Tag: Africa

Blockchain: How Power Relations in the Coffee Chain are Changing

Blockchain Coffee

The coffee bean is one of the world’s most valuable agricultural products from the tropics: it’s worth over $100 billion worldwide. The coffee chain is characterised by a huge difference between production and consumption: on one side we have 25 million small farmers producing 80% of the world’s total coffee supply, for less than $2 a day, on the other side we have the “Big Four” coffee roasting companies – Kraft, P&G, Sara Lee and Nestle – buying about 50% of the coffee produced worldwide. This make the relation between buyers and producers in the coffee chain [Sign in to continue]

A Barcode for Ethiopian Coffee Farmers

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In Ethiopia, Arabica coffee beans are now subject to a new tagging scheme. They must be packed into a sacks marked with barcodes that tell to global buyers exactly where the beans are from. Through this tagging scheme farmers can develop more expertise and increase the value of their product before it comes to market. According to Ermias Eshetu, chief executive of the Ethiopia