Cup O' Juan
We Americans love our coffee. We drink nearly two cups of it a day on average.
Coffee is big business and, as CBS News Correspondent Bob Orr reports, now some of the people who've been growing it for us want to sell it to us – by the cup.
They claim they don't want to be Starbucks – they just want in on the action.
"Everybody has been wondering, have been wondering for many years, why don't we open the coffee shops and go straight to the consumer?" says Juan Esteban Orduz of the Colombian Coffee Federation.
So the half million Colombian coffee farmers who make up the world's largest agricultural co-op are going retail. Move over, Starbucks. Juan Valdez is here.
"The coffee is ours," says farmer Hector Daza, "and the store is ours. It's very logical."
Everyone knows Juan Valdez who's been pitching Colombian coffee since 1959. And now Juan Valdez Cafés are coming to New York and Washington – the Colombian farmers' first foray into the U.S. market.
"We already have a Starbucks in major cities on every other corner. How much more is there in the market that can be mined?" Orr asked Orduz.
"People everyday, more and more, are having their cups of coffee out of home. So I think this is a market that is growing a lot," Orduz replied.
In fact, fancy coffee is the only market that is growing. Per-person consumption has declined steadily for decades. Over-production of beans worldwide has pushed coffee prices to their lowest levels in a hundred years.
Colombia's coffee farmers have survived because their co-op guarantees a market for their beans. Profits go for schools and hospitals.
"They give us farming tools," says coffee farmer Guillermo Rojas, "and chickens to feed the family."
With no middle-man, farmers get about five cents for each cup of coffee sold – five times what they make from other stores.
Although 300 Juan Valdez cafes are planned worldwide, Starbucks isn't worried. After all, if Juan's cafes can increase the public's thirst for a cup of Colombian coffee, there will be plenty of room on the block.