Unfair Coffee Industry Profits: Farmers Receive Less Money Than They Deserve
Currently, the price of coffee in the market is very high, but farmers receive less money than what they do. Furthermore, when world coffee prices rise, the price that customers pay in the shops usually goes up too. Yet, when world coffee prices fall, the price in the shops doesn't come down. According to www. newint. org, coffee is a multi-million dollar industry, but the profits don't go to the farmers who actually work so hard to grow the coffee beans, and carry all the risks of failing crops or falling prices. Most of the profits go to the shippers, roasters and retailers.
For example, while a cup of coffee costs $4-5, farmers get only 10% of that cost. To sum up, this is unfair with farmers who should receive more money for their coffee products. Besides the price of coffee beans is low, speculators also make the price pressure with the farmers’ productions. For example, after harvesting the coffee beans, farmers immediately have to sell their products to collect the capital and prepare for next season. That is the reason why farmers don’t have good price. In order to get price stability, Fair Trade has emerged to help farmers with their products.
According to www. fairtrade. net, Fair Trade coffee producers are small family farms organized in cooperatives or associations which the farmers own and govern democratically. So, after joining Fair Trade, the price of coffee beans will be stable when farmers have harvested it. To sum up, farmers are not only more money but also depend on price. However, there are lower quality coffee beans which are sold at a price equal to the price of good quality coffee through fair trade. If farmers joined in Fair Trade, all their products which are good or bad also sold the same price that is not fair.
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According to www. ssireview. org, Fair Trade-certified coffee is growing in consumer familiarity and sales, but strict certification requirements are resulting in uneven economic advantages for coffee growers and lower quality coffee for consumers. Farmers are selling a different thing than they are producing. For instance, 1 bag of good quality coffee is sold at higher price than 1 bag of lower quality coffee in the market. If farmers joined in Fair Trade, those two bags would sell the same price. To sum up, farmers should not receive more money with their lower products.
Besides, to be able to earn more money, while the price of coffee beans in the market isn’t high, farmers need to have more products which sell to raise their income. That reason why the government should support about the capital and lower interest rates those farmers can produce more productions. In addition, the government should invest for research new varieties with higher yields. For instance, the government will lend to farmers to buy materials, after the harvest, farmers would pay back for the government. All in all, if there are more yields and productions, farmers would earn more money without lower price.
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Unfair Coffee Industry Profits: Farmers Receive Less Money Than They Deserve. (2017, Apr 04). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/coffee-bean/
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