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Case Study

Building a sustainable, profitable business: Fair trade coffee (C)

By Robert Hooijberg and Jan Van der Kaaij

12 pages

November 2003

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Reference: IMD-2-0105

This is the third case of a three case series (IMD-2-0103 to IMD-2-0105). The growth of fairly traded coffee combined with Max Havelaar coffee seems to max out at about 3% of total coffee consumption. In addition, supply starts to far outweigh demand. As a consequence cost fall to about one fourth of what they were in 1990, while at the same time revenues double. This creates a global coffee crisis on the supply side. The case asks what this means for the coffee farmers, non-governmental organisations, governments around the world, and for the major coffee brand owners such as Nestlé, Procter and Gamble, and Sara-Lee. And why they should care.

Keywords

Branding, Fair Trade, Non-Governmental Organization, Corporate Sustainability Management

Settings

World/global
2001 - 2003

Type

Field Research

Available Languages

English

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Teaching note

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Reference IMD-2741

Organization LanzaTech

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