MAR 2018
According to the ICO (International Coffee Organization), coffee consumption continued to increase and reached a record 151.3 million bags in the year 2015-16, representing an annual growth rate of 1.3% over the last four years. Asia and Oceania are the markets registering the highest growth rates among all the other regions. The value chain analysis of coffee includes four main phases: cultivation, processing, roasting, and consumption. In 2016, a total of 8.6 million metric ton of coffee, worth USD 30.7 billion, was exported all over the world.
The coffee industry witnesses various issues from farm to market like poor labor practices combined with unfair wages, deforestation, air pollution from roasting plants, and irregular pricing of coffee. To combat all these issues, in 2002, Nestle, Unilever, and Dannone combined to form the SAI (Sustainable Agriculture Information). The SAI platform also supports the development and implementation of sustainable agriculture practices involving different stakeholders along the food chain.
The coffee value chain has various stakeholders in various phases of its production and these stakeholders are often unable to extract the most out of their product. According to a working paper published by WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization), intellectual property is going to play a major role in the coffee value chain as it will enable a transparency between the producers and the consumers of coffee so that it will create a longer-term relationship between the two. The prices will be justifiable and the stakeholders will be able to extract the most out of their produce.
