The coffee sector has collapsed worldwide following a crash of coffee prices on the world market from 2000-2005 - reaching their lowest levels in over a century in 2001 - leading to the economic ruin and the mass economic genocide of millions of coffee farmers and coffee plantation workers and their families in more than 50 coffee producing & exporting countries around the world.
Cynically, however, meanwhile coffee multinationals, traders and retailers are making millions in profits each year from coffee sales worldwide...
As Mr. Nestor Osorio - Executive Director of the International Coffee Organization (ICO) - himself clearly stated:
“The world coffee economy has evolved over the last few years in a manner which may be qualified as erratic, disorderly and even contradictory. The relative supply scarcity of the mid 1990s, caused largely by climatic conditions, was followed by a short period of moderately high prices that compensated for the losses incurred by the dismantling in 1989 of the International Coffee Agreement’s quota system. However this situation prompted a surge in production that altered substantially the global supply structure and was the cause of the worst coffee crisis ever seen in terms of growers’ incomes.
In contrast, the evolution of the coffee economy in importing countries has shown a completely different and in fact very positive pattern. The industry has flourished, new products have been developed, the value of the retail market has more than doubled, and profits have risen. This is something to celebrate, but the question must nevertheless be
asked as to how long such a state of affairs can be sustained.
The extent of the drop in prices and earnings in the crisis years 2000 - 2004 is very clear In the ten years 1980 – 1989 the ICO Composite Indicator Price for coffee averaged127.92 US cents per lb. and coffee-producing countries earned an average of US$10.2 billion in annual export revenues from coffee. In the five years 2000 – 2004 the average price had dropped to 54.33 cents - the lowest in real terms for 100 years - and annual export earnings to US$6.2 billion.
Certainly the figures for coffee are clear : In the late 1980s and part of the 1990s earnings by coffee producing countries in terms of exports f.o.b. were around US$10-12 billion per year but they have now dropped to around US$5.5 billion. This contrasts with the continued growth in the value of retail sales in consuming countries from around US$30 billion in the 1980s to around US$80 billion at present." Nestor Osorio, Executive Director, ICO.
Source: www.ico.org
This excellent documentary reveals the injustice of the global coffee trade and its impact on coffee farmers.
Please click on the title above to view the entire documentary on google video, and share it with as many people as you can . Thank you.
Note: I have recently filed a formal complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the mass economic Genocide of millions of coffee farmers, plantation workers and their families around the world resulting from the collapse of the coffee sector worldwide. You can read a copy of the complaint published on my blog at the following link:
http://yajnacentre.blogspot.com/2008/10/letter-of-complaint-to-international.html
I welcome your comments and support.
Thank you!
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