International Investment Analysis : Jamaica And Coffee Industry

The most popular religion in Jamaica is Christian, with 64%. Some other religions people in Jamaica practice include Catholic, Jehovah's witness, Rastafarian, Roman Catholic, and Moravian. There are many other religions, but those are some of the most important ones to Jamaican people.

There’s no other place in this world where you’ll find somewhere that offers rich and vibrant culture other than Jamaica. Being the third largest Caribbean Island just south of Cuba, the population of Jamaica is approximately 2.8 million people. According to the Statistics Institute of Jamaica: In 2014 the latest estimate of people was 2.7 million. The people that reside in Jamaica, 90% are African descent, with the other ten percent made up of mostly Caucasians, East Indians and Chinese (Barrett 1997:3). The people of this island are fusions of many different ethnicities that have arrived on the island’s shores through as far as a few hundreds of years. Majority of the island is from African descent, but also many small communities of Indian, Chinese, Arab, and European. The well-known Jamaican accent, the food, and the music of Jamaica takes after the historical backdrop of the island. Jamaican culture is more than simply reggae music. The people is what makes Jamaica, and Jamaica is what makes the people there.

One of the first changes made by the IMF after instituting Jamaica a loan was the devaluation of the Jamaica currency. Even though the devaluation of the currency made exports from Jamaica cheaper to purchase, Jamaica is a country that relies on imports to survive, and devaluation makes imports extremely expensive. This then decreased the amount that Jamaica could import, and with already decreased government spending, Jamaica could not sustain itself with enough goods.

The Jamaican economy in 1970 was 800 million dollars in debt and by the time of the year 2000 the debt had reached an alarming 7 billion dollars. In order to service its accumulated debts Jamaica set up Exporting Processing Zones or EPZ’s. The free zones created lots of employment to jump-start the economy. The free zones themselves were separate entities to Jamaica, similar to the US-owned cemetery for the WW2 soldiers in Normandy. In this way, the supplies needed for manufacturing never really enter Jamaica, thus allowing for cheap imports. The factories had their downsides though. Workers were only paid in Jamaican dollars about 30USD per week while some were paid that for two weeks. Every two weeks, money was taken out as taxes which angered the Jamaicans

In a world with numerous countries and adversities, every country has its different appeal. Sometimes we find ourselves comparing their similarities and differences, like there topography, culture, language, and so on. In this essay, based on my experiences and research, I am going to compare Jamaica and U.S. Although both countries are compelling in different ways, they hold more similarities than we even imagine. Jamaica and U.S are located in two different geographical settings. The U.S is a country which consists of 50 states covering North America, and surrounded by oceans on all sides. It’s the fourth-largest country in the world with a population of approximately 318.9 million people.

After visiting the country of Jamaica this past summer, I realized how dissimilar some countries can be from the United States. Jamaica was not unlike the United States in a terrible way, but the disparities made me additionally interested in researching about the beautiful and culture-rich country of Jamaica. Even though the majority of facts about the history and culture of the United States and Jamaica are dissimilar, I was surprised to come across some similarities among these two countries.

Starbucks is one of the leaders in coffee industry. Starbucks has entered into many new markets and today it has more than 16,000 outlets across the globe (Johnson, Scholes and Whittington 2011). Due to unlimited business opportunities, Starbucks Corp has set strategies to enter India as it is next major hub for development in near future. Previously Starbucks has gained wide success in China and Japan due to high consumption of coffee and tea. Since its inception, Starbucks has tapped the major markets across the world, India was left untapped. In India, Starbucks has setup alliances with TATA Global Beverages which is a unit of TATA Group of Companies. Starbucks along with TATA has started with an investment of $80 million and plans to open 50 coffee shops in a year. Currently few coffee shops has been setup by Starbucks, however in near future, it is expected that the company will achieve its target in capturing Indian market (Lamb2009). Thus, besides sourcing coffee beans from TATA, Starbucks can now explore more Asian markets (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson 2012).

GDP is not only an important indicator to a country's economy growth but also to social and politic perspectives. GDP reflects unemployment rate, inflation and interest rate. The Federal Reserve has continuously raised the interest rate at .25 point for more than 10 successive times in other to attract more and more investment. Government spending, as a part of GDP, has also increased from year to year. As a year passes, economists, firms and governments look at GDP as an indicator for the following year's economic policy in order to keep the economy go in a right track. GDP is also an indicator of recession, when an economy experiences two successive declines in GDP, the economy is going through recession.

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles located on the North Western Caribbean Sea. The continent Jamaica is located on is North America. Countries that are close to this country is Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Mexico, Belize, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Jamaica is located fairly close to Central America. Jamaica covers 10,831 square kilometers of land and 160 square kilometers of water, making it the 170th largest nation in the world

One main push factor is that the jewish community in jamaica was never big. This is good and bad for a lot of reasons: Having a small jewish community meant that everyone would be generally close with one another similar to a small, closely knit town. A small Jewish community also meant that if you were looking to marry jewish that you wouldn’t have as many options as you would in a bigger jewish community. Another push factor is that when the jews first arrived in jamaica they had to conceal their identity and refer to themselves as "Portuguese" or "Spanish" and had to practice their religion secretly before the british conquest of the island in 1655 but after that were allowed to practice

Jamaica is a land of diverse cultures. It has a number of different racial ethnic groups .The largest group however is the blacks or Africans so 'Jamaica’s culture' is predominantly black. Interwoven is also the European culture which these blacks learnt from their former white slaves masters. You will find Indians living in Jamaica also. Many Indians came to Jamaica as indentured servants and stayed, they too have an input in the Jamaica’s culture.

It was not until the 1960s that Jamaica became its own country free from British commandment. Once Britain left, the most Jamaican population live a very easy lifestyle but some have chosen a life of wrongdoing. But before that Jamaica has had even worse problems. With the natives being enslaved then killed, more slaves being imported, the depression, the crime, and the drug trafficking.

     The people of Jamaica have no influence on the daily economic decisions that affect their lives. For almost 25 years, Jamaica has been able to keep a very small percentage of its national revenue because of agencies like the World Bank and IMF. While other big name countries continue to grow economically, these

Starbucks financial statements were analyzed for the fiscal year ended September 27, 2015. Like all public companies, annual and quarterly financial statements are required to allow regulators and other interested parties to analyze the financial status and management decision making of the company. This analysis focuses on the results of Starbucks most recent published annual report containing their balance sheets, statement of earnings and cash flows. These statements will be analyzed against the results of one of its competitors, Dunkin Donuts, to investigate how the two companies compare to each other. It was noted that Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts do not have corresponding fiscal year ends. The data therefore is not directly comparable since the reports do not reflect the same time period of data but should provide additional insight. The paper will attempt to provide a brief analysis of Starbucks operations in terms of its liquidity, leverage, activity, profitability and growth ratios used by analysts in the industry.

The success of Friend-Z 's, a regional based coffee house in the United States, is in its tenth year of business. The small business venture, which began as a cooperative college project, has grown into one of the best coffee houses on the college scene. Friend-Z 's success has sparked the interest of its partners to take their small business to the next level by expanding into the global market. Competing globally would allow Friend-Z 's Coffee House to take advantage of a larger customer base, opportunity to be a stronger competitor, and thrive in diverse environments. Friend-Z 's international business will increase their client base with every new opening. They are not restricted by location or tied a region with failing economics. Therefore, opening Friend-Z 's to the option of an online market. Friend-Z 's will be able to rise as a stronger competitor in the coffee market, especially in countries with fewer competitors. The presentation of the coffee house will be crucial for becoming comparable or communicating its uniqueness. Friend-Z 's existence in the global market opens up their business worldwide. This business move releases dependency on the local or regional market in the United States, reduces growth restraints, and allows movement from potential economic unrest. The advantages of Friend-Z 's beginning a global business are promising, but it would be wise to consider the possible negative factors before going global.