Coffee: You Probably Help Run This Billion-Dollar Business [Infographic]

If you’re a coffee drinker, America should thank you. You help run a billion-dollar industry that adds a big chunk to the U.S. economy. Last year alone, Americans spent a total of $18 billion just for coffee or equal to the entire GDP of a country like Bosnia. Likewise, Americans are the biggest consumers of coffee according to the

International Coffee Organization; all 100 million of us brewing a cup every day. More interesting facts about coffee can be gleaned at the infographic published by Finance Online showing how you set in motion the global business of coffee when you open a bag of beans every morning. Infographic can be found here: http://financesonline.com/heres-how-you-make-coffee-a-billion-dollar-business/ .

For example, if you put all Starbucks branches side by side, it can occupy half the size of Central Park in New York City. Likewise, it takes about 7,000 jobs just to deliver your favorite coffee beans to your neighborhood coffee house. But the coffee trade has its dark side, and you, the American coffee drinker, are intertwined with the fate of the farmer tending his coffee trees in a remote African town.

Just how far down the value chain does your coffee dollar go? Not much, it seems. While coffee is a billion-dollar trade, coffee farmers can be one of the poorest in the world. The infographic follows how coffee is made from your favorite house specialty blend to the farmer in a developing country struggling to make both ends meet. It’s a journey across social classes, lifestyles and cultures that will make you see coffee in a different light.    

Should you care for the farmer who grows your favorite coffee? Would you care even if you don’t know him? You can by supporting fairtrade labels, the guarantee that the coffee you’re buying pays the farmer at the right price.