Essay about Fair Trade Coffee Case Study

Recently people have become more and more conscious of what they put into their bodies and where it comes from. An unprecedented amount of information is now readily available to most Americans with the advent of the Internet. This has resulted in a great increase in transparency of the many aspects of imported products. Consequently, programs have been established to help ensure that these products are produced in more ethical and humane ways. To many Americans, the Fair Trade labeled bags of coffee they purchase that give them the energy they need to go about their day in addition to being a socially conscious decision but to many it is a means for survival and an escape from a cycle of debt that traps many similar non-Fair Trade growers generation after generation

Coffee has not only impacted the world socially, but it provides financial means for many countries who export their coffee beans.

Costa Rica now provided raw material for Starbucks which accounted for about 15 percent of the total coffee beans Starbucks needed every year. Costa Rica as one of the raw material suppliers plays an important role in global value chain. Coffee has played a pivotal role in the development of Costa Rica. It has shaped social, cultural and political institutions and is still one of country’s major agricultural exports. (Anywhere, 2016) The global value chain in this coffee industry can be described that Starbucks, the centre in this coffee global value chain, purchasing raw materials (coffee beans) from coffee farms in Costa Rica, reprocessing and reproducing in retail shops, selling the finished products (various kinds of coffee) to customers in the world.

A commodity is a raw material or primary agricultural product that can be bought and sold. The market treats it as equipment or nearly so with no regard to who produced it. The original producer does not make the “big” money from the good that has become a commodity demanded by consumers. A commodity’s supply and demand is part of one universal market like corn, or wheat. A stereo is something that would not be considered a commodity. Other things are important about a stereo not that it is just a stereo but what brand and quality is in consideration when purchasing a stereo. Demand for one type might be much larger than the demand for another. This is not the case with commodities; they lose differentiation across their supply base. An

Marketing is a competitive field that companies outdo each other to make a profit. Café Campesino is a retail-based company that assists farmers to sell their products in a fair and profitable trade. The American coffee industry is that which is on growth with more than 64% of American drinks an average of a cup of coffee a day. The coffee industry just like other agricultural products is affected by a host of factors from climatic variations to fluctuation of prices. This paper seeks to look at Café Campesino's marketing plan in the coffee industry. The paper appreciates the effect

According to Lyon, Bezaury, & Mutersbaugh (2010), Fair-trade is a “process which helps improve the well-being and economic stability of disempowered farmers, by using certified commodity-chains to foster development”. For the KHC company, Fair-trade is essential because they want to provide and endorse exceptional coffee beans that they are proud to use; that means, “using coffee that is good and fair for both our coffee drinkers and for farmers are essential” (Kicking Horse Coffee, n.d.). In fact, over the past 20 years, Kicking Horse won numerous awards in many categories, including Canada’s Fastest- Growing Companies, Canada’s Top Women Entrepreneurs, Canada's Favourite Fair-trade Product and number 15 Best Workplace in Canada (Kicking Horse Coffee, n.d.).

From the New York Times the article: “Coffee’s Economics, Rewritten by Farmers”, illustrates how Kenneth Lander, a lawyer in Monroe, moved with his family to a coffee farm in San Rafael de Abangares, Costa Rica. Mr. Lander was looking for a more balanced life between work and his lifestyle. Mr. Lander started growing his own coffee from 12 acres of land that yielded 6,000 pounds of specialty-grade coffee beans a year. But in 2008, his financials started to dwindle, and he quickly struggled to support his family. Farmers in his similar financial situation usually turned to organizations like Fairtrade International who typically bailed them out, but for Mr. Lander, he sought out innovative ideas. He began to roast his own beans and sell them

Perhaps if we open a direct line from the U.S to coffee producing farms, allowing the major companies here to choose which source they get their beans from and who produces them. Coffee is “the second largest world

The growing chained coffee shops culture in the on-trade has inspired manufacturers to launch specialty coffees in the off-trade. This has led to an increase in both volume and value sales of coffee in the Netherlands. Dutch consumers are becoming more adventurous when it comes to coffee, as is illustrated by the growing popularity of espresso, cappuccino, single origin coffee and flavored coffee.

It is a globalised world. Being a part of this progressive society, growth is a key indicator of success. Global Trade is one such benchmark that differentiate nations and economies. Every nation has some policies to promote the strengths of their trade globally. Likewise, Colombia has been known to be the third-largest producer of coffee after Brazil and Vietnam (in terms of volumes produced) from a long-time. Coffee is the world’s most traded commodity and most of it is produced by the small-scale farmers. Hence, globalisation has had a great impact on its production as well as trade. Therefore, Colombia’s strength lies in the production of coffee but also promoting their strengths and honing them globally to their benefit. Coffee is not just a cash crop for the Colombians but it’s a way of life for them. The farmers associated with the credulous society of small scale coffee growers called National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia (NFC) (1) was founded in the year 1927.

The coffee industry is an extremely competitive one. However, the market structure of the coffee industry and specifically the coffee bean industry that provides the raw materials for Yuban could be described as an oligopoly. The specific characteristics of this oligopoly are, however, more reminiscent of a cartel because a relatively small number of suppliers control the supply and distribution of coffee beans globally (Igami, 2011). Consequently, Yuban, which is a brand within the Kraft Foods umbrella, has limited choice in selecting its supplies. The coffee bean industry was controlled officially through a cartel structure until 1989 under the International Coffee Agreement or ICA but thereafter market competition with new entrants such as Vietnam eroded the control of this official cartel organization (Igami, 2011). Yet, because coffee bean production is largely limited to certain geographic regions, these countries’ governments express a great deal of control over which entities control production and distribution.

The coffee industry has proven there is a never-ending shift of global power through the global economy. Thus, through the history of coffee, it is apparent that factors involving the globalization process such as absolute advantage and comparative advantage have had an impact

As the Prior of the Carmelite Order of monks in Clark, Father Daniel Mary has established a future direction for the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming. He has a clear vision that he wants to expand the monastery by buying a 500-acre ranch, which can enable to build a Gothic church, a convent for Carmelite nuns, a retreat center for lay visitors, and a hermitage including 30 monks. Father Daniel Mary cannot make the vision come true unless he can collect enough money to pay for the $8.9 million listing price of that ranch. In this circumstance, the vision for Mystic Monk Coffee (MMC) is to sell more coffee to fund the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming. Therefore, the mission of the Carmelite

Fair Trade Coffee Fair Trade promotes socially and environmentally sustainable techniques and long-term relationships between producers, traders and consumers The world coffee industry is in crisis. A flood of cheap, lower-quality coffee beans have pushed world market prices down to a 30-year low. Many now earn less for their crop than it cost them to grow. Many coffee farmers around the world receive market payments that are lower than the costs of production, forcing them into a cycle of poverty and debtWithout urgent action, 25 million coffee growers' face ruin.

Following Meskela’s journey, the film demonstrates the power held by multinational corporations (MNCs) in setting the price of coffee. He wants a solution, but what happens with commodity traders, the international coffee exchanges, and the World Trade Organization (WTO), he is faced with challenges in finding that. Meskela worked diligently to eliminate the players who tend to come in between the buyers and the sellers. Instead, he went directly to the buyers to ask for a fair price. The fair-trade movement embraced his cause as they work to bring supposedly fairly-traded commodities to grocery stores in America.