Is this really a gain or a net loss for our farmers at a global level?

[Jonny]

While this maybe good news to the coffee farmers in Tanzania, its
still far from potential yield that coffee can produce. (
http://www.kforumonline.com/viewtopic.php?t=1678 )
Here they are selling a 110 lb bag at $122 ($1.11 per pound), if you
walk into any coffee store today 1pound of whole beans will cost you
an average of about $12, this is equivalent to $1320 for the same bag.
Even if you are to account for all the expenses that a company like
starbucks incurs for roasting, transportation, administration...etc
this only amounts to about 50% of the $1320 per bag!
Now I don't blame companies like Starbucks for seeing the opportunity
and taking advantage of it. I just wonder why our people/leaders can
not see the same opportunities?

[Daniel Makundi]

We the coffee-driven economies (Kilimanjaro etc) still remember the good old days when coffee was fetching good money and our fathers took surgically good care of the floral gold. We went to school, we dressed fine etc etc.
Now thing have gone awry, and are going awrier. Tell me, Johnny, frankly, can't we roast our own bins and can them and sell at attractive price? Can anyone answer that? I'm serious, if there is nothing to stop us, roasting coffee bins is a simple enough technology. incentive is clear: sends the shelf price really high.

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Eng Daniel Makundi
Box 23075 Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania
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