Meles appeals to rich nations over coffee

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi made an impassioned plea to rich nations on Monday on behalf of millions of impoverished coffee farmers in Ethiopia. Meles declared that companies selling coffee in western countries were reaping huge benefits while coffee farmers were being driven into the ground. “There cannot be a more damning indictment of the global trading environment than than this,” he said. “There cannot be a more startling proof of the totally unfair global trading environment than this.” The prime minister was speaking at the first ever coffee exhibition which was hosted in Ethiopia – the birthplace of coffee – and launched by Oxfam International. He told delegates at the UN’s Conference Centre that farmers faced a sharp increase in poverty and hunger as a direct result of a massive slump in prices. Ethiopia – the largest exporter in Africa of coffee - has been hard hit by the slump. Farmers are paid less than US $0.10 per kg for coffee which will sell in western countries for around US $26. Five years ago they received more than six times that amount. Meles also warned that farmers were turning to growing chat – a narcotic widely used in the Horn of Africa but banned in the United States. “More important the livelihoods of the average coffee grower have been severely affected,” he said. “Some of the farmers are uprooting their coffee trees and replacing them with chat. So the social implications of such a shift are very serious.” Barbara Fiorito, a director with Oxfam International, said the impact of the current crisis was “gravely felt” in Ethiopia. Oxfam - which argues that fair trade will help impoverished countries more than just aid handouts - is trying to introduce a “rescue plan” for coffee which has already been adopted by Brazil, Ethiopia and Columbia.