The “free market” in coffee forces small farmers in the twenty four countries that supply Starbucks to compete in a self destructive “race to the bottom.” The law of supply and demand applies in the coffee market: as coffee supplies rise, the price of coffee drops. Starbucks takes advantage of this “free market” to divide and conquer the millions of coffee farmers. It shops among producers, paying what it calls “premium prices” for “high quality coffee,” picking and choosing supplies in relatively short-term contracts. The prices Starbucks pays are market prices that include standard increments over commodity market prices, for the quality and source of the coffee. Starbucks offers prices based on the current market. Starbucks has taken unfair advantage of producers ever since the end of the coffee quotas in 1989, by paying the low prices set in this free market for its coffee. The premium prices it pays are prices in the commodity markets, marked up for quality. Several years ago, Starbucks’ “premium prices” were at or less than the farmers’ cost of production, while coffee farmers were starving all over the world. Then and now, the company’s “premium prices” are unfairly low for farmers, who cannot provide for their families on their coffee income.
Your blog looks great. One caution, some of the text is from other sources. When you use someone else's work you have to attribute that to them. The work we do here is supposed to be our own.
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