Perking up coffee industry

COFFEE culture in South Africa has seen a massive explosion in recent years, so much so that Cape Town is on track to become one of the coffee capitals of the world.

This was solidified at the first Allegra Coffee Leader Summit, which took place at the Taj Hotel.

The event included Cape coffee leaders from Origin, Truth Coffee and Seattle Coffee Company, tackling topics ranging from global trends, sustainability, ethics and how to be more inclusive.

“The real reason behind the summit was that there had never been one, and we had seen the success in London, New York and various markets in Europe,” said Allegra Group chief executive and founder Jeffrey Young. “It was so obvious that there needed to be something like this to bring the various leaders in the market, the big and the small to discuss and to debate, and to help grow the industry.”

Young said a lot of people were not connecting and the lack of information was unfortunate.

“This is a new era, with the arrival of Starbucks in Cape Town later this year. It shows that there are a number of firsts coming. Starbucks in Cape Town will be a seminal moment for the coffee industry, like how this will be a catalyst for the industry moving forward.”

Starbucks, which took the country by storm with its launch in April 2016, has seen the international coffee company launch 10 stores.

It will also be launching Cape Town’s first Starbucks in the second quarter of the year, said managing executive Clive Liversage.