The path through which goods and services travel from the vendor to the consumer or payments for those products travel from the consumer to the vendor. A distribution channel can be as short as a direct transaction from the vendor to the consumer, or may include several interconnected intermediaries along the way such as wholesalers, distributers, agents and retailers. Each intermediary receives the item at one pricing point and movies it to the next higher pricing point until it reaches the final buyer. Coffee does not reach the consumer before first going through a channel involving the farmer, exporter, importer, distributor and the retailer. Also called the channel of distribution.