Read an interesting book a while back: Coffee, A Dark History, by Anthony Wild.
What first attracted me to the book was the word 'coffee', but what was really fascinating about the book was the social history surrounding it. I'd admit I was in a hurry to return the book to the library so I skipped the parts about the bean's history, but the parts about the current global economics of coffee and social (in)justice between the countries producing and buying it were compelling.
I may love coffee and the cafe culture but I've cut down visits to cafes in the past few years because they're quite pricey -- they're all right for the occasional afternoon out with friends but not a place I should be going every few days, something we used to do when dating. And after reading the book, I can add another reason to that list: social justice, which in a way, is closely tied to the economics of coffee.
Consider: Raw Arabica coffee beans (the more expensive cousin to Robusta beans) currently sell for about 82 cents a pound on the world market. The Arabica beans are (or should be) the beans you buy or consume at fancy cafes because they are generally considered to be of higher quality. Let's say the consumer (you) pays $5 per pound for roasted beans, though the price is probably more; Blue Mountain retails for $30 per pound. (Sure, roasting costs money, but the price differential from 82 cents to many dollars seems excessive.) Also, given that it costs farmers about 60 cents a pound to produce coffee, how is that fair to the farmer? Wait, the numbers get better. That pound of coffee can make 30-40 cups of coffee. Taking the lower bound of 30 cups, at $2 a cup of plain black coffee in a fancy cafe, that means a cafe makes $60 per pound of ($5) coffee, before subtracting other costs. To be sure, there's a lot of middlemen that take the coffee from farmer to consumer, but still, in that 'cheap' $2 cup of coffee you're holding, only 3 cents goes to the farmer.
I'm quite disturbed by that. It's a very bloated pipeline.
So, what can I do about it? Stop going to cafes, stop paying for over-priced coffee? Yeah, that's one conclusion I've came to.
The fair-trade minimum price, which hasn't changed since 1988, is $1.26. But if I'm not mistaken, that price also includes the 'cut' by the fair-trade organization body; still, the farmer gets more than just 60 cents, maybe it's a dollar instead. Doesn't sound very much better, but it is still a better scenario, right? Given the choice, we should all buy fair-trade (FT) coffee, right?
However, though I don't have exact figures right now, have you noticed retailers tend to charge a premium for FT coffee? FT coffee doesn't just cost a few cents more per pound; retailers tack on a few more dollars per pound, while farmers just receive a few cents above the 'market price'. In other words, the retailers are profiting more than ever from FT coffee (and not just coffee, actually) because consumers are willing to pay more for so-called 'fair-trade'. To me, that doesn't seem very fair. I don't mind paying a bit more, if I know that all of the 'bit more' goes wholly towards the farmers. Retailers and middlemen are already making enough profit (before the FT movement came along), and now they're trying to salve the guilt of consumers while still skimming yet more off the top?
So, what's the conclusion? Give up coffee completely? Probably not, as I love a cup of joe. Plus, would that actually help the farmers? The middlemen could probably move to handling and selling other products, so the hardest hit by such an action could be the farmers. From a purely pragmatic point of view, I'd buy coffee as close to the source as possible, and I'd buy the cheapest FT coffee.
What first attracted me to the book was the word 'coffee', but what was really fascinating about the book was the social history surrounding it. I'd admit I was in a hurry to return the book to the library so I skipped the parts about the bean's history, but the parts about the current global economics of coffee and social (in)justice between the countries producing and buying it were compelling.
I may love coffee and the cafe culture but I've cut down visits to cafes in the past few years because they're quite pricey -- they're all right for the occasional afternoon out with friends but not a place I should be going every few days, something we used to do when dating. And after reading the book, I can add another reason to that list: social justice, which in a way, is closely tied to the economics of coffee.
Consider: Raw Arabica coffee beans (the more expensive cousin to Robusta beans) currently sell for about 82 cents a pound on the world market. The Arabica beans are (or should be) the beans you buy or consume at fancy cafes because they are generally considered to be of higher quality. Let's say the consumer (you) pays $5 per pound for roasted beans, though the price is probably more; Blue Mountain retails for $30 per pound. (Sure, roasting costs money, but the price differential from 82 cents to many dollars seems excessive.) Also, given that it costs farmers about 60 cents a pound to produce coffee, how is that fair to the farmer? Wait, the numbers get better. That pound of coffee can make 30-40 cups of coffee. Taking the lower bound of 30 cups, at $2 a cup of plain black coffee in a fancy cafe, that means a cafe makes $60 per pound of ($5) coffee, before subtracting other costs. To be sure, there's a lot of middlemen that take the coffee from farmer to consumer, but still, in that 'cheap' $2 cup of coffee you're holding, only 3 cents goes to the farmer.
I'm quite disturbed by that. It's a very bloated pipeline.
So, what can I do about it? Stop going to cafes, stop paying for over-priced coffee? Yeah, that's one conclusion I've came to.
The fair-trade minimum price, which hasn't changed since 1988, is $1.26. But if I'm not mistaken, that price also includes the 'cut' by the fair-trade organization body; still, the farmer gets more than just 60 cents, maybe it's a dollar instead. Doesn't sound very much better, but it is still a better scenario, right? Given the choice, we should all buy fair-trade (FT) coffee, right?
However, though I don't have exact figures right now, have you noticed retailers tend to charge a premium for FT coffee? FT coffee doesn't just cost a few cents more per pound; retailers tack on a few more dollars per pound, while farmers just receive a few cents above the 'market price'. In other words, the retailers are profiting more than ever from FT coffee (and not just coffee, actually) because consumers are willing to pay more for so-called 'fair-trade'. To me, that doesn't seem very fair. I don't mind paying a bit more, if I know that all of the 'bit more' goes wholly towards the farmers. Retailers and middlemen are already making enough profit (before the FT movement came along), and now they're trying to salve the guilt of consumers while still skimming yet more off the top?
So, what's the conclusion? Give up coffee completely? Probably not, as I love a cup of joe. Plus, would that actually help the farmers? The middlemen could probably move to handling and selling other products, so the hardest hit by such an action could be the farmers. From a purely pragmatic point of view, I'd buy coffee as close to the source as possible, and I'd buy the cheapest FT coffee.
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