> Ethiopia and other poor countries are unable to reap profits from the coffee they grow thanks to extremely restrictive WTO tariffs that essentially prevent them from processing it before they export it. This means they're forced to export raw beans for pennies, and they'll never really make much money doing so.
As someone who has roasted my own coffee for 20 years, I'm confused about what you're saying. What are these "raw beans" that the Ethopians are forced to export?
I do buy green coffee beans from Ethopia, and have about 25 pounds of Ethopian at home right now. Are these the raw beans you're talking about? I certainly wouldn't want to buy coffee that was roasted in Ethopia; it would be awfully stale by the time it gets here.
I mostly buy dry process beans, occasionally wet process. I've just never heard the term "raw beans". Are you talking about raw unprocessed coffee cherry? I didn't know anyone exports those as is. I thought they would go bad in shipping, and no one would buy them. And the sheer bulk and weight of raw coffee cherry should make it more economical to do a dry process or wet process at the source, to separate the valuable beans from the husk.
I do buy a lot of my green beans from Sweet Maria's. They have a Farm Gate program where they work directly with coffee growers to make sure they get a fair price - generally more than the "Fair Trade" pricing.
If you can help educate me on what I'm missing here, I would appreciate it - thanks!
> coffee growing countries only receive about 8% of the total coffee revenue
If we look at the price of, for example, white flour from the supermarket, it should be immediately obvious that grain farmers are receiving some tiny fraction of the total net value of all baked-goods / pasta / pizza / etc sold annually.
It’s not immediately obvious that this is bad or unfair.
Yes it's misleading, I suspect purposefully. The cost of green unroasted coffee cannot be compared with "global coffee revenue" ... roasting makes coffee lose 30%, then you add packaging, shipping, labor to distribute ... finally the cost of coffee cup adds in service, rent and more ... you buy a kilo of green arabica for $4 after roasting and shipping you're on $8 ... so sell a cup in a cafe let's say you make 20-100x per kilo yet cafes are still the thinnest margin business and most go bankrupt.
It's equivalent to saying the oil producing companies only get x% of global car sales. Simply, ridiculous statement.
> It's equivalent to saying the oil producing companies only get x% of global car sales.
Cars are not really made of oil, gasoline is. And this was probably not the best of examples. In most oil companies extraction/exploration (raw material) and refining (processed product) actually split the profits pretty evenly, all things considered. Marketing (gas stations) gets pretty much the breadcrumbs and relies for profit more on selling Coke and sandwiches than actual gas.
This is unlike most other cases where the raw materials are worth far less than the processed ones, and the bulk of the profit goes to the final manufacturer rather than the raw material exporter.
> I certainly wouldn't want to buy coffee that was roasted in Ethopia; it would be awfully stale by the time it gets here.
But if Germany is the 4th largest exporter in the world as the parent comment said, apparently plenty of people have no problem buying stale coffee from them.
I see that note in the comment, but I don't understand how Germany can be a coffee exporter when they don't grow coffee there. They can only export as much coffee as they import.
This sounds like a warehousing and shipping operation to me. Calling Germany an exporter seems like calling an Amazon fulfillment center a "manufacturer" of the products they ship to customers. Or calling Sweet Maria's or Coffee Bean Corral or Happy Mug coffee "growers".
But maybe I don't understand the terminology, and I am definitely out of the loop on mass market coffee.
Actually, Tom of Sweet Maria's did try to grow his own coffee here in California, with hilarious results. Behold, Finca West Oakland:
Germany is a roasted coffee exporter. They import green coffee beans from developing countries and process them into various coffee products (roasted beans, ground coffee, soluble crystals). Because they are transforming a raw material through an industrial process, they end up with a new product which they sell to the world (export).
What might be confusing is Germany also re-exports green beans to other countries, at a markup. This is a much smaller % compared to the coffee products they export.
The comment I was referring to was pretty explicit in saying they don't grow beans, meaning they've likely got a big chunk of their coffee economy involved in selling "stale" coffee. It's probably relatively fresh within the EU, but I've definitely seen more than my fair share of European roasted coffee thousands of miles and many shipping weeks away from the roaster.
Companies in Germany, like Switzerland, Netherlands, US etc import green coffee from around the world, roast it, mix various types and origins and qualities to produce commercial recipes that have a stable taste, then grind it and pack it in air sealed packs (as soon as possible after roasting). Being an import hub for green coffee allows the mixing, essential for commercial coffee. Coffee producing countries usually put duties on imports of green coffee to protect local production. They could import roasted coffee to then mix with local production, but that would have to be air/sealed in bulk, which i imagine is quite costly. And I suspect the market for single origin coffee is still too small to allow economically viable operations. Once roasted and sealed from the effect of air oxidation and humidity, coffee can last quite a while, certainly enough to be exported throughout the world.
I think people also underestimate the efficiency of supply chains. Not quite the same thing because of scale, but one of the best places in the US to get oysters is restaurant in Denver, CO. While Denver is not near water, it is near the center of the US and gets fresh oysters from both coasts.
I'm not sure many people are air-shipping coffee for freshness, but Germany could easily provide 'fresh' roasted coffee for anywhere in Europe.
Jax Fish House downtown. I used to think it was just a localish place, but I've mentioned 'good oysters in Denver' to vendors who travel a lot and they all immediately say Jax. Admittedly, I haven't been to Jax in quite a few years since moving to the coast, but people I talk with still say it's great.
>> I certainly wouldn't want to buy coffee that was roasted in Ethopia; it would be awfully stale by the time it gets here.
What do you mean? Coffee gets vacuum packed and shipped all over the world already. I must have some coffee at home that was roasted and ground months ago - how is that a problem? It's just coffee.
You must be able to see how someone who roasts their own beans and has a preferred sourcing vendor and someone who says "it's just coffee" are basically not even interacting with the same thing at that point, right? That's right up there with "it's just a car" and "it's just a computer". It's either your thing or it isn't.
Fair enough. But I feel like 90% of coffee drinkers wouldn't see or know the difference(just looking at the packs of ground coffee at the supermarket, most of them have been roasted 4+ weeks ago or more, so I can't believe a regular customer would care). Therefore the transportation of ground coffee and its possible staleness from Ethiopia cannot be the issue, it must be something else.
>I certainly wouldn't want to buy coffee that was roasted in Ethopia; it would be awfully stale by the time it gets here.
This is the play: hide the profound injustice in an offhand quip. If exporting from Germany is not a problem, why not Ethiopia?
Though, I suspect what would happen is that coffee roasted in Ethiopia would be somehow worth less than German-roasted. Ethiopians would recoup some of the profit that they're missing, but other ways would be found to shortchange them. The root of the issue is he undervaluation of Ethiopian labor and resources so as to secure profit and affordability further down the line.
> Though, I suspect what would happen is that coffee roasted in Ethiopia would be somehow worth less than German-roasted
If it was ever done, it would cost 5x or 10x more, thanks to the heavy sanctions placed on processed coffee exported from Ethiopia, but not from Germany.
As another example, I saw endless fields of palm and cocoa plantations all through West Africa. Famously Japan allows imports of raw cocoa with a 0\% tax, though they tax finished chocolate products at over 280\%. This means Africa will never
be able to sell processed cocoa products there, and are forced to be content selling raw beans for a tiny fraction of what they could be sold for if processed.
If you can help educate me on what I'm missing here, I would appreciate it - thanks!
Most coffee consumers are not relying on locally/home roasted beans. They buy instant, or pre-ground for use in a drip. Ethiopia is missing out on that part of the market.
Well, you are right, and I am sorry. On the bright side, perhaps my comments helped spark an interesting discussion with people more knowledgeable than me.
As someone who has roasted my own coffee for 20 years, I'm confused about what you're saying. What are these "raw beans" that the Ethopians are forced to export?
I do buy green coffee beans from Ethopia, and have about 25 pounds of Ethopian at home right now. Are these the raw beans you're talking about? I certainly wouldn't want to buy coffee that was roasted in Ethopia; it would be awfully stale by the time it gets here.
I mostly buy dry process beans, occasionally wet process. I've just never heard the term "raw beans". Are you talking about raw unprocessed coffee cherry? I didn't know anyone exports those as is. I thought they would go bad in shipping, and no one would buy them. And the sheer bulk and weight of raw coffee cherry should make it more economical to do a dry process or wet process at the source, to separate the valuable beans from the husk.
I do buy a lot of my green beans from Sweet Maria's. They have a Farm Gate program where they work directly with coffee growers to make sure they get a fair price - generally more than the "Fair Trade" pricing.
If you can help educate me on what I'm missing here, I would appreciate it - thanks!