The Daily Coffee Pro Podcast by MAP IT FORWARD

Episoade

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  EP1685 Part 5 of 5 | What Will the Tea Industry Look Like in 20 Years? (Jem McDowall) Map It Forward 18.09.2026 27min

  Part 5 of 5: Jem McDowall looks ahead at the future of tea and argues that today’s trends are likely to accelerate rather than disappear. Lee and Jem discuss the growing divide between commodity and specialty tea, changing consumer behavior, farm succession, liquidity, origin storytelling, and why simply producing more will not solve the industry’s structural problems.
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  EP1684 Part 4 of 5 | El Niño and the Growing Risk to Global Tea Supply (Jem McDowall) Map It Forward 17.09.2026 23min

  Part 4 of 5: Jem McDowall explains why El Niño represents much more than a weather threat to tea farmers. Lee and Jem explore how climate disruption, fertilizer constraints, logistics problems, smallholder decisions, and the disappearance of excess production are making the global tea supply chain increasingly vulnerable.
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  EP1683 Part 3 of 5 | Why Tea Farmers Are Under Increasing Pressure (Jem McDowall) Map It Forward 16.09.2026 25min

  Part 3 of 5: Jem McDowall explains why tea farmers are becoming increasingly vulnerable after years of low prices, rising input costs, oversupply, and underinvestment. Lee and Jem compare those pressures with coffee, discuss climate and currency risk, and examine why a weakened producer base could become one of the tea industry’s biggest long-term problems.
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  EP1682 Part 2 of 5 | How Tea Is Priced and Traded (Jem McDowall) Map It Forward 15.09.2026 34min

  Part 2 of 5: Jem McDowall explains how tea is priced and traded through physical auction systems around the world, why tea has no futures market, and how buyers take ownership of the tea they purchase. The conversation also compares payment and financing structures in tea and coffee, raising important questions about where financial risk should sit in an agricultural supply chain.
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  EP1681 Part 1 of 5 | How Tea Is Processed and Graded (Jem McDowall) Map It Forward 14.09.2026 23min

  Part 1 of 5: Jem McDowall of Universal Commodities explains how tea moves from fresh leaf through withering, oxidation, rolling or CTC processing, and drying. He also breaks down how tea is graded by leaf size, why those systems vary around the world, and how tea grading differs from the more standardized systems used in coffee.
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  EP1680 Part 5 of 5 | What Will Coffee Look Like in 20 Years? (Norbert Niederhauser) Map It Forward 11.09.2026 34min

  Part 5 of 5: What will coffee look like in 20 years? Lee Safar and Cropster co-founder Norbert Niederhauser explore climate pressure, resilient varieties, higher and more stable coffee prices, experimental processing, AI, automation, the future of cafés, and why the industry still has the ability to shape what comes next.
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  EP1679 Part 4 of 5 | What a Sustainable Coffee Supply Chain Actually Looks Like (Norbert Niederhauser) 10.09.2026 30min

  Part 4 of 5: What does a sustainable coffee supply chain look like in practice? Lee Safar and Cropster co-founder Norbert Niederhauser explore how technology, measurement, data interpretation, and AI can help coffee businesses identify risk, reduce waste, and make more proactive decisions.
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  EP1678 Part 3 of 5 | Environmental vs Economic Sustainability in Coffee (Norbert Niederhauser) Map It Forward 09.09.2026 29min

  Part 3 of 5: Can coffee be environmentally sustainable if the economics do not work? Lee Safar and Cropster co-founder Norbert Niederhauser explore the connection between farming systems, pricing, risk, logistics, the C-market, and why sustainability ultimately depends on both environmental health and economic viability.
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  EP1677 Part 2 of 5 | Where Coffee Supply Chains Lack Sustainability (Norbert Niederhauser) Map It Forward 08.09.2026 29min

  Part 2 of 5: Where is sustainability most lacking in coffee? Lee Safar and Cropster co-founder Norbert Niederhauser examine the weak points across farming, trading, roasting, pricing, and the environment, and discuss how businesses can identify risks before those weaknesses become a crisis.
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  EP1676 Part 1 of 5 | What Sustainability in Coffee Actually Means (Norbert Niederhauser) Map It Forward 07.09.2026 29min

  Part 1 of 5: Sustainability in coffee is about far more than carbon emissions or environmental claims. Cropster co-founder Norbert Niederhauser joins Lee Safar to explore what a truly sustainable coffee supply chain requires, who carries responsibility, and why economic viability, transparency, and long-term thinking all matter.
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  EP1675 Part 5 of 5 | What Colombia’s Coffee Industry Needs Now (Ana Donneys + Angel Barrera) Map It Forward 04.09.2026 26min

  Part 5 of 5: Colombia’s coffee sector faces years of recovery after the earthquake. Ana Donneys and Angel Barrera discuss reconstruction, mental-health strain, unequal access to resources, and why continuing to buy Colombian coffee and maintain long-term relationships may be one of the most meaningful ways the global industry can help.
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  EP1674 Part 4 of 5 | What Colombia’s Earthquake Could Mean for Coffee Exports (Ana Donneys + Angel Barrera) Map It Forward 03.09.2026 22min

  Part 4 of 5: Colombian coffee is still moving, but the risks are building. Ana Donneys and Angel Barrera explain how damaged infrastructure, water rationing, El Niño and processing constraints could affect coffee quality and exportable volume through 2026 and into 2027.
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  EP1673 Part 3 of 5 | How Colombia’s Earthquake Is Hitting the Coffee Industry (Ana Donneys + Angel Barrera) Map It Forward 02.09.2026 22min

  Part 3 of 5: Colombia’s coffee sector now has to rebuild while continuing to produce. Ana Donneys and Angel Barrera explain the damage to wet mills, homes and infrastructure, transport constraints, and why El Niño could compound the pressure in the months ahead.
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  EP1672 Part 2 of 5 | The Day After Colombia’s Earthquakes (Ana Donneys + Angel Barrera) Map It Forward 01.09.2026 22min

  Part 2 of 5: The day after the earthquakes, communities across Colombia began responding while many people were still without safe homes, electricity, communications or road access. Ana Donneys and Angel Barrera describe the solidarity that emerged, damage across coffee-producing areas, and the first signs of disruption to Colombia’s coffee supply chain.
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  EP1671 Part 1 of 5 | When the Earthquake Hit Colombia’s Coffee Region (Ana Donneys + Angel Barrera) Map It Forward 31.08.2026 29min

  Part 1 of 5: Colombia’s coffee sector was already dealing with smaller harvests, rising costs and currency pressure when the August 10 earthquakes struck. Ana Donneys and Angel Barrera describe what happened that morning in Armenia and Pereira, the immediate damage they witnessed, and the first hours after the disaster.
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  EP1670 Part 5 of 5 | What the Benecke Case Reveals About Coffee’s Broken Supply Chain (Lee Safar) | Map It Forward 28.08.2026 38min

  Part 5 of 5: Lee Safar closes the Benecke series by examining the unanswered money trail, Fairtrade, brokers, J.J. Darboven and the insolvency process, and asks what the case reveals about how risk, accountability and payment are distributed across coffee.
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  EP1669 Part 4 of 5 | Brokers, Pressure and Conflicts in the Benecke Case (Lee Safar) | Map It Forward 27.08.2026 21min

  Part 4 of 5: Lee Safar examines the role of brokers in the Benecke controversy, including allegations of pressure on Peruvian cooperatives, disputed creditor-registration advice, commission structures, and possible conflicts between producer and buyer interests.
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  EP1668 Part 3 of 5 | Who Knew Benecke Was in Trouble, and When? (Lee Safar) | Map It Forward 26.08.2026 30min

  Part 3 of 5: Lee Safar examines the warning signs surrounding Benecke Coffee and asks what the company, Fairtrade, buyers, brokers, lenders and other stakeholders may have known before producer cooperatives continued shipping coffee.
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  EP1667 Part 2 of 5 | Where Did the Money for Benecke’s Unpaid Coffee Go? (Lee Safar) | Map It Forward 25.08.2026 24min

  Part 2 of 5: Lee Safar follows the disputed Peru and Honduras coffee through the Benecke supply chain, examining downstream payments, brokers, shipment records and insolvency timing to understand where the money stopped flowing back to the cooperatives.
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  EP1666 Part 1 of 5 | The Benecke Coffee Timeline: What We Know So Far (Lee Safar) | Map It Forward 24.08.2026 34min

  Part 1 of 5: Following the Peru and Honduras cooperative series, Lee Safar reconstructs the Benecke Coffee timeline and examines what we know so far about the unpaid coffee, the warning signs, the stakeholders involved, and the questions that remain unanswered.