Biography
09/2018 – 10/2021 Hertha-Firnberg Grant Holder (Austrian Science Fund-FWF)
12/2020 International Consultant, Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property Providing expert input to virtual seminars on coffee for Indonesia/Peru
01/2020 Based on the current FWF project, interactions with coffee chain actors were developed through a coffee research-talk. Trip to Colombia with coffee roasters to visit producers and to start relational trade.
09/2016 – 08/2018 Postdoc – Project: Institutional conditions for the adaptability of quality standards of Austrian and Italian Geographical Indications
07/2015 – 10/2015 International Consultant, UNCTAD (trips to Ethiopia/China) 03/2010 – 09/2016 Doctorate in Economics and Social Sciences, BOKU
LINKS:
BOKU research portal ORCID: 0000-0001-7700-4008 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Xiomara-Quinones-Ruiz
Camilo Andrés Salcedo-Montero
PhD Student in Human Sciences at the Sociology and Anthropology Program (PPGSA). Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil.
03/2016 – 12/2021 PhD Student in Human Sciences at the Sociology and Anthropology Program (PPGSA). Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil. Scholarship: CNPq and FAPERJ.
11/2020 – 11/2021 Co-researcher in the project: “The impact of transgenic seeds in three Colombian regions”. Universidad Nacional de Colombia.
04/2014-04/2015 Scholarship winner of the program “Young Researchers”- Colciencias, Colombia.
Martha Lilly Peediyakkan is a final year PhD scholar and a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the Sociology department of the University of Auckland. Martha holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and two master’s degree in public administration (MA and MPhil) with specialization in Development Administration. She also has diverse work experience in the corporate sector, civil society, as well as in academia. This exposure has encouraged her to adopt an inter-disciplinary approach while engaging in her PhD thesis work titled, Hegemonic Land Struggles: A Historical Materialist Study of Sikkim State in India.
Abstract
Coffee worlds: qualities, conventions and value appropriation – Evidence across global value chains to face the perils of the chronic coffee paradox
Benjamin Graham’s famous saying “price is what you pay, value is what you receive”, shall be coupled to Daviron and Ponte’s coffee paradox to realize that well-informed consumers do not only pay for the material quality of coffee, but also for valued symbolic quality attributes and in-person service quality embedded in a cup of coffee. This study analyzes how several understandings and interactions of material, symbolic and in-person quality attributes are intertwined with quality conventions followed by chain actors (i.e. producers, buyers, roasters) and how they contribute to the re-shaping of the traditional extractive coffee trade. The study discloses value chains belonging to traditional and non-traditional coffee regions (i.e. producers in Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia and Gran Canaria, Spain). The empirical analysis follows a comparative case study approach and data collection is based on semi-structured interviews, participant observation and cupping (coffee tasting). Preliminary results show that producers in Santa Marta are able to grasp the diverse quality attributes and to add value as long as direct partnerships with international buyers and domestic consumption are pursued. In contrast, the material quality understanding by producers in Gran Canaria is less relevant as long as better-off tourist consumers are willing to pay for a souvenir-like coffee ‘made in Europe’. Regardless of diverse quality understandings and conventions followed, a revealing trait is to comprehend how contrasting actors interact and learn from each other transcending from the core quality discourse to a social-turn to pursue a sound coffee chain re-shaping from within.
Keywords: coffee, quality attributes and conventions, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Gran Canaria
Affiliation: University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU), Austria