Coffee industry feels HIV/AIDS impact

Zambia's President Levy Mwanawasa has expressed concern over the impact of HIV/AIDS on coffee production in Africa. Addressing the recent International Coffee Conference in Livingstone, south of the Zambian capital Lusaka, Mwanawasa said coffee was a "plank in the continent's anti-poverty drive", but more funding was needed to combat the disease and help the growing number of farmers too ill to work. Reuters quoted Mwanawasa as saying: "It is well known that the HIV/AIDS pandemic is slowing down productivity. The threat to sustainable coffee production will be bigger if the disease is not urgently controlled." Industry experts said Africa's contribution to the global coffee trade had declined from 30 percent to just 13 percent over the last few years.