Estudo de Mercado de Café Biológico de STP

Abstract

The Monte Café region, once a prominent place in coffee production, declined with the country's independence in 1975. As a result of the structuring and grouping of 6 smallholder associations, CECAFEB (Organic Coffee Export Cooperative) was created in order to relaunch 510 organic coffee-growing farmers. Despite the strategy of financial self-sufficiency and the commitment to high value-added products, CECAFEB faces problems of low volume production and difficulties in supply and market knowledge. This study aims to make a market study of organic coffee, including its  selling and non-selling establishments, in Sao Tome and Principe (STP). The adopted methodology, of mixed nature (qualitative and quantitative), was developed in two stages: The first being exploratory research and the second a conclusive-descriptive research (based on observation and data collection by interview and the survey method, through a structured questionnaire built for the purpose, applied to the universe of current and potential customers of the STP cooperative). The results, in addition to identifying the links in the organic coffee value chain and potential customer establishments of this product, revealed a lack of knowledge of organic coffee, the brand and CECAFEB. The certification of coffee as organic, is a valued attribute in the purchase and consumption.