Between 2010 and 2019, international coffee prices have continued to fall, until a global coffee shortage since 2019 has caused an uptick in prices. During the price fall period, the revenue gained by the coffee producing countries has reduced from 24% of the value (since the mid-90s) to only 16% in 2017.
The idea behind cupping is to avoid any impact on flavour from the brewing process and to treat all coffees being tasted as equally as possible. For that reason, a straightforward brewing process is used, as bad brewing can easily change the flavour of a coffee quite dramatically.
