Pricing in the Coffee Industry: An Econometric Model of Prices to Growers

This paper examines the relationship between the price in the global commodity market for coffee and the prices growers receive at farmgate level. A dataset containing pricing information for fifteen producing countries is used to help explain the role of world prices and retail prices in determining the prices growers receive. A fixed effects regression model is used conduct a hypothesis test on the significance of global coffee prices. Global coffee market prices and average worldwide retail prices are shown to have a significant effect on farmgate prices for farmers. Potential implications of this linkage in the coffee sector are also addressed.