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The Coffee Crisis

In: Business and Management

Submitted By amcclurkin
Words 1398
Pages 6
Critique of: The Coffee Crisis

Abstract
For years, coffee has been considered one of the most important crops widely grown in the developing world. Several countries’ economies, specifically countries in Central America and parts of Africa, are highly dependent on this crop as a source of both national income and export earnings. About 25 million people, most of whom are small-scale farmers, rely on coffee as their main source of income. For the past 15 years the coffee industry has experienced severe declines in prices that have impacted economic development in several international markets. This critique explores a case study released by the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University written on the events and contributing factors leading up to the crisis.

The Coffee Crisis Quinlan, Gomez-Ibanez, and Bok provided an in depth depiction of the coffee crisis that hit the nation in the early 2000s that covered the background of coffee production, the origins of the crisis, and alternative remedies (Quinlan, Gomez-Ibanez, & Bok, 2004). The crisis led to severe hardships for coffee growers living in poor countries already struggling with poverty. A reported 25 million farmers in Latin America, Africa and Asia rely on coffee as their main source of income (Quinlan, Gomez-Ibanez, & Bok, 2004). These farmers were forced to resort to extreme measures in attempts to overcome this crisis. Some had to remove their children from school and use them as added labor while others considered turning to illegal crop production, all as a means to compensate for lost income due to the coffee crisis (Quinlan, Gomez-Ibanez, & Bok, 2004). Latin America, Africa, and Asia all provide the ideal environment to grow and harvest coffee beans. It requires a warm climate with plentiful seasonal rains and rich volcanic soils (Quinlan, Gomez-Ibanez,

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