Poor Farmer

More lucrative than growing tea, coffee enjoys a new popularity among China's younger generation with a thirst for Starbucks and Nestle. By David Pierson Los Angeles Times December 29, 2012 Fu Xiafeng harvests red coffee berries at a plantation. Farmers are finding that growing coffee is more lucrative than tea.   (David Pierson, Los Angeles Times / December 29, 2012 PU'ER, China — This remote southwestern city near the borders of Laos and Myanmar is named after one of China's most famous teas, grown on mountain terraces painstakingly carved out of the region's rich red soil. But in recent years, pu'er tea has surrendered prime real estate for a more lucrative brew: coffee. Chinese farmers have taken to the new crop, which thrives in high-altitude areas of Yunnan province and commands up to three times as much money as tea. "My sole income depends on coffee now," said Ma Jiaying, a farmer from a dab-sized hamlet in Pu'...

Ed's Note:   Coffee in Retrospect   is a reprint column produced by   Coffee Monitor   and   Poor Farmer   blog to provide context for the current global coffee trade by republishing news   articles from the past. In this column, we intend to reprint archived prints by converting images into electronic file formats with careful conformity to originals and, whenever applicable and possible, we provide links to the sources of the information. Meanwhile,  responsibility for the contents lies solely with the authors and the views expressed in the articles do not necessarily reflect our opinions. --- Coffee Exporters Have Grounds for Apprehension BY PETER EDSON The Altus Times - Democrat Oct 7, 1958 WASHINGTON - (NEA) - Increases in the use of instant coffees plus the American housewives' and restaurant owners' trick of getting more cups of coffee to the pound are now blamed for another international crisis. This is the chao...

Every American housewife has a part in this diplomatic and economic drama. She reduced her purchases of high-priced coffee to such a degree that 1954 consumption fell off six per cent from the 1947-1952 volume. And, of course she will benefit, if the 1955 futures level becomes effective at the retail level. American reaction toward soaring prices has caused tremendous resentment. James S. Kemper, our Ambassador to Brazil, recently predicted a sharp decline in price, leading to demands for his recall on the ground that he has outlived his usefulness. Foreign Operation Administrator Harold E. Stassen then issued a statement completely contradictory to the FTC report, which envisaged surpluses. He foresaw serious shortages, and urged that Ethiopia be tried out as a new source of production, with American aid, of course. Brazilians exploded at that. Thus, in South America at least the coffee bean has become as explosive an issue as the atom bomb at the State Department and in...

Source: IITA (International Institute of Tropical Agriculture) December 11, 2012   Dar es Salaam – Growing coffee and banana together not only generates more income for small-holder farmers, compared to growing either crop alone, but it can also help coffee production to better cope with the effects of climate change, a recent study has shown. The study, which sought to understand the potential impact of climate change on coffee-based livelihoods in the East African highlands, found that the areas suitable for growing Arabica coffee will drastically decrease in the future leading to losses in the region that may exceed US$100 million annually. This is not only a threat to the countries’ foreign revenue, but it also puts at risk the livelihoods of millions of small-holder farmers depending on the crop. The researchers from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in collaboration with those from the Colombian-based International Center for Tr...

"To leave market participants with no freedom of choice really just replaces previous single channel marketing systems with a new one. The ECX is certainly not an agricultural commodity exchange in the true sense of the word as it is effectively a single channel marketing system for a number of commodities. " This is an excerpt from a n independent study carried out for COMPETE , a program funded by the United States Agency for International Development under the East Africa region. The draft copy of the report titled  COMMODITY EXCHANGES IN AFRICA BEST PRACTICES was filed on the COMPETE AFRICA website on December 6, 2011. Source: COMPETE AFRICA Whilst there is evidence that the ECX has been successful in terms of the volumes and values traded, this needs to be put into perspective as the Government of Ethiopia has legislated that all coffee and sesame trades have to be conducted across the exchange floor, the only exception being producers who can sell into th...