QUICK ANSWER
The Extraction Reflex is a behavioral framework describing why African coffee and tea producers default to selling raw, unprocessed product even when value addition would capture significantly more revenue. Africa earns an estimated $7.5 billion a year from coffee exports, roughly 3 percent of the $263.5 billion global coffee market, while supplying some of the most sought-after origins in the world. The reflex is not a lack of ambition. It is a psychological default toward the fastest available cash, reinforced by decades of market structure that rewards volume over story. This article names the pattern and outlines what breaks it.
