to coordinate any major event in 4 weeks, and given the level of organization and the fact that there was actually coffee available to buy after only 4 weeks, is frankly astounding.  So with that context in place, I have to say that the DST was a HUGE success.  In fact, K.C. said that of all the work he has ever done in the world of specialty coffee, he has never worked with any group as competent and capable as those running the ECX.  I made reference in my previous post to the COE program as something that the DST could learn from, but I am sure Jon Lewis would agree with me, that the COE admin would never try and pull off a COE event in only 4 weeks.  So my hat has to go off to the ECX staff and K.C. for pulling off the virtual impossible.  I also talked to him about my idea of an electronic component to the auction process and he assured me that this idea was being considered.  Obviously getting samples out to potential buyers in four weeks would have been impossible, so the fact that there were bidders present at the DST to buy coffee, is now something of a feat.

So today I learned something, or perhaps more accurately was reminded of the fact that appearances are not always what they seem.  To an outsider yesterday, I commented that the auction seemed a bit lack-luster and I wondered aloud (prematurely, obviously) about its impact and success.  Today, with more context of how quickly the auction came together, I now have to marvel that it went as well as it did.  Knowing that, and knowing that the next auction will have more time to coordinate and prepare, I am quite sure that the coffee and the buyers will be more happily brought together.  Today during the round table, Menno Simons referred to a phrase that I found quite appropriate.  He made reference to a quote that someone made about coffee which sums up both my own, and I am sure many other's experience in the specialty coffee business.

"They say that coffee is not rocket science.... in fact it is much more complicated than that"  The reality is that the specialty coffee industry is very complicated, with multiple issues facing every stakeholder involved.  That much is reinforced for me each day that I continue my journey into my passionate pursuit of specialty coffee.