This paper explores this contradiction through the analysis of the changing features of the global coffee-marketing chain. It examines the consequences of the shift that has occurred in the last two decades in the regulatory framework at the international level––with the end of the quota system managed by the International Coffee Organization (ICO). It also
explains how market liberalization and deregulation
in producing countries has decreased
their capability of controlling exports
and building up stocks, therefore weakening
their market power. Finally, the paper examines
how new consumption patterns and changing
strategies by key corporate actors (adoption
of supply-managed inventory, consolidation,
branding) affect other actors in the chain. These
major shifts in international and domestic regulation,
consumption, and corporate behavior
are assessed in relation to the organizational
features of the chain, its mode of governance,
the ownership characteristics at various ‘‘nodes,’’
and the distribution of income along the coffee
chain