Pubdate: Thu, 19 Sep 2002
Source: Western Daily Press (UK)
Copyright: 2002 Western Daily Press
Contact: 0117 934 3574
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2536
Website: http://www.westpress.co.uk

25M COFFEE FARMERS 'FACING DISASTER'

Coffee farmers in the Third World are facing economic ruin because they are 
not being paid a fair price for their beans, campaigners said yesterday.

While Western food giants cream off large profits, coffee bean growers are 
living on the poverty line.

Oxfam campaigners yesterday protested by piling coffee sacks outside the 
Cheltenham offices of Kraft Foods, which makes Maxwell House and Kenco 
coffees. It is one of the big four coffee roasters, along with Sara Lee, 
Procter and Gamble, and Nestle.

The charity also published a shock report entitled Mugged: Poverty In Your 
Coffee Cup. It said 25million farmers in Central and South America, Africa 
and Asia have seen the price of coffee halved in the past three years to a 
30-year low, leaving them facing economic disaster.

The producers get only a fraction of the profits from coffee. Some may be 
tempted to produce coca instead, the raw material for cocaine, especially 
in Peru, Colombia and Bolivia.

Oxfam says people in a town the size of Cheltenham can expect to spend 
£1.329million a year on coffee, of which just £58,598 filters back to the 
coffee grower.

Oxfam South-West campaigner Roger James said yesterday: "Coffee is the 
second most valuable commodity in the world after oil. Yet whenever we 
enjoy a mug or buy a jar of coffee, most of the money we pay is creamed off 
by the world's big four coffee producers or retailers. Only six per cent of 
the retail price on a jar goes to the farmer who grew it." Oxfam is urging 
people to write to the major coffee roasters and retailers calling for 
fairer wages for the growers. It also wants the Government to reform the 
coffee trade.

Yesterday, a Kraft Foods spokesman said: "The oversupply of coffee has led 
to difficult conditions for coffee farmers. We have worked hard to address 
the social needs facing people in coffee growing-regions by contributing to 
hunger relief efforts."
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D