PARTICIPATION OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES' PRODUCERS IN GLOBAL NETWORKS - THE CASE OF COFFEE

One of the indisputable consequences of globalization is the world-wide linking of market agents and creation of global networks. The possible impacts of these processes are apparent also in the agro-food sector, especially within the networks of commodity chains. Coffee, the second most heavily traded commodity in the world, is a typical example, featuring as a global commodity chain. It means that its individual production stages are miles distant. The first stage of analyzed value chain, coffee growing, is situated in developing countries of Latin America, Asia and Africa, while the processing and consumption are carried out mostly in developed countries such as the US or the EU. This paper is focused on the analysis of the individual production stages within the coffee commodity chain. Furthermore, the position of developing countries producing the raw commodity, interrelationships along the whole value chain and market concentration on the individual stages are subjects of the analysis as well. The results have been obtained within the frame of the research project MSM 6215648904 "The Czech Economy in the Process of Integration and Globalisation, and the Development of Agricultural Sector and the Sector of Services under the New Conditions of the Integrated European Market" of Mendel University in Brno, Faculty of Regional Development and International Studies