The Brazilian green coffee market is coordinated by a regulatory mechanism responsible for the official standardization and classification of the national production. The core of the classification system is a sample demerit index, which depreciates the intrinsic quality of traded coffees and affects their market performance. This paper presents the results of a research which studied the triple inter-relationship between the classification system, the quality attributes required by industry, and the product payment. Thirteen supply chain agents were investigated: five coffee cooperatives from Brazil's main producing regions, five roasting companies linked to them, and three intermediary companies (traders) from the region of Hamburg, Germany. The results confirm the need for intervention in the market coordination. They also reveal strategies already implemented by the productive sector that are able to evince the quality of batches during negotiation, better guide the payment system, and create conditions for a better product price performance in the international market.
Coffee business; Classification system; Governance; Payment for quality
