Modelling thirty five years of coffee prices in Brazil, Guatemala and India

Over the past thirty five years coffee markets have been subject to market controls and regulations culminating in the liberalisation of coffee markets in the early 1990s. This paper models the relationship between the producers’ and world prices of coffee in Brazil, Guatemala and India allowing for the effects of changes in market structures. We find that liberalisation has benefited producers substantially in terms of higher real coffee prices and a higher share of the world price of coffee.