Cost of coffee.indd - RISC

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to benefit any of the struggling farmers. It also leads the major roasters in buying directly from farmers, which means that more of the profits of the low priced coffee goes back to the people who grew it instead of the numerous middlemen. This direct purchasing is not independently verified and depends on the goodwill of Nestlé Coffee. But Nestlé still refuse to buy Fair Trade Certified coffee. Nestlé must focus more on implementation of such initiatives than mere rhetoric if it wants to improve in future – until then they will continue to fail poor coffee farmers and the coffee industry. kraft Brands: Maxwell House, Carte Noire Score: 38% Kraft took some positive steps, but overall it failed coffee farmers and the industry by not addressing all aspects of the coffee crisis. Kraft failed to ensure a decent price was paid to farmers by buying Rainforest Alliance Certified coffee without also complementing it with buying Fair Trade Certified coffee. Kraft worked with others in the coffee industry to address the coffee crisis and contributed to social development programmes worldwide but this was undermined by its failure to buying coffee that meets international agreed quality standards such as the ICO. Being second to last is not good enough, especially when the overall score points to miserable failure in dealing with the coffee crisis. sara lee Brands: Douwe Egberts, Chat Noir Score 27% Sara Lee has performed the worst of the major roasters and failed abysmally in almost every aspect of dealing with the coffee crisis. It buys some Fair Trade Certified coffee in the U.S., but has no plans to expand this offering into other countries. Although Sara Lee did work with the rest of the industry to address the coffee crisis, the company has not done enough to pay coffee farmers better prices, or establish guidelines for coffee that ensure farmers are paid a decent price, or help farmers diversify into other crops. Sara Lee is falling behind the other roasters. If Sara Lee is serious about coffee it should make a real contribution in the fight to end the crisis. destruction of self-esteem The spiralling social and economic crisis in the global coffee industry is disproportionately affecting women. Oxfam’s Colombia office has been gathering their stories, of which Luz Marina Zuluaga’s is typical. Hidden deep within the global coffee crisis and trivialized by many politicians, business leaders and economists who can put no monetary value on it, millions of poor mainly women workers are suffering the “destruction of self-esteem”. The description is made by one who knows. Luz Marina Zuluaga, who’s family has for generations grown coffee on a few acres of land in Fresno, Colombia, says that the crops no longer meet the basic needs of local women and their children. “Our self-esteem is being destroyed,” she says. “Historically, women trade cacota (low-quality beans) to buy clothing, food and to send their children to school. The men’s income goes to pay debt and maintain the farms.” As the global coffee crisis has worsened, those at the bottom of the industry – the pickers, the sorters, the traders of the lower-quality bean who are all mainly women – suffer most. “Women say they can no longer buy sanitary towels or contraceptive pills. We have stopped celebrating birthdays because we can no longer afford them. We ask relatives in Bogota to send us second-hand clothes.” Domestic violence is increasing, “it’s the way the men let off steam,” she says. Women are less able to meet and talk and collaborate between themselves, having to work more at home and to find other jobs to make bits of money. A UNDP report issued last month said that Colombian 56
women earn less, work longer, have higher rates of unemployment, participate less in administrative positions and drop out of school more than men - because of the economic crisis. This is accentuated in rural areas, where some 300,000 farmers account for the coffee crop that captures almost half of Colombia’s foreign exchange. In 2001 a Colombian family could buy, on average, only half the amount of meat, fuel and fertilizer that it could have with the same weight of coffee sold in 1989. The daily minimum wage has effectively halved during this time. Coffee prices are not picking up. “Though we have tried to do our best, we have very little support. There is nothing from our own government or from those responsible for the coffee business in my own country,” Luz Marina says. “How am I going to respond to my children?” on the brink of collapse Oxfam fears that the ‘coffee economies’ of entire countries are on the verge of entire collapse. Around 25 million families rely on coffee for their livelihoods and millions of them would be affected. Countries most at risk include Burundi, Ethiopia, Uganda and Rwanda in Africa and Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua in Latin America. Burundi, for example, gets almost 80% of its export revenue from coffee. In real terms, according to ICO president Néstor Osorio, the price that growers are getting for their coffee is at the lowest for 100 years. Niche markets such as Fair Trade are vitally important to encourage but, at only around 0.8% of the total market, are too small to save everyone. More must be done. There are reports of growing social unrest. The crisis is hitting the commerce, transport, storage and banking sectors. Tax revenues are down, public spending under pressure and foreign debt mounting. In ten years, coffee-growing countries have seen income fall from $12 billion to around $5.5 billion. Meanwhile the retail value of this same coffee in rich countries has jumped from $30 billion to $70 billion. Coffee growers in these countries might once have tried to swap to corn, cocoa, sugar or cotton. But these crops are blighted now too, protected by high tariffs in the rich northern countries who also subsidize their farmers to grow cheap produce that is dumped into southern markets. Poor coffee growers were given no help at the World Trade Organisation recently when its rich country members failed to agree on reforms that might have reduced these agricultural tariff barriers. going bust Today in tiny El Salvador alone, more than 12,000 of the country’s 15,000 coffee farmers are facing the repossession and forced sale of their land and livelihood. Oxfam recently talked to an experienced Colombian farmer who is about to lose his. After 35 years in the business, Colombian coffee farmer Joaquín Elías Valencia Franco and his family are about to lose everything. Two local banks have seized Joaquin’s farm and are about to auction it off. Joaquín is desperate to fight; he doesn’t want to migrate to another country or quit farming or be forced to find a menial job in the city. He doesn’t want the risk of his family breaking up. At 51, with five sons from a 29-year marriage, Joaquín has dedicated 35 years of his life to growing coffee. He’s an expert. Coffee has enabled him to send his children to school and train them in agricultural related subjects. But over the past few years, coffee prices have slumped. The crop is now ruining its owners. Joaquín hoped that maybe this new season might be a bit better than the last, but it is not going to be. The world coffee price continues to hover at a 30- year low of around 50 cents a pound. This is about half the cost of what many small farmers need just to break even. Hundreds of thousands of small coffee growers all over the world are now facing in the same crisis. They are giving in to the fact that they simply can’t sell their coffee beans for enough to pay their debts to local banks. In Central America, over 600,000 jobs in the industry have been lost in the past few years. In El Salvador alone, Fesacora (the national coffee growers’ 57
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credits devised, written and design
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“ A company that adopts and imple
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the instructions What you need - ge
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glossary bluewash The ploy used by
Page 10 and 11: coffee file Coffee: adaptation of A
Page 12 and 13: 8 the story of coffee D the coffee
Page 14 and 15: wet method D requires the use of re
Page 16 and 17: 200 Robusta coffee market 1986-2005
Page 18 and 19: drinker roasted, ground, instant CO
Page 20 and 21: 16 key ideas ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆
Page 22 and 23: Profit margins are high - Nestlé h
Page 24 and 25: key ideas ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ In respon
Page 26 and 27: • because of past price fluctuati
Page 28 and 29: aim a fair price? ◆ To analyse th
Page 30 and 31: ◆ Although in The coffee cycle Ne
Page 32 and 33: s Analyse the photos used and the o
Page 34 and 35: ◆ ◆ Real costs A supply and dem
Page 36 and 37: aim how fair’s fair? ◆ To explo
Page 38 and 39: actionpage: how fair’s fair? s Re
Page 40 and 41: 1990 european fair trade associatio
Page 42 and 43: Actionpage: Pros & cons 38 PROS Gua
Page 44 and 45: aim fair marketing ◆ To analyse t
Page 46: Actionpage: Logo ® 42
Page 49 and 50: actionpage: press release Statement
Page 51 and 52: appendix 1: the coffee crisis The I
Page 53 and 54: demand sides in which the coffee cr
Page 55 and 56: demonstrating that traditional shad
Page 57 and 58: appendix 4: co-op’s fairtrade cof
Page 59: appendix 5: mugged introduction The
Page 63 and 64: appendix 6: rescue plan A Coffee Re
Page 65 and 66: Consumer governments 1 Provide poli
Page 67 and 68: joining forces we believe that we w
Page 69 and 70: of shortfalls that occur (see Nestl
Page 71 and 72: appendix 8: robbing coffee’s crad
Page 73 and 74: appendix 9: behind the mask the rea
Page 75 and 76: • change the law to enable people
Page 77 and 78: Fair Trade in Action - KS 3-4 Fairt
Page 79 and 80: ackground reading* Behind the mask:
Page 81 and 82: useful contacts Anti-Slavery Intern
Page 83 and 84: International Coffee Organisation w
Page 85 and 86: isc Reading International Solidarit
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Cost of coffee.indd - RISC

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