SCA study on better profit distribution in coffee

The Specialty Coffee Association (SCA), which sees itself as a mouthpiece for the global coffee value chain, has set up a commission to improve coffee processing standards in 2018. The five proposals that have now been drafted are intended to compensate for the unequal distribution of profits between coffee farmers in the producing countries and traders in the distributing countries, and to ensure stable prices.

1. Discussions with decision-makers in the growing countries at government level, so that they can represent the interests of their small farmers for fairer distribution models vis-à-vis corporations
2. More transparency and exchange of information between producers and distributors
3. An insurance and distribution contribution for all traders and resellers, so that in the event of crop failure, coffee farmers can be financially supported and permanent training courses can be organised
4. In addition to taste and quality, sustainability should become a fixed criterion for the evaluation of coffee
5. A kind of revenue-sharing scheme for coffee farmers to enable them to participate in a market worth billions

In essence, the system does not seem dissimilar to that of a trade union. In the end, however, the question arises as to how high the dues to be paid by the members should be in order to represent a weight compared to the sizes of the industry? The Dutch company Jacobs Douwe Egberts (JDE) alone generated a turnover of 5.5 billion euros with coffee and tea in 2017. This corresponds to about 7% of the gross domestic product of Ethiopia, the fifth largest coffee exporter by volume.