dc.contributor.author | Kihara, E. | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2011-05-19T00:29:18Z | |
dc.date.available | 2011-05-19T00:29:18Z | |
dc.date.issued | 1965 | |
dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10182/3552 | |
dc.description.abstract | Coffee has been known to be an agricultural product of considerable remunerative value in international trade. The dispersion of the Coffee industry in the last four centuries or so has been associated with the empire
expansion of the European nations and the comparative
advantages possessed by various regions, which have consequently
persistently maintained competitive production
costs. In the 1950s the industry became the key industry
in the agricultural sector of at least a dozen developing
countries. The chief source of foreign exchange earnings
of these countries is the agricultural sector and therefore
dominance of the Coffee industry in the sector made it the
chief source of foreign exchange earnings. For the same
reason the role of agriculture in economic development in
these countries is heavily dependent on the Coffee industry.
The past connections between these developing countries and
the former colonial powers have left inevitable political
and economic interdependence. For this reason the former colonial powers and their allies have recognised the importance
of the viability of the Coffee industry in their general
policies of maintaining the political and economic interdependence.
The Coffee industry is complicated by risks and uncertainties on the supply side. The chief sources of
uncertainty are associated with long production periods and
physiological vegetative cycles of the Coffee plant. Besides these the supply response is further complicated by the fact
that one third of total world production is accounted for by
peasant producers. These live under conditions of high
levels of unemployment and disguised employment. For these
reasons the chief source of labour in peasant production is
the family unit. Unlike this type of production system,
two thirds of the world Coffee supply is produced in larger
farms and plantations which depend heavily on paid labour.
In this system of production, the level of capital investment
per unit of output is much higher than in the peasant
system. Because of the nature of the production systems,
the industry has varied response to economic stimulus, but
the response tends to be high in the production systems with
high capital investment and low in the peasant production
system where capital investment is comparatively low.
The demand side of the industry is discouraging to
the producer, because, typical of the agricultural industry,
gains from technological advance are almost entirely passed
on to the consumer in the form of low prices, thereby leaving
little benefit to the Coffee planters in form of higher
real incomes. Typical of primary production too, the
Coffee producers are "price takers" and not "price makers".
Besides these impediments, the economic viability of the
industry is influenced by levels of total coffee consumption
in the principal markets. | en |
dc.language.iso | en | |
dc.publisher | Lincoln College, University of Canterbury | |
dc.rights.uri | https://researcharchive.lincoln.ac.nz/page/rights | |
dc.subject | coffee | en |
dc.subject | economic development | en |
dc.subject | supply and demand | en |
dc.subject | marketing structures | en |
dc.subject | international trade | en |
dc.title | The international coffee economy with special reference to international coffee marketing schemes | en |
dc.type | Dissertation | en |
thesis.degree.grantor | University of Canterbury | en |
thesis.degree.level | Diploma | en |
thesis.degree.name | Diploma in Agricultural Science | en |
lu.thesis.supervisor | Philpott, B. P. | |
lu.contributor.unit | Department of Accounting, Economics and Finance | |
dc.rights.accessRights | Digital thesis can be viewed by current staff and students of Lincoln University only. If you are the author of this item, please contact us if you wish to discuss making the full text publicly available. | en |
dc.subject.anzsrc | 140201 Agricultural Economics | en |