Probe International

There is a crisis destroying the livelihoods of 25 million coffee producers around the world. The price of coffee has fallen by almost 50 percent in the past three years to a 30-year low. Long-term prospects are grim. Developing-country coffee farmers, mostly poor smallholders, now sell their coffee beans for much less than they cost to produce – only 60 percent of production costs in Vietnam’s Dak Lak Province, for example. Farmers sell at a heavy loss while branded coffee sells at a hefty profit. The coffee crisis has become a development disaster whose impacts will be felt for a long time.

To what extent is global economic change mediated by national-level policies? Are global corporations adopting the same strategies in different countries or do they address varying local circumstances in different ways? Do governments in developing countries have any meaningful regulatory powers left? How can they use them to the advantage of their citizens? This paper seeks to address some of these issues by studying the dynamics of coffee market reforms in three East African countries against the background of the recent restructuring of the global coffee marketing chain. The paper focuses on two relatively neglected areas of inquiry: (1) changes in the identity, market share and organization of actors involved in commodity markets and their contractual/power relationships in the marketing chain; and (2) changes in the assessment, monitoring, and valuation of quality parameters in commodity trade. The author highlights the consequences of different trajectories of domestic market reforms and assesses the strategic choices available to producing country governments vis à vis corporate power and donor pressure towards liberalization and deregulation.

This study re-examines the conflict in Burundi and the conflict management initiatives and processes aimed at mitigating it in the light of the contribution of environmental and ecological factors in causing violence.

The first Fair Trade banana from the Windward Islands was shipped in July 2000. Farmers were able to see that Fair Trade can work and that it brings a lot of benefits.

The second annual Report on Fair Trade Trends provides an overview of the Fair Trade movement in North America and the Pacific Rim.

When you buy your daily cappuccino, the farmer who grew the coffee beans receives less than one percent of what you pay for it. About 6 percent of the price you pay for coffee in the supermarket goes to the farmer.

A look at the global coffee crisis and what caused it.

When coffee first came to Europe from Constantinople in 1615, Viennese priests warned it was "the drink of infidels." The warnings in recent times have come from scientists, pseudo-scientists, and governments.

A report from the World Bank on the global coffee crisis and the effect it is having on the developing world.