While I'm ordinarily against unions, (having been turned off to them by the auto industry), there is one out there that we seriously need.

Producers of the raw beans that make that 'other all-important fluid to the western economy' have taken a beating in recent years. Due to aggressive purchasing practices by the food industry, higher shipping costs, and stingy companies, coffee bean prices have fell over 50%, and the bean-farmers are taking a real beating. To combat, coffee bean farmers should create a union, similar to OPEC, to protect their interest in coffee bean pricing. The union would negotiate prices, trim over-supply, and hopefully give these people a slightly better future as a result.
-- RayfordSteele, Sep 19 2002

Fair Trade tea and coffee is very good value for money in UK http://www.globalex...org/economy/coffee/
[po, Sep 19 2002, last modified Oct 21 2004]

The coffee grower http://news.indepen...ory.jsp?story=72728
From The Independent newspaper, London. [pottedstu, Sep 20 2002, last modified Oct 05 2004]

I seem to recall - the late 70's - early 80's had exorbitant coffee prices on the retail level - this was before the advent of a Starbucks on every corner, and 1/2 between any corner. Would such protections raise coffee prices?
-- thumbwax, Sep 19 2002


Sounds like that is the intention.
-- DrCurry, Sep 19 2002


link. is this the kind of thing you had in mind, Ray?
-- po, Sep 19 2002


po, thanks for the link. I was hoping this would be baked somewhere.

As I was baked in '75, I didn't pay much attention to world trade affairs around then.

Seems to me that the likes of Starbucks et. al have been making us pay too much for coffee anyway, which is why everyone wants a franchise. One wonders, with a coffee shop 'on every block,' why isn't there more consumer pricing pressure?
-- RayfordSteele, Sep 19 2002


// One wonders, with a coffee shop 'on every block,' why isn't there more consumer pricing pressure? //

Because Starbucks owns them all, drives everyone else out of business, and can do what it likes.
-- pottedstu, Sep 20 2002


Give it time, Bubya, give it time. The Coffee Event Horizon is almost upon us. Oh, the schadenfreude...
-- General Washington, Sep 20 2002


// Bubya... //

*That* will have me in stitches for ages to come.
-- RayfordSteele, Sep 21 2002


"Because Starbucks owns them all, drives everyone else out of business, and can do what it likes."

Yes, and the world is flat.
-- bristolz, Sep 21 2002


Starbucks probably would try to make the world flat if it meant better coffee sales.
-- BinaryCookies, Sep 21 2002



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