Contents

Tables, figures and boxes

Abbreviations

Preface

Notes

1. Commodity trade, development and global value chains

Division of labour and coordination in commodity production and trade: historical background

Commodities and development: the debate

Global value chains, commoditization and upgrading

The quality issue: material, symbolic and in-person service attributes

Conclusion

Notes

2. What’s in a cup? Coffee from bean to brew

Coffee flows and transformations

Production and export geography

Systems of labour mobilization and organization of production

Markets, contracts and grades

Retail and consumption: commodity form and the latte revolution

Conclusion

Notes

3. Who calls the shots? Regulation and governance

Producing countries as key actors (1906–89)

The post-ICA regime (1989–present)

Regulation in producing countries

Coffee blues: international prices in historical perspective

Conclusion

Notes

4. Is this any good? Material and symbolic production of coffee quality

From material to symbolic and in-person service attributes: quality along coffee value chains

Quality in producing countries

Quality in consuming countries

Conclusion

Notes

5. For whose benefit? ‘Sustainable’ coffee initiatives

Consuming sustainability

Analysis of selected sustainable coffee certification systems

Private and public/private initiatives on sustainability

Conclusion

Notes

6. Value chains or values changed?

Value distribution along coffee chains: empirical evidence

Solving the commodity problem: theoretical approaches

Notes

7. A way forward

Governance and the coffee paradox

The end of regulation as we know it

Business and donors to the rescue?

What role for transparency?

Policies and strategies: an alternative agenda

Coffee, commodity trade and development

Note

References

Index