Black Goldcoffee Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Black Goldcoffee - Essay Example Retail sales from coffee have increased to $80 billion. While many big companies are enjoying the benefit of this profit, many of the coffee farmers in Ethiopia prostrate to poverty, no clean water to drink, can’t send their children to school, and can’t even afford to buy a pair of shoes despite of the fact that Ethiopia is Africa’s top Arabica coffee exporter and known to be the origins of most coffee. This is simply because of the unfair trade of coffee between the developing countries and the first world. The coffee farmers only receive the amount of 3 cents per kilo from their coffee products, not getting a fair reward from their hard work. Their coffee products will go to a series of trading wherein various middlemen will participate to the trading. Many of the middlemen composed of the coffee collectors, coffee suppliers, and coffee exporters do the bidding of these coffee products. Each multi-national companies like Nestle, Proctor and Gamble, Kraft, and Sara Lee has a representative in the trading. The 2 auction price is mainly based on New York ‘C’ market and they are the one who regulate the price of the coffee in the International Market, which means that if the price of the coffee in New York market is 5 cents per kilo, then the price for the coffee will be 5 cents per kilo. From the middlemen, after placing their bids, the coffee product will be sold to coffee exporters and the exporters will then sell the coffee product to the roasters after which will be purchased by the retailers/cafes before it goes to the consumers. The coffee farmers would have benefited more from their product if their product will be directly bought to them by these retailers. The issue on passing of product from one supplier to another made their product poorly priced. And despite they are one of the top coffee producing country in the world, Ethiopia remain to be one of the poorest country being dependent on the foreign aid. Because of t heir desperation to live, these coffee farmers of Ethiopia had diverted to planting chat (narcotic plant) which grows twice a year in their land instead of coffee tree which needs 5 years of nurturing to produce fine beans. For every 30 branches of chat they sell, they are earning $4, incomparable amount than selling coffee beans. Another issue is the unfair trade of Ethiopian coffee and other products of the developing countries. In the documentary, the World Trade Organization has set rules for global trade wherein all participating trader will get their fair trade. However, the rule set by WTO for global trade was believed to be ‘manipulated’ by ‘few’ people and the fair trade issue that supposed to be resolved remained to be unsettled. Ethiopia being one of the poorest countries doesn’t receive subsidiaries. And 3 because of this issue no one can protect or supplement the income of farmers and so, the coffee farmers remained to be poor. Infrastru ctures like schools are also neglected. Classrooms have no quality blackboards to write on and no enough chairs for the students. In an article about the review on â€Å"Black Gold† many government and international bodies have ‘awakened’ to this documentary about the crisis in coffee trade. Trade policies and