GNV News, September 6, 2024

In East African countries such as Ethiopia, Uganda, and Kenya, the price of coffee beans has been rising since the start of 2024. During the 2023 and 2024 fiscal years, East African countries earned US$1.14 billion from coffee exports, which far exceeds the previous year’s US$846 million.

Behind the price increase are drought in Brazil, a major coffee-producing region, and the resulting decline in coffee bean production. Brazil is currently experiencing its driest conditions since 1981, it is said, and there is no rain in the forecast until mid-September, when coffee trees are flowering. Meanwhile, reports as of August indicated that Brazil’s coffee production was steady, leading to a downward trend in futures prices. Amid weather changes and price fluctuations driven by futures trading, improving producers’ incomes and protecting their livelihoods has long been a challenge in the coffee value chain.

Learn more about unfair trade that does not return profits to producers → “Unfair trade rampant around the world”

Learn more about fair trade, which seeks to correct injustice → “Is fair trade ‘social contribution’? Where does that image come from?”

Fruit of the coffee tree (Photo: Jonathan Wilkins / Flickr［CC BY-SA 3.0］)