The State of the Global Coffee Sector

This chapter aims to present a picture of the global coffee sector in terms of the structure of its value chain, trade flows, and main economic figures. The goal is to explain why this sector is relevant to the issue of sustainability and interesting to investigate from a sustainability perspective. The coffee value chain represents one of the most complex, globalized, and inequitable supply chains, impacting communities and the environment worldwide (Andrews et al., 2023). Coffee beans travel a long journey ‘from seed to cup’, crossing different countries, involving multiple actors and undergoing different transformations. These characteristics make it challenging for the industry to transition towards sustainability, although it has engaged in the ‘sustainability discussion’ for a long time. The sustainability of the coffee value chain is increasingly at risk in economic, social, and environmental terms, and there are several interdependencies among these three dimensions. The chapter concludes with an illustration of the main sustainability issues at each step in the coffee value chain.