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Any idea where they get their coffee beans? While working in that industry for traders in UK it was common to lend money to African farmers for them to buy crop
by pasdoy 9y ago
Any idea where they get their coffee beans? While working in that industry for traders in UK it was common to lend money to African farmers for them to buy crops and tools (from the same firm) and then agree on a market price per pound produced. The trading firm would then pay the farmer months or years after. It really opened me on the work culture and conditions over there. By conditions I don't mean work hours or life balance, but price/cost and work/reward conditions imposed by the billion dollar firms. Side note, they often used umbrella non-profit organization that are "active" in the community to conduct business. I could go on and on on this topic.
- technics256 9y agoPlease do, or point to some illuminating resources. Thanks!
- ochang 9y agoNot specific to JAB, but there's a podcast episode of Containers [0] following the end-to-end movement of coffee and the surprising amount of middlemen. [0]: https://medium.com/containers/episode-4-coffee-78ac6571caea https://medium.com/containers/episode-4-coffee-78ac6571caea
- aphextron 9y ago>The trading firm would then pay the farmer months or years after. What is the incentive here for the farmer though? Why would they go along with this rather than just sell their beans at the market price?
- rhizome 9y agoIt sounds like a variant of sharecropping to me.
- s73v3r_ 9y agoThe incentive is not starving. People stuck in situations like this often had some kind of hardship befall them. Combine that with unscrupulous traders, and you get something like this.
- jamez1 9y agoThey pay them more for waiting, effectively moving the working capital up the supply chain where it accumulates to where it can be used.
- dkoubsky 9y agoI'm interested in hearing more.