Two significant factors, however, may make a coffee-bean cartel unlikely or, at most, short-lived. With so many growers producing the crop across, compliance can prove elusive. The other difficulty is that price floors, even when enforced successfully, merely mask the root causes of the subsistence conditions — and, too often, grinding poverty — that plague millions of the farmworkers involved in the production of coffee around the world. They do not remedy them.
Only by viewing coffee growers’ plight holistically, beyond the spot-market prices of beans or other isolated data points, can one address the complex factors that perpetuate subsistence agriculture. But how? Technology can be an enabler – of transparency, accountability and fair labor traceability. Cloud-based digital networks have the potential to reinforce accountability throughout the coffee industry, from farm to retail counter and everywhere in-between. Thanks to these networks, buyers and growers can gain intelligent insights into their total spend and visibility into each other’s interconnected operations.
This newfound transparency, augmented by real-time data analytics, sheds light not only on traditional business metrics such as cycle times, inventory turns and utilization rates, but also on factors to meet sustainability policies and goals of the brand.
How can visibility into these types of data elevate the fortunes of coffee growers and improve living standards for their workers? Increasingly, buyers’ diverse set of stakeholders — from consumers and shareholders to employees and marketing partners — demand accountability throughout the supply chain. They insist on sourcing coffee only from growers whose brand values align with their own .
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