Starbucks Sustainability

Short Paper 2

Starbucks

Introduction

Coffee beans are seeds inside of coffee cherries that contain caffeine. Ethiopia is where coffee trees were first discovered. The cultivation of coffee beans began in Yemen around 850 C.E. It spread to the Dutch and then the Americas in 1723. The coffee bean is exported to many countries in high demand. South America is known to produce the largest amount of the world’s coffee and Ethiopia is the largest African country to produce coffee. Starbucks has expanded its brand through the high demand of coffee drinks it serves to consumers. The coffee bean is the main resource that drives the company’s profit. This paper will discuss the most important variable affecting the sustainability of the coffee bean, fair-trade.

Fair Trade

Fair trade is a practice in which farmers receive the treatment and rights for producing a product. Fair trade as defined by stokefairtrade.org is a practice in which “focuses on sustainable development for poorer producers, by providing better trading conditions, raising awareness of their situation and campaigning.” The familiarity with the name fair-trade and its movement has existed since the 1950s. Its focus is on small farmers who produce a great amount of coffee. Most small-scale farmers live in remote areas and have to go through middlemen to make coffee sales. Fair-trade helps these farmers by eliminating middlemen and establishing a connection with U.S. importers. This process allows farmers to receive optimum pay for their coffee beans. People pushed for the movement of fair-trade practices in order to positively impact less developed countries by paying higher prices for goods and promoting social and environmental standards.

There are many products that are fair traded such as: mangoes, bananas, and honey. The terms fair-trade and FAIRTRADE Mark have different meanings. Fair-trade assures that farmers are receiving fair pay for their services. This in turn, helps farmers improve their...