III—THE COFFEE SECTOR 1. Global Industry Section 1.1 Main Actors, Products, Trade Volumes The coffee agroindustry comprises different goods, the production of which, from the coffee cherries to the roasted and instant coffee, is organized through several steps that, most often, take place in different countries. Coffee’s global value chain (GVC) can be divided into five stages: production, processing (the first two together can be considered as the farming stage), commercialization, industrialization, and distribution. The farming stage is composed of seven different tasks: planting, harvesting, peeling, first processing (dry or wet), drying, screening, and, lastly, distribution and storage; the commercialization stage is composed of the tasks of grading, sorting, and packing. Finally, the industrialization stage usually includes up to four different steps: roasting, milling, solubilizing, and lyophilization, which will be followed by the packing and distribution (Stanley, 2010). Geographically, there is a net division between the farming stage and the industrialization stage. While the first stage is concentrated in developing countries (where often the product has a major importance for the economy), the other stages occur mainly in developed countries, where, in general, the consumption market is also concentrated. The main three coffee producers are Brazil, Vietnam, and Colombia (see Table 6). They were responsible in 2010 for around 57% of the 102.9 million coffee bags (60 kg each) exported in the world (see Table 7). Other important producers are Indonesia, Ethiopia, India, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and Ivory Coast (International Coffee Organization [ICO] website). On the other hand, the leading importing countries are the United States, Germany, Italy, Japan, France, and Belgium (see Table 8). The United States was responsible for 16.24% of consumption in the world coffee market in 2009, followed by Brazil (13.79%), Germany (6.74%), Japan (5.57%), Italy (4.42%), and France (4.21%) (see Table 9). Brazil is the only country that figures in both groups of major producing and consuming countries. In terms of per capita consumption,
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