Download or read book How Female Coffee Growers are Gaining Ground Through the Fair Trade Coffee Industry written by Catherine Elizabeth Dilley and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Good Corporation Bad Corporation written by Guillermo C. Jimenez and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This textbook provides an innovative, internationally oriented approach to the teaching of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and business ethics. Drawing on case studies involving companies and countries around the world, the textbook explores the social, ethical, and business dynamics underlying CSR in such areas as global warming, genetically modified organisms (GMO) in food production, free trade and fair trade, anti-sweatshop and living-wage movements, organic foods and textiles, ethical marketing practices and codes, corporate speech and lobbying, and social enterprise. The book is designed to encourage students and instructors to challenge their own assumptions and prejudices by stimulating a class debate based on each case study"--Provided by publisher.
Download or read book Brewing Justice written by Daniel Jaffee and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2014-09-12 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fair trade is a fast-growing alternative market intended to bring better prices and greater social justice to small farmers around the world. But what does a fair-trade label signify? This vivid study of coffee farmers in Mexico offers the first thorough investigation of the social, economic, and environmental benefits of fair trade. Based on extensive research in Zapotec indigenous communities in Oaxaca, Brewing Justice follows the members of the cooperative Michiza, whose organic coffee is sold on the international fair-trade market, and compares them to conventional farming families in the same region. The book carries readers into the lives of coffee-producer households and communities, offering a nuanced analysis of fair trade’s effects on everyday life and the limits of its impact. Brewing Justice paints a clear picture of the dynamics of the fair-trade market and its relationship to the global economy. Drawing on interviews with dozens of fair-trade leaders, the book also explores the movement’s fraught politics, especially the challenges posed by rapid growth and the increased role of transnational corporations. It concludes with recommendations to strengthen and protect the integrity of fair trade. This updated edition includes a substantial new chapter that assesses recent developments in both coffee-growing communities and movement politics, offering a guide to navigating the shifting landscape of fair-trade consumption.
Download or read book Fair Trade a Growing Trend in the Coffee Industry written by and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 4 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Coffee and Community written by Sarah Lyon and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2011-05-18 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We are told that simply by sipping our morning cup of organic, fair-trade coffee we are encouraging environmentally friendly agricultural methods, community development, fair prices, and shortened commodity chains. But what is the reality for producers, intermediaries, and consumers? This ethnographic analysis of fair-trade coffee analyzes the collective action and combined efforts of fair-trade network participants to construct a new economic reality. Focusing on La Voz Que Clama en el Desierto-a cooperative in San Juan la Laguna, Guatemala-and its relationships with coffee roasters, importers, and certifiers in the United States, Coffee and Community argues that while fair trade does benefit small coffee-farming communities, it is more flawed than advocates and scholars have acknowledged. However, through detailed ethnographic fieldwork with the farmers and by following the product, fair trade can be understood and modified to be more equitable. This book will be of interest to students and academics in anthropology, ethnology, Latin American studies, and labor studies, as well as economists, social scientists, policy makers, fair-trade advocates, and anyone interested in globalization and the realities of fair trade.
Download or read book Coffee certification in East Africa impact on farms families and cooperatives written by Ruerd Ruben and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2023-09-04 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Certification of coffee producers is frequently suggested as a promising strategy for improving the position of smallholder farmers in the market. After the launch of the first Fairtrade label in 1988, several other standards have been promoted either by voluntary agencies (Utz-certified) or by private coffee companies. Each coffee label relies on different strategies for enhancing sustainable production and responsible trade. Coffee certification in East Africa is of a rather recent nature but has been rapidly expanding, representing currently 26 percent of the world's sustainable certified coffee supply. Marketing channels, cooperative organisation and household structures show notable differences between Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia. Empirical studies on the effects of standards for smallholders are scarce. This book intends to deepen our understanding on the role and functions of coffee certification regimes, based on three innovative approaches: (1) longitudinal field survey data capturing changes in coffee farming systems and effects on household welfare; (2) in-depth interviews and behavioural experiments regarding risk attitudes, trust and investments at cooperative level; and (3) detailed discourse analyses regarding gender roles and female bargaining power within coffee households. The chapters included in this book provide new and original evidence about the impact of coffee certification based on large-scale field surveys and in-depth interviews.
Download or read book Sustainability in Coffee Production written by Andrea Biswas-Tortajada and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-06-12 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Coffee, as a commodity and through its global value chains, is the focus of much interest to achieve fair trade and equitable outcomes for producers, processors and consumers. It has iconic cultural and economic significance for Colombia, which is one of the world's major coffee producers for the global market. This book examines sustainable coffee production in Colombia, specifically the initiatives of Nestlé to create shared value. It describes the transformation of the coffee landscape by the development of economically, socially and environmentally viable and dedicated supply chains. Suppliers have been encouraged to shift production and quality paradigms, in order to develop long-term and sustainable strategies for higher value and premium quality products. This has been partially achieved by establishing a robust partnership with the Coffee Growers Federation and other public, private and social actors, thereby taking control of the institutional architecture and knowledge base that exists in the country. The book provides an important lesson of corporate social responsibility and the creation of shared value for the benefit of farmers, corporations and consumers.
Download or read book Fair Trade Coffee written by Gavin Fridell and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2007-12-12 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past two decades, sales of fair trade coffee have grown significantly and the fair trade network has emerged as an important international development project. Activists and commentators have been quick to celebrate this sales growth, which has allowed socially just trade, labour, and environmental standards and practices to be extended to hundreds of thousands of small farmers and poor rural workers throughout the Global South. While recent assessments of the fair trade network have focused on its impact on local poverty alleviation, however, the broader political-economic and historically rooted structures that frame it have been left largely unexamined. In this study, Gavin Fridell argues that while local level analysis is important, examination of the impacts of broader structures on fair trade coffee networks, and vice versa, are of equal if not greater significance in determining their long-term developmental potential. Using case studies from Mexico and Canada, Fridell examines the fair trade coffee movement at both the global and local level, assessing its effectiveness and locating it within political and development theory. In addition, Fridell provides in-depth historical analysis of fair trade coffee in the context of global trade, and compares it with a variety of postwar development projects within the coffee industry. Timely, meticulously researched, and engagingly written, this study challenges many commonly held assumptions about the long-term prospects and pitfalls of the fair trade network's market-driven strategy in the era of globalization.
Download or read book Fair Trade from the Ground Up written by April Linton and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2012-09-01 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fair Trade promises to raise living standards in developing countries through: - worldwide minimum prices for commodities - support for democratically governed cooperatives - requirement of minimum wages and safety standards for workers - training to help producers improved quality and develop business skills - encouragement of eco-friendly practices - third-party certification In contrast to the free trade status quo, Fair Trade relies on informed consumers to choose more direct supply chains that minimize the role of middlemen, offering economic justice and social change as a viable and sustainable alternative to charity. But does it work? Fair Trade from the Ground Up documents achievements at both the producer and the consumer ends of commodity chains and assesses prospects for future growth. From Guatemalan coffee farmers to student activists on U.S. college campuses, the stories of individuals inform April Linton's analysis. Drawing on studies by social scientists and economists, as well as on new case studies, she provides balanced answers to hard questions: How can large institutions be persuaded to commit to using Fair Trade suppliers? Does ethical consumerism work? Are the "social premiums" that are built into Fair Trade prices really being used for community projects? Will Fair Trade market growth reach the scale of organics or green products? This book meets a long-felt need among economic-justice activists, consumer groups, and academics for a reliable qualitative and quantitative overview of achievements of the Fair Trade movement.
Download or read book Design for Innovative Value Towards a Sustainable Society written by Mitsutaka Matsumoto and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-04-03 with total page 1152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the first EcoDesign International Symposium held in 1999, this symposium has led the research and practices of environmentally conscious design of products, services, manufacturing systems, supply chain, consumption, as well as economics and society. EcoDesign 2011 - the 7th International Symposium on Environmentally Conscious Design and Inverse Manufacturing - was successfully held in the Japanese old capital city of Kyoto, on November 30th – December 2nd, 2011. The subtitle of EcoDesign 2011 is to “design for value innovation towards sustainable society.” During this event, presenters discussed the way to achieve both drastic environmental consciousness and value innovation in order to realise a sustainable society.
Download or read book Coffee Science written by Akula Ramakrishna and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2022-08-25 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Coffee Science: Biotechnological Advances, Economics and Health Benefits highlights the important advances in coffee research and an all-inclusive collection of information on the current status of global coffee production and market, sustainable benefits, novel methods and recent developments in coffee metabolites analysis, advancements in coffee processing technology and improvement of coffee quality by fermentation, solid-liquid extraction methods, and post-harvesting processes to improve the beverage quality and produce coffees with different sensory profiles. The book compiles insights into the biotechnological advances to improve coffee quality. It also describes specialty coffees, which are gaining consumer acceptance and enjoying a good global market. This book collates work on the influence of various coffee metabolites such as methyl xanthine, polyphenols, phenolic compounds, indoleamines, biogenic amines, and coffee diterpenes in human health effects such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, type 2 diabetes mellitus, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease. This book is a useful resource for scientists, academicians, and professionals all over the world who are engaged in coffee cultivation, research, business and coffee consumers’ health. Key Features Current status on coffee production and the global market Novel methods and recent developments in the determination of coffee metabolites Advancements in coffee bean processing technology and improvement of coffee quality Biotechnological advances to improve coffee quality: The role of molecular markers, tissue culture, transgenic technology, and micro RNAs Effects of coffee consumption on human health Knowledge contributions from acknowledged experts from across the world
Download or read book Javatrekker written by Dean Cycon and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2007-10-17 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In each cup of coffee we drink the major issues of the twenty-first century-globalization, immigration, women's rights, pollution, indigenous rights, and self-determination-are played out in villages and remote areas around the world. In Javatrekker: Dispatches from the World of Fair Trade Coffee, a unique hybrid of Fair Trade business, adventure travel, and cultural anthropology, author Dean Cycon brings readers face-to-face with the real people who make our morning coffee ritual possible. Second only to oil in terms of its value, the coffee trade is complex with several levels of middlemen removing the 28 million growers in fifty distant countries far from you and your morning cup. And, according to Cycon, 99 percent of the people involved in the coffee economy have never been to a coffee village. They let advertising and images from the major coffee companies create their worldview. Cycon changes that in this compelling book, taking the reader on a tour of ten countries in nine chapters through his passionate eye and unique perspective. Cycon, who is himself an amalgam-equal parts entrepreneur, activist, and mischievous explorer-has traveled extensively throughout the world's tropical coffeelands, and shows readers places and people that few if any outsiders have ever seen. Along the way, readers come to realize the promise and hope offered by sustainable business principles and the products derived from cooperation, fair pricing, and profit sharing. Cycon introduces us to the Mamos of Colombia-holy men who believe they are literally holding the world together-despite the severe effects of climate change caused by us, their "younger brothers." He takes us on a trip through an ancient forest in Ethiopia where many believe that coffee was first discovered 1,500 years ago by the goatherd Kaldi and his animals. And readers learn of Mexico's infamous Death Train, which transported countless immigrants from Central America northward to the U.S. border, but took a horrifying toll in lost lives and limbs. Rich with stories of people, landscapes, and customs, Javatrekker offers a deep appreciation and understanding of the global trade and culture of coffee. In each cup of coffee we drink the major issues of the twenty-first century-globalization, immigration, women's rights, pollution, indigenous rights, and self-determination-are played out in villages and remote areas around the world. What is Fair Trade Coffee? Coffee prices paid to the farmer are based on the international commodity price for coffee (the "C" price) and the quality premium each farmer negotiates. Fair Trade provides an internationally determined minimum floor price when the C plus premium sinks below $1.26 per pound for conventional and $1.41 for organics (that's us!). As important as price, Fair Trade works with small farmers to create democratic cooperatives that insure fair dealing, accountability and transparency in trade transactions. In an industry where the farmer is traditionally ripped off by a host of middlemen, this is tremendously important. Cooperatives are examined by the Fairtrade Labeling Organization (FLO), or the International Fair Trade Association (IFAT), European NGOs, for democratic process and transparency. Those that pass are listed on the FLO Registry or become IFAT members. Cooperatives provide important resources and organization to small farmers in the form of technical assistance for crop and harvest improvement, efficiencies in processing and shipping, strength in negotiation and an array of needed social services, such as health care and credit. Fair Trade also requires pre-financing of up to sixty percent of the value of the contract, if the farmers ask for it. Several groups, such as Ecologic and Green Development Fund have created funds for pre-finance lending.
Download or read book Will we Achieve the Millennium Development Goals with Small scale Coffee Growers and Their Cooperatives written by Christopher M. Bacon and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 12 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This research brief examines the livelihoods of small-scale coffee growing households in Nicaragua, comparing those that are selling to certified "specialty" coffee markets with those selling to conventional markets. The study uses the Millennium Development Goals as established by the United Nations in 2000 as a framework for analyzing the current status of 177 Nicaraguan households involved in small-scale coffee production. The authors conclude that, despite some recent gains in terms of coffee price increases, small-scale grower, no matter whether they sell to certified or conventional market, are in fact losing economic ground due to declining real prices and the rising costs of sustainable production, a situation that needs to be addressed by the coffee industry, certification groups, producer organizations, and governments.
Download or read book Producing Justice written by Daniel S. Jaffee and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Analyzing Organic and Fairtrade Certification Schemes Participation and Welfare Effects on Small Scale Farmers in Coffee Value Chains written by Tina Beuchelt and published by Cuvillier Verlag. This book was released on 2012-05-30 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Organic and Fairtrade certified coffees have become very popular among socially, environmentally and health conscious consumers in recent years. As consumers pay higher prices for these certified coffees, it is commonly assumed that, compared to conventional coffee, better producer prices are paid and that higher shares of the added value in consuming countries trickle down to the producers. Coffee certifications are thus supposed to benefit the coffee producers. Coffee is an important export good for many developing countries. The majority of global coffee production comes from around 20-25 million smallholder families in developing countries. As individual certifications are too expensive smallholders have to participate in farmer organizations, e.g. cooperatives, in order to access cheaper group certification. Governments and international donors support coffee certification schemes and assume that these link farmers to high-value markets, increase producers’ incomes, change power and information asymmetries in value chains, and contribute to poverty reduction. Yet, there is only weak empirical evidence that justifies this support. There are few quantitative studies which applied random sampling techniques, and analyzed the effects of certification schemes in regard of gross margins, profits, income shares and poverty levels of certified smallholder coffee producers. The role of cooperatives for the success of certification schemes has been neglected by research. The available studies have methodological limitations, for example they are based on qualitative methods only, include no more than one cooperative or one certification standard, or cooperatives are non-randomly sampled. This research seeks to fill the identified knowledge and methodological gaps. Through a combination of qualitative and quantitative research, the production and marketing strategies of small-scale coffee producers in northern Nicaragua are compared based on producers that are organized in conventional, organic, and Organic-Fairtrade certified cooperatives. The analysis addresses (i) the smallholders’ household level and (ii) the organizational and institutional level with regard of the cooperatives and respective coffee value chains. The study aims at, first, identifying the socio-economic costs and benefits of participation in organic and Organic-Fairtrade certified coffee chains with respect to level of coffee and household incomes as well as household poverty. Second, it is examined which role the farmer organizations, their respective business models and upgrading strategies, play for the success or failure of certification schemes. Third, the integration of coffee farmers and their cooperatives into the coffee value chain, the structure and functioning of the value chains and the value adding effect of certification is examined. The survey was conducted in the northern Nicaragua departments Madriz, Nueva Segovia, and Matagalpa on coffee farms situated between 900m and 1300m a.s.l. The coffee of all farmers was classified as ‘Strictly High Grown’; the species is Coffea Arabica. The sample design ensured that the research region was homogeneous with respect to living conditions, socio-economic level, as well as coffee growing characteristics driving performance of coffee farmers. After having randomly selected the cooperatives, 327 coffee producing households were also randomly selected and surveyed with a structured questionnaire. Qualitative data collection consisted in total of 58 key-person interviews, 67 semi-structured farmer interviews and 24 focus group discussions with coffee farmers. The primary data was collected during two research stays in 2007 and 2008. This research analyzes gross margins, accounting and economic profits of coffee production. The household income is measured and a poverty headcount index elaborated. Principal component analysis is used to determine current relative poverty levels and the development of relative poverty over time. A SWOT analysis identifies the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of cooperatives. Through a value chain analysis information on the actors, power and information flows as well as price shares is gained. For identifying the farmers’ experiences with coffee certification schemes, a thematic analysis is applied to the qualitative data by developing an individual code system for datareduction. In the research region, the coffee yields of conventional and certified coffee smallholders are usually 40% to 50% lower than national average due to limited maintenance activities and inadequately managed coffee plantations. Highest yields (on average around 480kg/ha) are achieved by organic producers but yield levels vary, like for conventional and Organic-Fairtrade certified producers, between the cooperatives (ranging from 293kg/ha to 516kg/ha). In comparison to conventional prices, Organic-Fairtrade certified coffee achieved on average 11% and organic coffee 8% higher farm-gate prices; price differences between cooperatives also exist. Organic production processes require fewer purchased inputs but are more laborious. Due to constrained availability of family labor, additional labor has to be hired which offsets saved input costs. The higher prices of certified coffees compensate for production costs but fail to increase per hectare gross margins and profits in the case of Organic-Fairtrade farmers compared to conventional produces. Due to higher yield levels, organic producers experience an increase in per hectare gross margins and profits. They have with 328US$/ha a significantly higher economic profit than Organic-Fairtrade farmers (147US$/ha) and conventional farmers (191US$/ha). Yet, as they tend to have smaller coffee areas and larger family sizes, the increase in gross margins does not result in improved per capita net coffee incomes for organic certified producers compared to the other groups. Also Organic-Fairtrade certified producers do not have higher per capita net coffee incomes than conventional producers. Among organic and Organic-Fairtrade certified producers, a higher share of households is grouped below the extreme poverty line than among conventional producers (45% compared to 30%) – which means that they cannot cover their food requirements. Between 60% and 70% of conventional and certified coffee producers are below the national poverty line. Using principal component analysis to investigate several dimensions of poverty and their development over time, it was found that over a period of ten years, organic certified producers became relatively poorer. In the year 1997, all groups had similar relative poverty levels. The Organic-Fairtrade certified producers first improved their relative poverty status during the coffee crisis (in 2002) and were relatively better off than conventional producers. Since then, the relative poverty levels of Organic-Fairtrade producers deteriorated compared to conventional producers. Irrespective of whether farmers were certified or not, Nicaragua’s coffee smallholders face two to three months of food shortages per year during which they seek off-farm employment, and apply for formal and informal credits. In many cases the credit is used for immediate consumption needs, like food or medicine, and only partially invested in the farm. Consequently, harvested yields stay low, leading to low incomes and new credit requirements. When farmers are financially illiterate or requested higher credits than their payment capacity, they are likely to enter a vicious cycle of indebtedness. Each cooperative has a unique business model; they differ, for example, in member size, functions and services, internal organization, and financial characteristics. Despite their different business models the cooperatives often choose the same upgrading strategies as other cooperatives mainly certification, quality, and own processing. The analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOTs) showed that the cooperatives have certain SWOTs in common but there are also cooperative specific SWOTs. The common strength of the cooperatives is the quality potential of the region. The common weaknesses relate to the lack of credit access, a weak extension system, and weak rural infrastructure. The common threats of the cooperatives are high competition among national coffee buyers and cooperatives, corruption and mismanagement, and, according to the qualitative interviews, increasing microclimatic variations and unreliable rainfall patterns. The common opportunities range from more horizontal coordination to reduce transaction costs to share certificates acknowledging the members’ possessions in the cooperative and increased transparency about deductions on payments. Qualitative evaluation indicated no obvious association between the coffee certification strategy of farmers/their cooperative and the coffee gross margins farmers obtained. The upgrading strategies of cooperatives, the strengths and weaknesses as well as the amount of coffee-related services, which the cooperative offers to producers, tend to be more related to coffee gross margins than the organic or Organic-Fairtrade certification. Farmers are found to have no bargaining power over prices irrespective of the value chain, while certified cooperatives have limited bargaining power towards their buyers compared to cooperatives in the conventional chain. Power is unequally distributed between buyers and sellers of coffee in all chains. The quantity and quality of information flows depends on the cooperative and value chain model. Information asymmetries are fewer in certified chains; yet this also depends on the cooperative. Organic-Fairtrade certified value chains tend to have more and smaller-sized actors, especially in consuming countries, compared to the conventional chain. This increases transaction costs in the certified value chains and thus leads to substantially lower producers’ share of the final coffee retail price (8%-15% in certified chains compared to 24%-34% in conventional chains). The presented results depend strongly on each cooperative and there are large variations within the organic and Organic-Fairtrade certified cooperatives. It can be concluded that higher farm-gate coffee prices do not lead necessarily to higher per capita net coffee and household income, as yield levels, production costs, family and land size, as well as labor availability play important roles. Organic or Organic-Fairtrade certification as an upgrading strategy seems only then successful when the business model of a cooperative, its strengths, weaknesses, and other upgrading strategies are supportive. Given the constraints mentioned above, a well functioning cooperative is a necessary but not sufficient condition. This was shown by the example of one well run Organic-Fairtrade certified cooperative with low gross margins showed. The main causes of continuing poverty among smallholder coffee growers in northern Nicaragua seem not the lack of market access or so-called ‘unfair’ trading conditions. Based on the qualitative analysis, reasons for poverty are lack of entrepreneurial and management skills of farmers and cooperative staff, financial illiteracy and indebtedness of farmers as well as a very weak rural infrastructure. Based on the quantitative results potential reasons for poverty are low yield and productivity levels, land and labor constraints. Certification schemes do not address or are able to solve these problems. Prices for certified coffee cannot compensate for low productivity, land or labor constraints. Therefore, certification schemes can only be part of a viable development policy for poor small-scale farmers in northern Nicaragua; the production, infrastructural, organizational and institutional problems mentioned above require even more attention from policy makers. It is recommended that policies, which aim at increasing smallholder coffee incomes through upgrading, should focus apart from production aspects on the institutional context of smallholders and their cooperatives. Regarding coffee production, policies should address coffee yield levels, for example through research investments in improved, stress-tolerant and locally adapted varieties to encounter the microclimatic variations. Coffee quality in the region should be further strengthened by a supportive coffee sector strategy at the national level, which should include a national coffee institute or federation like in Colombia or Costa Rica. This should be accompanied by investments in rural infrastructure. It is recommended to establish an efficient extension system which also addresses the entrepreneurial skills of farmers. This could be also in form of facilitating the establishment of extension associations which could operate regionally and be financed by their members’ contribution. In order to better link farmers to (high-value) markets and to increase their income, it is recommended to focus more on the structure and functioning of producer organizations and their respective value chains. Business and strategic advice to cooperatives is necessary, as cooperative leaders and staff are not fit for international markets, in which they have to act. A banking system which also provides credits to cooperatives (at market interest rates and lending conditions) would reduce the reliance and dependence on exporters or international credit providers and could ease liquidity constraints of cooperatives. An obligatory annual external auditing of cooperatives, like it exists in other countries, is considered to be important to reduce mismanagement of a cooperative. It will also increase the creditworthiness of cooperatives for banks. Trade, processing, and marketing efficiencies in the organic but especially in the Fairtrade value chains in consuming countries need to be improved in the alternative trade sector with its many small profit or non-profit enterprizes and organizations. These actors could consolidate to exert economies of scale and reduce their transaction costs. Consolidation is certainly a new way of thinking in the alternative trade sector but could effectively contribute to improve farmers’ shares of retail prices and raise farm-gate coffee prices.
Download or read book Coffee with Pleasure written by Laure Waridel and published by Black Rose Books Ltd.. This book was released on 2002 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using the example of the world coffee trade, Laure Waridel shows how our current trading system perpetuates poverty and injustice, and explains how the alternative system known as "fair trade" can break the cycle of exploitation and environmental destruction. Book jacket.
Download or read book The Coffee Paradox written by Benoit Daviron and published by Zed Books Ltd.. This book was released on 2013-07-18 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can developing countries trade their way out of poverty? International trade has grown dramatically in the last two decades in the global economy, and trade is an important source of revenue in developing countries. Yet, many low-income countries have been producing and exporting tropical commodities for a long time. They are still poor. This book is a major analytical contribution to understanding commodity production and trade, as well as putting forward policy-relevant suggestions for ‘solving’ the commodity problem. Through the study of the global value chain for coffee, the authors recast the ‘development problem’ for countries relying on commodity exports in entirely new ways. They do so by analysing the so-called coffee paradox – the coexistence of a ‘coffee boom’ in consuming countries and of a ‘coffee crisis’ in producing countries. New consumption patterns have emerged with the growing importance of specialty, fair trade and other ‘sustainable’ coffees. In consuming countries, coffee has become a fashionable drink and coffee bar chains have expanded rapidly. At the same time, international coffee prices have fallen dramatically and producers receive the lowest prices in decades. This book shows that the coffee paradox exists because what farmers sell and what consumers buy are becoming increasingly ‘different’ coffees. It is not material quality that contemporary coffee consumers pay for, but mostly symbolic quality and in-person services. As long as coffee farmers and their organizations do not control at least parts of this ‘immaterial’ production, they will keep receiving low prices. The Coffee Paradox seeks ways out from this situation by addressing some key questions: What kinds of quality attributes are combined in a coffee cup or coffee package? Who is producing these attributes? How can part of these attributes be produced by developing country farmers? To what extent are specialty and sustainable coffees achieving these objectives?
