BBC News | BUSINESS | Globalisation and me (#)

  „I was amazed to discover that coffee grows as two green beans inside a bright red cherry, the finest coffee is hand-picked by small poor farmer, subject to weather and market fluctuations and can pass through as many as fifty hands on its way to my cup each making a buck on the way, except the farmers. Frenzied trading All Arabica coffee is traded on the coffee, sugar and cocoa exchange in New York where in frenzied trading pits producers, roasters and scalpers shout at the top of their voices and wave their hands frantically trading future contracts of coffee in units of 38,500 pounds without a coffee bean in sight. Now the coffee price has fallen to an all time low. And that is due to Vietnam (of all places) quickly becoming the second largest producer of coffee in the world.“

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsid_1505000/ 1505787.stm - Cached

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Some slightly related:

BBC NEWS | Business | Why cheap beans don't make cheap coffee

  „In other words, coffee is a cyclical crop. Are there other factors that influence the level of world coffee production? Sometimes storms, a late frost, crop disease, war, exchange rate fluctuations or other unpredictable events can force coffee farmers out of business. While at other times, centralised political decisions to produce more or less will affect output levels.“

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/1307081.stm - Cached

Simply Coffee

  „The tree has lovely flowers which smell like Jasmine.  When the tree finishes flowering, two beans begin to develop inside a shell - called a Cherry (sometimes only one bean grows inside a Cherry - this is called a Peaberry).“

http://www.britishcoffeeassociation.org/ id42.htm - Cached

BBC NEWS | Business | East African coffee growers fight back

  „Coffee prices reached their lowest level for almost 40 years at the start of 2002. Kenya produces some of the world's top grade Arabica coffee beans but quality and output have fallen because the poor prices have persuaded farmers to turn to other crops. "If the quality of the coffee produced in the regions improves, then farmers will get better prices," Mr Kawuma said. The EAFCA hopes it can improve coffee growing practices which have deteriorated as earnings have fallen.“

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2225803.stm - Cached

BBC News | ASIA-PACIFIC | Laos' fresh coffee hopes

  „The dusty town of Paksong remains Laos' "coffee capital". During the harvest season it is usual to see coffee beans laid out in the road to dry while carts laden with sacks of freshly-picked coffee trundle by. For generations, Nomala Thepboualy's family have kept several acres of coffee beans near the small village of Phou Ouy. On the roads, coffee has right of way "When the French were here our coffee was very popular," says Mr Nomala.“

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/asia-pacific/.../ 1900686.stm - Cached

It's All About Coffee

  „Hand Picking gives the Kona Coffee farmer the opportunity to pick just the ripest reddest coffee cherry, resulting in a sweet cup. If our Kona Coffee beans were mechanically picked, the immature, imperfect and old Coffee cherries included would ruin the delicate and naturally sweet cup of Kona Coffee.“

http://www.aboutcoffee.net/2002/08/ kona-coffee-historically.html - Cached

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