The International Coffee Organization released its flagship report: the Coffee Development Report 2020, packed with research-led data, the document focuses on coffee from the perspective of the global value chain.
This is the follow-on report from last years “Growing for Prosperity” and offers insights into a number of areas inside the supply chain.
The Coffee Development Report 2020 consists of 108 pages covering the following topics:
- The rise of the coffee Global Value Chain: evolution and drivers of participation
- Resilience of the coffee Global Value Chain
- Economic, social and environmental impacts of the coffee Global Value Chain in producing countries
- Policy implications and recommendations towards a sustainable, inclusive and resilient Global Value Chain
- Market overview 2019/20: A year of unprecedented challenges
It may come as no surprise that, according to the report, the coffee roasters and traders continue to take a higher share of the value, even after 30 years of efforts by many to rebalance the value distribution.
All this comes on top of a Pandemic and weather events that have had severe impact on the industry already.
Smallholder coffee farmers, whilst improving productivity and producing more, remain by far the most vulnerable within the global value chain.
That evidence is expressed through multiple pieces of research shared throughout the Coffee Development Report, which is itself heavily influenced by the scope of the World Bank’s World Development Report 2020.
ICO Executive Director José Sette wrote in the introduction to the Coffee Development Report 2020:
Within this larger context, the cumulative effects of the coffee price crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic present a major hazard for millions of coffee farmers who already struggle to cover their operating costs, let alone provide for their families.
In addition, scarcity of resources generates a significant reduction of investment in the maintenance and modernisation of plantations and farm operations, as well as in the adaptation to climate change, thereby jeopardizing the sustainability and the very future of the coffee supply.
The full Coffee Development Report 2020 is available online or to purchase a hard-copy here.
