Cost of coffee.indd - RISC

8
the story of coffee
D the coffee shrub/tree probably originated in Ethiopia, in the province of Kaffa
D the sweet outer cherry flesh was eaten by slaves taken from present day Sudan to Yemen and
Arabia, through the great port of its day, Mocha, and the beans were chewed as a stimulant
D coffee was being cultivated in Yemen by the 15th century and probably much earlier
D the first coffee houses were opened in Mecca and quickly spread throughout the Arab world,
becoming luxuriously decorated places where chess was played, gossip exchanged, and
singing, dancing and music enjoyed
D the Arabian coffee houses soon became centres of political activity and were suppressed,
but they kept reappearing so rulers had to be content with taxing coffee
D the Arabs tried to prevent the export of fertile beans, but in 1616 the Dutch smuggled some
back to Holland where they were grown in greenhouses
D the Dutch grew coffee at Malabar in India, and in 1699 took some to Java (Indonesia)
– soon the Dutch colonies had become the main suppliers of coffee to Europe
D Venetian traders first brought coffee to Europe in 1615, following in the footsteps of hot
chocolate, brought by the Spanish from the Americas to Spain in 1528; and tea, which was
first sold in Europe in 1610; at first coffee was mainly sold by lemonade vendors and was
believed to have medicinal qualities
D Charles II tried to close British coffee houses down in 1675, but public outcry quickly
caused him to revoke his proclamation
D Lloyd’s of London, the largest insurance market in the world, was started as a coffee house
in 1688 by Edward Lloyd, who prepared lists of the ships that his customers had insured
D both the New York Stock Exchange and the Bank of New York also started in coffee houses,
in what became the financial district of Wall Street
D the Dutch began the spread of the coffee plant in Central and South America, where it reigns
supreme as the main cash crop, introducing it to the Dutch colony of Surinam in 1718,
followed by plantations in French Guyana and Brazil
D in 1730 the British introduced coffee to Jamaica, where today the most famous and
expensive coffee in the world is grown in the Blue Mountains – about £60/kg
D in the 1970s the US city of Seattle (home of Starbucks) began a café or ‘Latte’ culture which
swept the country and has spread to the rest of the world – in fiscal year 2004, Starbucks’
revenues increased by 30% to $5.3bn, pre-tax profits were $391 million
D coffee is one of the most valuable primary products in world trade – in many years second in
value to oil as a source of foreign exchange to developing countries
D 80% of the world’s coffee growers farm less than three hectares (300x100m) – the average
coffee farmer produces less than 15 x 60kg bags of coffee a year
D 25 million families, about 100 million people, are dependent on coffee for their cash income
D world prices for arabica fell from above $2.50/lb in 1997 to around 45¢/lb in October 2001
(100-year low in real terms, adjusted for inflation); they have since risen to $1.20/lb (2006)
D many of the world’s Least Developed Countries are dependent on exports of coffee for a
substantial part of their foreign exchange earnings, eg Burundi 79% of total exports (2000),
Ethiopia 54%, Honduras 24%
D since the early 1990s, coffee growing countries’ earnings from coffee exports have fallen
from $12 billion to $5.5 billion (2002); in the same time the retail value of coffee sold in
rich countries at supermarkets and coffee bars rose from $30 billion to $78 billion
D in the UK on average we drink 421 cups of coffee a year putting us 22nd internationally
(Finland top with 1459 cups!)
D in 2004 fair trade accounted for 18.8% of the UK ground coffee market
D farmers receive only 11p (5%) of price you pay for non-Fairtrade 100gm jar of instant coffee
(RRP £2.14) compared with 52p (20%) for a Fairtrade jar (RRP £2.59) source: Cafédirect