Beans

May 19, 2017 

This is my understanding of today's events. Most of it was in Mongolian and was translated to me. I felt like the most useless person in the world. (That is not a plea for reassurance, only God can give me that.)

Some backstory first. When the coffee entered the country, it was tested by the govenment. Completely normal. It was found to have aflatoxin. Aflatoxin is a fungus that appears on grains, nuts, beans and other food stuff. It is completely normal to find them on coffee beans. We consume aflatoxins daily. There is no getting around it. Aflatoxin is a carcinogen that can cause liver cancer. The US standard acceptable level of aflatoxin on coffee beans is 20 parts per billion, ppb. The government of Mongolia health inspectors found levels twice that on Brazil Pedra Branca and Indonesian Mount Kerinchi Sumatra.

We doubted this very much. We buy coffee rated 90 or above. We use reputable exports that are certified in various areas. We pay extra to have the bags shipped in sealed GrainPro bags which elminate any moisture from entering. And, what should have taken 2 days to test and return, it took them ten days. We roasted the beans and asked them to test them. By this time I had read several journals, articles and blogs about aflatoxin. According to everything I read, when you roast it above 205 degrees celsius, the aflatoxin level drops. The level of aflatoxin in the roasted beans quadrupled. They then stated not only could we not sell it, but they were coming to confiscate 8 bags of coffee. At this point, we became suspicious. This was more than an inept government, it was an attack from the enemy. We prayed together, continuously and specifically. Then the Inspector notified us she was coming to confiscate the bags and issue us a fine. End backstory.

Today. The Inspector arrived. Our attorney, manager and I met with her. It seems, the Inspector is on our side. Her director and other coworkers believe she should just take the bags and be done with us. Because we are an expat owned company, and we employ 11 Mongolians that have five kids, she wants to help. We are being given another chance. We are to find two labs in UB that can test the beans. The Inspector already found one for us. The Inspector, Manager, Marketing person and I dropped the beans off today. We have to find one more in country. We called several places and no one else does it. Tomorrow I am going to look at Hong Kong, Korea and else where for testing labs. It is still not over, but God is still our God and that is all that matters.

Keep fighting.

Chaz