Ethiopi The Country Of The World

Coffee had lots of demand, but little supply. The country that could grow and export the most coffee had a substantial economic advantage over other countries in terms of commerce.

The popularity of coffee began with its introduction to Europe in the 17th century, a time when colonialism had brought many resources to countries like France and Britain. In Europe, coffee was a delicious beverage, and was very inexpensive due to the monopoly of coffee imports from colonized to colonizer. But while tea was still the preferred choice in North America, an increasingly higher tax on America’s favorite beverage led to the Boston Tea Party. Tea forever came to be known for the British oppressor, and coffee became as popular in the U.S. as it was in Europe. The popularity of coffee remained because the colonies in Africa were required to export all precious resources to Europe. Despite the history of exploitation of resources in many African countries, the coffee industry in Ethiopia has thrived, taking a product that is in high demand and creating a stable economy, leading to the improvement of its citizen’s economic prosperity. This is because Ethiopia was one of the few areas not colonized by European powers, letting it avoid the consequences of colonialism and focus on the development of a country.

In years past, coffee was relatively inexpensive to buy because coffee was typically consumed in certain countries, but now that many more countries are consuming coffee, the supply is having a difficult time keeping up with the demand. For instance, if economists predicted in 1980 that the demand for coffee would increase between 50% and 80% by 1990, then it would stand to reason that farmers would have probably enlarged the size of their crops in order to accommodate the demand. However, in 1990 the demand for coffee only rose by 10% thereby creating a surplus of coffee on the market for consumers. Because coffee is so easily obtainable, and farmers are trying to sell their goods so the crops will not go to waste, prices begin to drop to help tempt purchasers, which helps the producers so they avoid losing their investment entirely.

Ever since the first coffee bean tree was discovered in Ethiopia, the bean became a pleasurable commodity that spread quickly to Yemen and other Asian countries. It wasn’t long before it came to Brazil, becoming one of the largest coffee producing countries in the world today. Throughout time, people came up with brewing systems and coffee-making machines that made it easy to manufacture coffee but it wasn’t like that in the early 1800’s. Slaves came into Brazil and were forced to work in difficult labor conditions to collect and roast coffee beans.

The documentary Black Gold, is about the world coffee market and an Ethiopian fair trade cooperative. Ethiopia being the birthplace of coffee is the largest producer of coffee in the world, producing some of the highest quality of coffee beans in the world, like Harar, Yuban and Sidamo types of coffee. The significant problems pointed out in this documentary show what is wrong in the global trading system. Mainly, while most of us continue have our lattes and specialty coffees, the amount paid to the Ethiopian coffee farmers is so low that a lot of them have been forced to chop down some of their coffee fields and rely on other crops to help them survive. The Ethiopian people are malnourished; they have no clean water, no healthcare, and no schools for their families. As quoted in the film, “They are living hand to mouth”.

For years, across many nations, coffee has assumed many forms and roles. It has been a staple of trade, tradition and religion, a cause of political and social controversy, a source of income and inspiration, a simple pick-me-up and also, a binder of relationships of a wide variety. In Bolivia, coffee plays a prominent and ubiquitous role in its culture, history and function with a presence and control over all of these aforementioned aspects; it may not be the largest supplier of coffee, however, this fact does not in any way mitigate its colossal impact on the country.

Finally, global economic issues have an immense influence on the world of coffee. Throughout history there has been a pattern that coffee producing countries are economically worse off than those that are consuming the coffee. Pendergrast mentions that “in 1950 the average income in consuming countries was three times that of coffee-growing nations. By the late 1960s it was five times great” (270). With that said, many producing coffee countries were facing endemics and malnourished peoples because workers were receiving absurdly low wages thus placing them into poverty and human suffering (271). Specifically, although 90 percent of El Salvador’s exports consisted of coffee in the 1930s, they agonized from “‘low wages, incredible filth…[under] conditions in fact not far removed from slavery’” (168). Global economic issues of these producing countries lead to dictators easily gaining power such as those in Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Honduras (170). Not only was politics a matter that resulted from global economic issues, “the high interest rates from financial institutions and price [squeezes]” lead to the economic struggle of farmers like those from Colombia due to

Coffee is certainly not a drink. It is a global commodity. The coffee industry hires many people around the world for its growing, processing, and trading. The coffee trade is vital in economies in less developed countries and in more developed countries. Every single way the coffee trade works in is vital to economies; from farmers, to consumers.

One might ask themselves why a country like Guatemala continues to base its economy upon the production of coffee, if they only get about ten percent of global earnings back? At first it may not seem as if it is the best financial transaction for them, taking in such low profit margins, while still retaining much of the cost and risk involved in the crops creation. An easy answer to this is yes, their margins are often not great, but they produce enough volume to make it potentially very profitable. Because of the country’s huge commitment to coffee growth, coffee has had Guatemala see great economic reward from time to time. Like in the early 1970’s coffee was turning huge profits. “The economy boomed from 1971 thorough early 1974. Then, as a result of inflation (21.2% in 1973), the world energy crisis, and an annual population growth of 2.9%, the economic growth rate slowed from 7.6% for 1973 to 4.6% for 1974. During the second half of the 1970s, Guatemala's economic performance slowed further; during 1974–80, the average annual growth rate was 4.3%.” (Nations Encyclopedia)

Coffee is one of the most popular beverages in the world and therefore is a popular commodity. More than 2.25 billion cups of coffee are consumed every day. Over 90% of coffee is produced in developing countries, and millions of small producers’ income comes from growing coffee. Coffee is produced and exported mostly from South American countries, while mainly industrialized countries are the ones importing the most coffee. Worldwide, 25 million small producers rely on coffee for a living, and in Brazil, over 5 million people are employed by the commodity. Brazil is the top country in exporting coffee and is where almost a third of the whole world’s production of coffee is. Coffee is a more labor-intensive work culture than other commodities like sugar cane or cattle because it is not automated work and requires attention.

Statistics show that over half of the American population consumes coffee on a daily basis. You may drink coffee hot, cold, mixed, or even in a frappuccino. Individuals are able to make coffee at home, or buy it on the go. Coffee provides people with caffeine, which ultimately gives energy for hardworking people all around the world. The main focus for this paper will cover the following topics, with coffee as the basis: causes for shifts in supply and demand, how coffee supply and demand influence price, quantity,

The colonization of Uganda and Kenya is the reason why they are bilateral countries meaning they share many of the same interest such as political interest, economic interests etc… Being colonized by the United Kingdom has affected their history forever, and has made it extremely difficult to be in the same state as the rest of the world but also allowed both countries to be close with each other as they shared the same experiences. As they gained their independence, they later formed an East African Community along with Tanzania who was also colonized by the UK which created many benefits in the long run. In this paper, I will investigate the benefits of the East African Community over time specifically with Kenya’s and Uganda’s trade with coffee.

Thus, Starbucks exploits the situation brought about through globalisation, as their "Workers earn two cents a pound for picking berries," says Eric Hahn of the Chicago-based U.S./Guatemala Labor Education Project, whilst ”Starbucks turns around and sells a pound of Guatemalan coffee beans for nine dollars” (Zielinski, 1995). However, Alex Singleton, a fellow at the Adam Smith Institute claimed that 'Starbucks has done more to lift coffee farmers out of poverty than almost anyone else - including Oxfam and the do-gooders,’ (Davis, 2008). Believing that "the answer to development is not large amounts of foreign aid [rather] it’s getting these countries to engage in the global market, and Starbucks helps that’ (Davis, 2008). Certainly, Starbucks has provided work for farmers living in poverty. Although, Starbucks relationship with the farmers was solely developed for the purpose of exploiting and using these farmers and their workers to gain maximum profit by paying $0.57 per pound of coffee sold to the farmers, that’s 2.2 per cent of the $26 per pound it sells for in the United States (Davis, 2008). Thus, not only are Starbucks exploiting the poverty stricken farmers of Guatemala through underpaying them, but they are also forced to work in virtual slave conditions in an unsafe and unsanitary environment. Hence, Starbucks uses the Globalised world to

The movie Black Gold depicts how the push to liberalize trade at the global scale through institutions like the WTO, has had an impact on coffee farmers by telling the story of Tadesse Meskela. Tadesse Meskela is the manager of the Oromia Coffee Farmers Co-operative Union, and represents over 101 individual co-operatives and the 74,000 coffee farmers that make up these co-operatives in Southern Ethiopia. Tadesse states that they are producing the best coffees in the world, yet they are getting very low prices. He goes on to state the price affects all those involved in the coffee

The film highlights the fact that coffee is the most valued word commodity, second to oil. The beginning of the film shows the process in which coffee is made- from bean harvesting by workers in Ethiopia who make next to nothing, through several intermediated stages, and into the market. Although we spend countless amounts of money on coffee without thinking twice, the price that coffee farmers who produce this commodity are getting paid, is disgustingly low. Some of them have even been forced to walk away from their fields. There is no better place to see this