Poor Farmer

While Starbucks leads in global coffee distribution and sales, advocacy groups are pushing the corporation to increase their fair trade practices. (Photo credit; Creative Commons via MediaGlobal) By Rachel Pollock MediaGlobal May 12, 2010 Large coffee distributors and coffeehouse chains are feeling tremendous pressure from the public to adhere to fair trade policies. Although it is difficult to measure corporate social responsibility in terms of percentage of fair trade products in relation to total distribution, there are coffee chains that are being scrutinized and coffee distributors that are being honored for their policies. On 26 April McDonald’s honored Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) as the Global Best of Sustainable Supply in 2010. According to the press release, GMCR was chosen from hundreds of submissions from around the world and the award aimed at recognizing companies with the best business practices in sustainable supply. Luciana Bonifacio-Sette, associate dir...

By Yi Tian Bloomberg May 12, 2010 Coffee rose in New York to the highest price in more than a week on speculation that output in Brazil, the world’s largest producer, may fall short of forecasts. Cocoa also gained. Growers in Brazil will harvest 47 million bags of coffee beans this year, the Agriculture Ministry’s crop-forecasting agency said last week. That’s “well below trade estimates,” said Tom Mikulski, a senior market strategist at Lind-Waldock, a broker in Chicago. “There’s a little bit of risk premium that got pumped back into the market,” Mikulski said. Traders need to hedge their bearish bets because “something can go wrong,” and Brazil may not have a bumper crop as expected, he said. Arabica coffee for July delivery rose 0.7 cent, or 0.5 percent, to $1.3685 a pound on ICE Futures U.S. in New York, after touching $1.386, the highest price for a most-active contract since May 4. Coffee will trade between $1.30 and $1.38 for the next seven to 10 days, Mikulski sai...