Yemen's Conflict Coffee (clip)

While the coffee plant originated in Ethiopia, coffee as a beverage is said to have originated in Yemen between the 14th and 15th centuries when Sufi monks consumed it to stay up all night to meditate. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Yemen's main source of income came from coffee exports to the rest of the world, and the country prospered from this crop. However, as coffee consumption increased, the colonizing powers of the time began to cultivate it in their colonies, so the market became saturated and Yemeni coffee could not continue to compete in the international market and today its share in the international market is negligible.

In 2014, a civil war broke out in Yemen that created a terrible humanitarian crisis that dramatically affected a large part of the population that was the victim of armed struggles and a blockade that generated famine, the collapse of the health system and the destruction of economic life in the country. Yemen is today the poorest country in the region and the conflict has generated large numbers of internally displaced persons and refugees.

Despite these sad events, in recent years some private initiatives and non-governmental organizations have emerged seeking to promote the cultivation and marketing of Yemeni coffee again because they have ancestral knowledge of several generations of coffee farmers. What they seek is to support the development of the sector so that Yemeni coffee recovers the glory of bygone times and serves as a nascent economic activity that provides development and recovery for the country.

The US Is the world's second
biggest importer of coffee.

It is a very labor intensive crop.

It can take three to four years

for a plant to bear the kind of fruit
we would roast and grind.

But the two people
typically paid the least in the chain

are the farmer and the barista.

Learning about coffee is about learning
where your dollar goes.

We follow one of those chains
from Michigan to Yemen.

CONFLICT COFFEE

Hello. Hey, how are you?

What do you recommend today?

(Alhasbani) You want something
with cream or no cream?

You can add a little cream,
a little something sweet...

(Alhasbani) Go with the Mofawar.

Everything for here, right?

(customer) Yes, sir.

(Amel) Ibrahim Alhasbani
is a coffee mogul in the making.

In 2017, he opened his first shop
in Dearborn,

and is now branching out
to two locations,

one across town and another in New York.

He's not selling your average
American-style filtered coffee, though.

Alhasbani's coffee beans are from Yemen.

(Alhasbani) Enjoy, guys.

(customer) Thank you.

(Alhasbani) We're going to make
one Sana'ani and one Jubani.

(Amel) Okay.

(Alhasbani) For Sana'ani, we're going
to use a medium roast with cardamom.

For the Jubani, we use a light roast,
medium roast, coffee husks,

ginger, cinnamon, and cardamom.

- Got it.
- It's like a special mix.

(Amel) So, this is like the gateway drug
into Yemen.

Yes, it's like a bridge.

It doesn't have sugar.

Yemeni coffee is famous
because it has natural sweetness in it.

And I take my coffee with sugar
every morning,

but I can drink this without sugar.

Good.

So you're going to change your mind now.

(Amel) These coffee beans are sweeter
because they're grown

in the highest mountainous regions
of the country.

Why is coffee so important for Yemen?

For Yemen, first, is our culture.

We drink coffee every day.

It has also opened Yemen
to the other countries.

When they started shipping
to different countries,

people, they read more about Yemen,

they want to visit Yemen,

they want to see
what's different about Yemen.

(Amel) How old were you
when you had your first cup of coffee?

(Alhasbani) My mom, she told me when I was a kid,

I had two things,

coffee and a spicy.

She thought there's something wrong
with this baby. (laughter)

(Amel) Yemen may have been the first
to drink coffee

nearly a thousand years ago

when it exported it out of a famous port
called Mocha.

But colonialism,

conflict,

and the rising popularity
of coffee crops elsewhere,

overtook it.

Alhasbani left home in 2011,

but his brother still back in Haraz

running the family's coffee farm.

Hello?

Hello.

How are you?

All is good. Thank God.

Okay. And how's everything there?

Everything's great.
The coffee beans are great.

Make sure you don't roast it

except with the right amount of time

and at the right time.

Yes, for sure.

Let's go... let's go... let's go...

Let's go, Abadan.
Let's go, Noureddeen.

Let's go.

Let's go, it's noon.

The sun is getting hot.
Hold this.

Here. Hold this.

Hold this.

Watch out for my foot.

The red and tender ones.

The red.

This is one of the best types of coffee.

Look, they're red.

Come on, come on.

For people's livelihoods,
it's the coffee bean tree.

If you notice, all of the valleys
and empty areas here

are used to grow coffee beans.

All riches here are gone.

Everyone here grows coffee beans.
There's nothing else left.

(Amel) For five years, a rebel militia
based in the north, the Houthis,

has been fighting with a coalition

backed by the Saudis for control.

The coalition blocked
most imports from coming in,

and the fighting has made life
in the region's poorest country hell.

More than 100,000 people have died so far.

From airstrikes, famine,
and rampant disease.

And exporting anything
amid all of this chaos

is sometimes impossible.

It's cheaper to attempt this
only once a year,

and the only way to keep the beans fresh

is to roast and grind them in the US.

You must really believe
in this Yemeni coffee.

Yes.

First, I believe in our brand.

I believe in our Yemeni coffee beans

as one of the best coffee beans
in the world.

I also believe in myself.

I didn't listen to anyone.

I just spent all the savings I have,

401K, I took it down and used it,

I used all my credit cards,

I used all the money I have.

Everybody said, "You're crazy."

(Amel) When people
first hear the word Yemen,

they think of the current war,

bloodshed...

But to you, Yemen,
signifies something else.

It's my life, it's my birthplace.

I stopped watching news, actually,

especially when it comes to Yemen,

it's just sad.

I'm far right here,
and I can't do nothing.

It's just... I can't control my emotion,

I can't control myself.

It's bothering me from inside.

All my family is still there.

I have my sister, she was sick,

and because there was
no hospital in Yemen,

there's no doctors, there's no medicine,

she passed away in the way.

They took her to the hospital
they didn't do nothing for her,

so they sent her back home,

and she got worse.

They took her back to the hospital
and she didn't make it.

Do you ever feel guilty that you're here

and they're there back in a war zone?

(Alhasbani) Sometimes I feel guilty
because I'm not next to them.

Family is very important.

On the other side, I feel not guilty

because at least I'm here
to support them, to help them.

If all of us are stuck there,

you don't know what's going to happen.

What are your hopes for a better Yemen?

This war has to end.

This is first.

Second, we have to be
all Yemeni together...

Ah...

What are you thinking about?

I'm just going to get emotional,
that's why...

Yeah...

It's just... I was crazy about...

When I remember those people is not...

When they fight...

it's really bad.

Okay.

If we're not going to do anything,

nothing is going to change.