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09/18/2002 Entry: "A storm in a coffee cup"
British charity Oxfam is launching a new campaign today, described as a "coffee rescue plan". Prices of coffee on the world markets are at a 30 year low and as many as 25 million producers worldwide are being forced into poverty. The campaign has been launched just ahead of the meeting next week of the International Coffee Organisation which is to address the crisis.Of course, there is nothing new about this. Producers in developing nations have always been at the mercy of the multinationals that process and market coffee in the rich markets of the west. The coffee trade is dominated by just four companies. Kraft, Sara Lee, Procter & Gamble and Nestle between them buy about half of the world's coffee crop and whilst the price of the coffee bean has dived, the profits these companies make from coffee have soared. Producers receive about 5% of the consumer price. "They know there is terrible human suffering at the heart of their business and yet they do virtually nothing to help," said Oxfam's campaigns director Adrian Lovett. Oxfam also criticises the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank which have "encouraged" developing nations to expand coffee production for export sale leaving them vulnerable to price crashes. The present crisis is caused in part by over-production which inevitably puts downward pressure on prices."Fair Trade" coffee, which guarantees a minimum price to the producer, is now widely available in Britain. It still only accounts for a tiny fraction of retail sales but it is a growing fraction as more and more people realise that their supermarket decisions have a direct effect on the lives of others overseas. If we could get this message heard in the USA there would be a real chance for lifting third world producers out of poverty.The Biblical demand for justice for the poor is unequivocal. The question is whether this demand is more pressing than our love of a bargain at the supermarket and the quest of corporate profit. I think it is.More on this...
Replies:
It makes me mad when reports like this are published. We do have the means of helping these producers through the fair trade option, but as has been said, people go for the least expensive option when purchasing, whilst for a few pence more the producer of the product being sold via the "Fair Trade" movement receives a fair price.
Posted by John @ 09/18/2002 11:44 PM CST
Can't say anything to that, but Amen.
Posted by alice @ 09/18/2002 01:24 PM CST
