The Globalization of Coffee and the Need for Intercultural Competency

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

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.

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.

In many U.S homes, as is the custom in most western cultures, the first beverage consumed at the start of every day is coffee. From its origins in Ethiopia, the strong black liquid has evolved from its modest beginnings to become an art form, a gourmet luxury, and the addiction of millions. The documentary Black Gold directed by Nic and Marc Francis addresses issues that rarely cross the minds of its consumers: who produces the coffee, and how does the coffee we drink directly affect the livelihood of those farmers who grow it? The documentary highlights the poverty that plagues Ethiopian coffee farmers by contrasting the impoverished African cities with the wealth of the western countries that control the market in order to gain the

Introduction The two companies that are the subject of this report are Starbucks and Caribou Coffee. Starbucks operated internationally from an early point in its history, opening its 10th store in Vancouver its second market was international, before anybody in the US outside Seattle had heard of Starbucks. Now the company operates around the world. While its coffee business has not generally been built on the basis of acquisitions, it has attempted to complement that business and enter new ones with a variety of acquisitions over the years. Two recent ones were Teavana, a tea shop (Patton, 2012) and Evolution Fresh, a juice chain (Horovitz, 2012). In contrast, Caribou Coffee has remained a regional player, expanding slowly, with no international operations and without any major acquisitions. This paper will compare these two companies in terms of their expansion strategies, especially with respect to mergers and acquisitions.

In looking at the history of coffee through the book Uncommon Grounds, we have seen coffee move throughout the world. Coffee originated in Ethiopia and grown wildly that was discovered by a goat name Kaldi. It was first eaten as a berry, then boiled, then roasted and finally, grinded to what we now know drink today and have created new ways to drink it as well. Coffee is the second most traded commodity and is grown in the Southern Hemisphere and consumed in the Northern Hemisphere. Here in the United States, it is evident that Americans love their coffee and drink it many times throughout the day. It can be argued that the “world coffee supply would continue to grow, stimulated in large part by the seemingly bottomless American coffee cup.”

It is evident that there are many things being fetishized in present day. Specialty coffee has been become increasingly popular since the 1980’s. As of 2001 27 million Americans consumed specialty coffee daily (Ponte 2002:1111). It can be said that Starbucks helped create the explosion and set the environment that it drew with

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”.

Thesis/Review of Main Points: We are going to explore a brief history of coffee along with the negative and positive effects that it has on us.

The 21st century has seen several companies cross international borders to look for new markets to conduct their business and increase shareholders’ return. The process was fuelled by opening of borders and advancement in transport mode and technology in the 21st century. The situation has complicated the attempts to fully understand the process of global production. However, the research and different literatures in the recent past have given customers and scholar a good read on forms of labour which go into producing the product or service, and how this work is globally distributed (Coe, Dicken and Hess 2008, p.274). The development has made customers to strongly know what they want and what they consume. Therefore, this essay will analyze the Global Production Network (GPN) of coffee and discuss who benefits most from the structure of this GPN. In the analysis, the essay will focus on three different aspects. First, the paper will analyze various forms of labour that go into creating the product and how is this work globally distributed. The essay will also analyze how the value is captured at each stage of production distributed along the network. Lastly, the essay will focus on the institutional arrangements that explain the structure of this GPN.

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

The drink was no longer just a utilitarian morning stimulant and has a satellite pastime very European style: the windows from floor to ceiling, special atmosphere, soft music, dozens of varieties of coffee. However, besides all this, coffee is a business not only successful, but also has today a huge potential for development.

Starbucks has evolved and itself become an icon of globalisation, symbolising the role of corporations in combatting the consumerist society that is the West and exploiting the rest of the world, particularly the vulnerable and poverty stricken Global South. Thus, the contention of this essay is to highlight that the new globalised world has resulted in the exploitation of the Global South, in order to fulfil the consumerist society that is the Global North. This exploitation is exemplified by Starbucks, one of the largest corporations in

A coffee industry is a growing market as recent studies show that the world coffee demand growth are considerable potential for more dramatic increases. ‘An initial estimate of world coffee consumption in calendar year 2014 comes to 149.3 million bags. This represents an average annual growth rate of 2.3% over the last 4 years. The strongest growth over this time has been found in emerging markets, averaging 4.6% since 2011, with particularly strong demand in Russia, South Korea, Algeria and Turkey’1 .Nespresso company is one of nestle group which is located in Switzerland. An employee of Nestle invented the Nespresso machine. The Nespresso Company manufactures both machines and the capsules they use, and makes most of its revenues from these capsules. Nespresso sells their pure coffee in capsules which has been

The gourmet coffee market is concentrated in the largest cities of the country and mainly fed by multinational franchises coffee machine sellers that managed to advertise their products well, to the point of creating a new culture of coffee in Brazil (Rust, 2014)