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

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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

BBC NEWS | Business | Coffee buzz lifts wartorn Rwanda

  „ Why cheap beans don't make cheap coffee “

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3498712.stm - 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 | The Company File | Starbucks storms into UK

  „It also operates franchises at most US airports, and in-store coffee bars at other retailers, like booksellers Barnes & Noble. One quarter of its sales comes from selling coffee beans and coffee making equipment. It has also been experimenting with other products, like coffee ice cream and a "frapucinno" cold drink. The company launched its first international operations in Asia in 1996, and now has 30 stores in Japan and the Far East.“

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/the_company_file/.../ 171187.stm - Cached

BBC News | BUSINESS | Quality focus boosts coffee growers

  „Andrew Enever reports from Bolivia. Coffee production has been a bad business in recent times. A massive increase in world production has hit the price of beans on the New York coffee market, where coffee fell from a 10-year average of around $1.20 per pound to an all-time low of only $0.42 per pound earlier this year. When I went into coffee nobody knew Panama produced anything except Noriega Price Peters, coffee producer However, in the lush tropical Andean valleys, a short, steep descent from Bolivia's capital La Paz, experts from Colombia and Panama are persuading producers to pay greater attention to their plantations.“

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/1937731.stm - Cached

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