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The History of Coffee
Coffee Today
The Coffee Economy
Fair Trade in Coffee

The History of Coffee

The word "coffee" comes from Kaffa, a region in Ethiopia where
coffee beans may have been discovered.
Coffee faced considerable resistance in many cultures over
the centuries. It was blamed for, among other things, fueling
riots, spawning seditious speech and even encouraging Satan
worship.
During the 16th century, the Mufti of Constantinople forbade
drinking coffee. Users in Cairo and Mecca also faced prohibitions.
And in Turkey, where coffee drinking was banned as well, those
caught taking the forbidden drink after a second offense supposedly
were sewn into leather bags and dumped into the Bosporus Strait.
The "cappucino" was created when 17th century priest Marco
d'Aviano rallied Christian armies to drive the Ottoman Turks
from Vienna in 1683. When the Turks left Italy, they allegedly
left behind their notoriously bitter coffee. The Viennese added
milk and named the resulting concoction after the religious
order of their priest -- Capuchin.
Lloyd's of London, the world-renowned insurer, started out
in 1688 as Edward Lloyd's Coffee House, which underscores the
central role coffee played in trade and commerce.
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Coffee Today

More than 500 billion cups of coffee are served worldwide each
year.
Two main species of coffee cherries in cultivation yield two
kinds of beans, arabica and robusta. More than
two-thirds of the world's coffee comes from the arabica bean.
The robusta bean is hardier and cheaper to grow, but its taste
is considered inferior.
More than half of all Americans over the age of 18 -- 107
million people -- drink coffee daily. On average, U.S. coffee
drinkers consume three and a half cups a day apiece.
Scandinavia boasts the highest per-capita coffee consumption
in the world. In Finland, people drink more than four cups of
coffee a day on average.
Medical researchers associate positive health benefits to
moderate coffee consumption, including improved mood and the
prevention of gallstone and kidney stone formation.
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The Coffee Economy

Coffee is the world's second-most-valuable commodity exporting
by developing countries, after oil. The global coffee industry
earns an estimated $60 billion annually. Less than 10 percent
of those earnings end up in the hands of coffee farmers.
Profits for coffee-producing countries have declined dramatically.
In 1985, for example, 38 cents of every dollar spent on coffee
in the United States returned to producing countries. By 1995,
that share dropped to 23 cents -- a 40 percent fall.
During the same period, the price consumers paid for their
coffee increased by more than 30 percent.
By January 2003, the average price of coffee on the commodities
market was 54 cents per pound, the lowest price for coffee (adjusted
for inflation) in 100 years. Fewer than six years before, coffee
was selling for $3.15 per pound, nearly six times higher, on
the New York Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa Exchange.
In Central America alone, as many as 600,000 coffee farmers
and workers have lost their jobs as a result of the coffee crisis,
according to World Bank estimates.
Four major conglomerates -- Nestlé, Philip Morris,
Procter & Gamble, and Sara Lee -- dominate world coffee markets,
accounting for 60 percent of U.S. sales and 40 percent of the
global coffee trade.
Coffee is grown in more than 50 countries in South America,
Central America, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. Nearly 25 million
farmers worldwide depend on growing coffee for their economic
livelihood.
Global coffee production in 2002/2003 is expected to reach
record levels: 122 million 60-kilogram bags of coffee beans
(16.1 billion pounds).
The world's top 10 coffee-producing nations, in order of amount
produced, are Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia, Indonesia, India, Mexico,
Ethiopia, Guatemala, Ivory Coast and Uganda.
Brazil produces more than a third of the world's supply of
coffee, almost three times as much as the No. 2 producer, Vietnam.
The top 10 coffee-importing countries, in order of amount
imported, are the United States, Germany, Japan, France, Italy,
Spain, Canada, the United Kingdom, Poland and the Netherlands.
Though Germany occupies the No. 2 position among consuming
nations, the country imports only half the amount of coffee
imported by the United States.
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Fair Trade in Coffee

The fair trade movement was launched in the Netherlands in 1988.
TransFair USA, based in Oakland, Calif., is the only fair-trade-certifying
label in America. The group, founded in 1998, has certified
more than 23 million pounds of fair trade coffee.
Although coffee was the first, most commonly fair-trade-certified
product, other fair trade imports include bananas, chocolate,
honey, tea, sugar, orange juice and indigenous handicrafts.
Fair trade coffee meets several criteria. Growers must be
organized into democratically run cooperatives. The cooperatives
must agree to independent inspections. They also must use sustainable
methods of agriculture. In return, the growers are guaranteed
a living wage of at least $1.26 per pound for their coffee (15
cents more if it is grown without pesticides).
Although fair trade coffee constitutes only 2 percent of the
world's coffee supply, consumer demand for fair trade coffee
has grown in the United States -- from 1.9 million pounds imported
in 1999 to 6.7 million pounds imported in 2001.
Fair trade coffee can be bought at roughly 7,000 retail outlets
across theUnited States.
More than 100 brands of fair trade coffee are sold worldwide.
Revenue from fair-trade-certified coffee in the United States
and Canada exceeded $64 million in 2000, which was a 50 percent
increase from the previous year.
Since 1999, 13 million pounds of fair trade coffee has been
imported into the United States, yielding an estimated $10 million
in additional revenue for the farmers growing fair trade coffee.
In April 2000, retail coffee giant Starbucks agreed for the
first time to carry fair-trade-certified whole bean coffee.
According to TransFair USA, more than 600,000 producers, in
more than 32 countries, who sell coffee, tea and cocoa make
their goods available through fair trade. There are more than
300 fair trade cooperatives worldwide for coffee alone.
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 Editor's note:
This page was updated on May 22.
Sources: Coffee
Research Institute; Coffee
Science Information Centre; Coffee
Science Source; Fair Trade Federation, 2002
Report on Trends in the Fair Trade Industry; International
Coffee Organization; James, Deborah, "Close,
But No Cigar," Global Exchange;
Javacafe.com's Coffee World; Miller, T. Christian, and Davan
Maharaj, "World
View: Coffee Growers' Good Fortune Dries Up,", Los Angeles
Times, October 28, 2002; National
Coffee Association of U.S.A. Inc.; National
Geographic; Oxfam International 2002 Coffee Report,
Mugged:
Poverty in Your Coffee Cup; The
Roast and Post Coffee Company; Straus, Tamara, "Fair
Trade Coffee: Coming to a Café Near You,", November
30, 2000; Sugar India, "Coffee
Timeline,"; TransFair
USA; USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, Special Commodity
Report, November 1, 2002; USDA Foreign Agricultural Service,
"World Coffee Consumption by Importing Country," 2000 data;
USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, "World Coffee Supply and
Distribution for Producing Countries," 2001/2002 data; "The
Daily Grind: The Long and Short Facts About Coffee," The
Nelson Mail, February 25, 2003; "Strong Sales Put Buzz in
Specialty Coffee Industry," East Bay Business Times,
February 21, 2003; "Grinding Profits from Beans," Brand Strategy,
December 3, 2002; "Low Coffee Prices Come at a Cost," Albuquerque
Journal, November 25, 2002; "Global Issues Flow into America's
Coffee," New York Times, November 3, 2002; "Wild Oats
Markets and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Launch Nation's Leading
Organic Fair Trade Coffee Program in Wild Oats Stores," Global
NewsWires, October 10, 2002; "Coffee Facts," The Guardian,
September 18, 2002; "This Man Wants the World to Wake Up and
Smell His Coffee," The Sunday Herald, September 8, 2002;
"Coffee Bean Oversupply Deepens Latin America's Woes" Wall
Street Journal, July 8, 2002; "Guatemala's Coffee Profits
Down 50 Percent," Financial News, June 22, 2002; "Colombia
Warns of World Coffee Crisis," UPI, May 22, 2002; "For a Better
Brew, a Pinch of Social Justice," The Washington Post,
October 18, 2000.
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