International Studies
S2 Social Justice
Resource 3: global inequalities in development
Coffee case study
Where coffee is grown
Coffee is one of the world’s most traded goods –
second only to oil. It is big business; total exports
each year amount to $15 billion. 25 million
farmers grow coffee, nearly all of them in developing countries. This is because
the coffee plant grows best in a tropical climate where there is a fertile soil. It is
the different climates and soils that produce the different flavours to coffee.
Task 1
The world map shows the main coffee-growing countries (r, m and a are the different
types of coffee). The top 5 coffee countries are:
B_____
V______
I____
C_______
E_______
What are their names?
The price of coffee
If the sales of coffee between countries comes to $15 billion per year, some people make a
lot of money from it. So who makes the money from the jars of
coffee you buy?
Coffee-growing in Moshi, Tanzania
Tanzania is a typical Developing country; it relies on exporting
primary products and one of those is coffee. A lot of coffee is
grown around Moshi by farmers who own small plots of land.
They used to sell their beans to a local trader and they earned
about £500-£1000 per year. Their workers earned about £1 per
day. This meant they had little money to buy food and clothes
or pay for their children’s secondary education or to pay
medical bills. It also meant the government had little money to provide proper sanitation
and safe water and good-quality roads.
Task 1
Look at the pie-chart above. The farmers and the farmworkers are the growers. How much
do they receive? Who makes the most money from a typical jar of coffee?
Jars of coffee, like other manufactured goods we buy, keep going up in price. So you
might think that at least the coffee farmers will get a little more each year. Not so.
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Task 2
The graph above shows coffee bean prices between 2008 and the start of 2012.
1. What was the highest price of coffee?
2. What was the lowest price?
A pound in weight of coffee sells in supermarkets in the UK for about £30 (10 bags of
225g coffee)
3. What effects do you think a sudden drop in price has on a small-scale coffee farmer
and his workers?
You might think it better if the farmer grew something else instead of coffee, but the
prices of all primary goods go up and down a lot. Also, it is not easy to change. They
would have to cut down all their coffee bushes and buy different seeds and equipment.
And, if they ever wanted to grow coffee again, the coffee bushes take 5 years to bear
fruit.
Meanwhile, all their costs – food, clothes, equipment keep going up in price.
Ethical trading
Because this is such an unfair system which keeps farmers in Developing countries in
poverty, campaigns were started to make the system fairer and some companies have
been persuaded to trade more ethically.
Ethical trading is where companies consider not just the biggest profits but they take
responsibility for the working conditions of the people who supply their goods and their
communities and the environment
Fairtrade is a name given to goods produced by workers who receive ‘fair’ (or ethical)
working conditions eg
 Higher wages
 Decent working conditions
 Guaranteed prices for their goods
 Sustainable practices
 A premium invested in the local community for a sustainable future
Ethical trading in Moshi, Tanzania
Because the farmers around Moshi were receiving little money for their
coffee, an ethical trading company was set up - the Kilimanjaro Native Cooperative Union (KNCU). Over half the coffee farmers in the region now
belong to the KNCU. By working together, the farmers can buy what they
need more cheaply (eg fertilisers, equipment).
They sell their coffee beans through Fairtrade. This means they
receive a higher and steady price. At the moment this is $1.26 per
pound. If they did not sell it through Fairtrade they would only receive
50cents. Their coffee is very high quality and much in demand.
In recent years they have started to process the coffee in Moshi. Bags
of ground coffee and coffee beans are now made here and sold in the
UK. This is much more profitable than just selling raw coffee beans. It
also gives more jobs and higher wages.
Read the stories about KNCU workers and farmers below.
 Task 3 Go to the Fairtrade website (www.fairtrade.org.uk). Click on Products. Then
choose just one product from the menu and describe the benefits to one community of
belonging to Fairtrade.