Two hours by plane from the Andean coffee regions of Pacific South America lies the Galapagos Archipelago: 19 islands and 215 tiny islets, straddling the equator one thousand kilometers west of continental Ecuador. Famous for inspiring Darwin’s On The Origin of Species, the volcanic islands are home to a staggering array of creatures and climates, many of which don’t exist anywhere else on the planet.
With the recent fall in the market price of coffee, many of us in the coffee industry have worried about the consequences that low prices – prices well below costs of production – will have on the millions of small– and medium–sized coffee growers that supply over 50% of the world’s coffee. In an effort to better understand the problem we are facing, I decided to dig deeper into the profitability of coffee farming in Latin America over the last decade.
With the recent fall in the market price of coffee, many of us in the coffee industry have worried about the consequences that low prices – prices well below costs of production – will have on the millions of small– and medium–sized coffee growers that supply over 50% of the world’s coffee. In an effort to better understand the problem we are facing, I decided to dig deeper into the profitability of coffee farming in Latin America over the last decade.
For the 2017-18 harvest, the International Coffee Organization (ICO) estimated global production of green coffee at 158 million 60kg bags, an excess of 2.4 million bags compared to annual global consumption. For the 2018-19 harvest, the gap is expected to widen even further due to bumper crops in Brazil and Vietnam.
We use cookies to ensure that you have the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.OkRead more
