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CSR: How changing coffee tastes are helping farmers

Geoff Riley

28th December 2017

CSR gold! BBC News explores the rise of ethical coffee brewing as more consumers become concerned about the provenance of their morning drink.

Would you pay more for your coffee if you knew exactly where it came from? 

The report encourages us to think of the value added at each stage of the manufacturing supply chain. It draws on new research on intellectual property published in the World Intellectual Property Report 2017 entitled "Intangible Capital in Global Value Chains."

To quote directly from the report:

It is the source of income for nearly 26 million farmers in over 50 developing economies, but 70 percent of coffee demand comes from high- income countries. Most of the value added of coffee sold also accrues to high-income countries. More and more coffee growers are investing in efforts to differentiate their offering from generic coffee, adopt- ing their own branding strategies. In addition, some coffee-producing countries are actively pursuing the branding of coffees originating from their countries in overseas markets, while associations of coffee growers and other entities have been seeking IP rights to protect their brand assets in key consumer markets – such as the Juan Valdez brand from Colombia and the Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee label

Geoff Riley

Geoff Riley FRSA has been teaching Economics for over thirty years. He has over twenty years experience as Head of Economics at leading schools. He writes extensively and is a contributor and presenter on CPD conferences in the UK and overseas.

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