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Fairtrade － a brief introduction

1. Coffee, big business but poor grower

Every year generating $18 billion in sales, coffee is the world's second-largest legally traded commodity after oil. And most coffee consumers are in such rich countries as the United States (US is the largest coffee importer, consumes about a fifth of the total). However, the US and Europe - the main market of coffee consume - do not produce coffee.
Coffee comes from three major growing regions, Latin America and the Caribbean Islands, Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, Vietnam and Indonesia. Coffee is grown mainly by poor, small-scale farmers in developing countries.