Fair enough

MAKING good coffee is not a simple business. Coffee bushes must be grown in shade—neither too much, nor too little. A hillside is best—but it mustn't be too s______①. After three years, the bushes will start to produce bright-red coffee “cherries”, which are picked, processed to remove the pulp, and spread out to dry for days, ideally on concrete. They are m_______② again to separate the bean, which needs to rest, preferably for a few months. （1）Only then can it be roasted, ground and brewed into the stuff that dreams are ★quelled with[1].

In Mexico and parts of Central America, as in Colombia and Peru further south but not in Brazil, most coffee farmers are smallholders. （2）They found it especially hard to deal with the recent ★slump[2] in the coffee price. The price has since recovered: the benchmark price applied to m________③ coffee now ranges from $1.11 to $1.14 per pound. That is roughly double its ★rock-bottom[3] level of August 2002.

But the v_________④ of their income makes it hard for farmers to invest to sustain their crop, says Fernando Celis of the Mexican National Organisation of Coffee Growers. The slump forced many small farmers to switch to other crops, or migrate to cities. Mexico's exports of coffee are less than half of what they were six years ago.

（3）For farmers, one way out of this dilemma is to decouple the price they are paid from theinternational commodities markets. This is the a_______⑤of Fairtrade, a London-based organisation which certifies products as “responsibly” sourced. Fairtrade determines at what price farmers make what it considers a reasonable profit. Its current calculation is that the appropriate figure is 10% above the market price.

W________⑥, sales of Fairtrade-certified coffee have increased from $22.5m per year to $87m per year since 1998. This is still only a tiny fraction of the overall world coffee trade, worth $10 billion annually. But there are plenty of other ★niche markets[4] for high-quality coffee. Some small producers can c_________⑦ more by marketing their coffee as organic—a switch which takes five years or so—or “bird-friendly” （4）because, unlike large, mechanised plantations, they have retained shade trees.

Starbucks, the Seattle-based coffee-bar c________⑧, says it uses a similar formula to that of Fairtrade in buying its coffee. All is bought at a “fair price”, says Peter Torrebiarte, who manages Starbucks' buying operation in Costa Rica.

（5）Some niches can be large. Only 6% of world o________⑨ is of top quality, but in Costa Rica and Guatemala the figure rises to 60%, says Mr Torrebiarte. Starbucks bought 37% of Costa Rica's entire coffee crop in the 2004-05 season, according to Adolfo Lizano of the country's coffee institute.

Mexico lags behind its neighbours in extracting higher prices. But 95% of the coffee in Mexico is arabica—the type of bean demanded by connoisseurs—rather than lower-grade robusta. Almost all of it is grown at a________⑩, which also improves quality. So Mexico, too, has the potential to compete on quality rather than price. Only by following the path forged by Costa Rica and Guatemala, says Mr Celis, can Mexico's coffee growers survive in the world market. （6）For their part, discerning coffee drinkers can satisfy their palate and their conscience at the same time.

[QUIZ]

1. 根据空白后括号里面的词性提示和英文释义以及首字母，填入合适的单词（注意单词形式变化）。

如：

s______(adj. rising or falling at a sharp angle)

m______（v.to crush grain, pepper, etc into flour）

m_______（adj.not very strong or hot-tasting）

v_________（n. likelihood to change suddenly and unexpectedly or suddenly become violent or angry）

a_______（n.something you hope to achieve by doing something）

W________（adj.everywhere in the world）

c_________ （v.to ask someone for a particular amount of money for something you are selling）

c________（n. a number of shops, hotels, cinemas etc owned or managed by the same company or person）

 

o________（n. the amount of goods or work produced by a person, machine, factory etc；production）

a________（n. the height of an object or place above the sea）

2.[NOTES]

[1] quell [transitive] formal

1to end a situation in which people are behaving violently or protesting, especially by using force [= put down]镇压

quell the violence/disturbance/riot etc

Police used live ammunition to quell the disturbances.

2 literary to reduce or stop unpleasant feelings such as fear, doubt, or worry: 压制，压抑，平息

'Jerry?' she called, trying to quell the panic inside her.

[2] slump [countable, usually singular]

1 a sudden decrease in prices, sales, profits etc （价格、销售、利润等）骤降

slump in

a slump in car sales

2 a period when there is a reduction in business and many people lose their jobs [≠ boom]: 衰退时期

The war was followed by an economic slump.

a worldwide slump

3 especially American English a period when a player or team does not play well（运动员及队伍）状态低迷期

in a slump

The Dodgers have been in a slump for the last three weeks.

[3]rock-bottom [only before noun]

a rock-bottom price is as low as it can possibly be: 极低的（价格）

bargain holidays at rock-bottom prices

[4] niche markets 瞄准机会的市场

niche [only before noun]

relating to selling goods to a particular small group of people who have similar needs, interests etc:

niche marketing

a niche market

a niche product

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