INTRODUCTION
According to (The Story Of Coffee, n.d.), mentioned in the official website of International Coffee Organization, “the global spread of coffee growing and drinking began in the Horn of Africa, where, according to legend, coffee trees originated in the Ethiopian province of Kaffa. It is recorded that the fruit of the plant, known as coffee cherries, was eaten by slaves taken from present day Sudan into Yemen and Arabia through the great port of its day, Mocha”
It was the start and the story of coffee still continues until today leaving its stories in several different regions in the world. According to (The Story Of Coffee, n.d.), “the importance of coffee to the world economy cannot be overstated. It is one of the most valuable primary products in world trade, in many years second in value only to oil as a source of foreign exchange to producing countries”, also the official website of the International Coffee Organization added that “its cultivation, processing, trading, transportation and marketing provide employment for hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Coffee is crucial to the economies and politics of many developing countries; for many of the world's Least Developed Countries, exports of coffee account for more than 50 percent of their foreign exchange earnings”.
Coffee became the world’s most expensive farming commodity. Coffee industry around the world has become massive in recent years. Instead of drinking just simple coffee, consumers are trying on different styles or types of coffee; cappuccino, latte, espresso and mocha. Buyer demand is increasing, and as consumers tend to have more coffee day by day, eventually its quality, class and value becomes more vital (Igami, 2012).
This report is a proposal to assess the potential profitability in entering the gourmet coffee market. The report will focus on to determine the most probable market structure of the coffee industry from the researches of economic experts as well as...