Choking over a coffee

Consumers International

ETHIOPIA DEMANDS REFORM OF TRADE RELATIONS WITH AFRICA AHEAD OF UK PREMIERE OF BLACK GOLD

The critically acclaimed film, Black Gold has sparked Ethiopia to demand urgent reform in international trade relations with Africa.

Black Gold is the first feature-documentary to expose how the 80-billion-dollar global coffee industry reaps the spoils of overpriced lattes and cappuccinos while impoverished Ethiopian coffee growers suffer the bitter taste of injustice.

The Ethiopian Ambassador to the UK, H.E Berhanu Kebede said: "Black Gold is a clarion call to the international trading system, which is stifling the development efforts of countries such as Ethiopia. Multi-national companies that are reaping the benefits of the most valuable commodities in the world, have a responsibility to act.

Pointing to the eagerly anticipated report of the G8s Africa Partnership Forum, expected to be released later this month, the Ambassador said: This powerful and timely film shows why the G8 countries need to reform trade relations with Africa."

The directors of Black Gold, Marc and Nick Francis, said: The UK Government should be putting more pressure on the international community to urgently tackle the crisis facing millions of people in developing countries, who are enslaved by the current international trading regime.

Africa is not a poor continent. It has a wealth of natural resources, coffee being just one of them. The problem is millions of people are not being paid a fair price for what they produce. The challenge to consumers is to know whats in their coffee.

H.E. Mr Joseph Muchemi, the Ambassador to the UK from Kenya, another major coffee producing country, added: We concur with the sentiments expressed in Black Gold, which is calling for the international community to re-double its efforts to put developing countries' needs at the centre of all future world trade talks.

Black Gold premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and has sold out at festivals worldwide.

Starbucks, Nestle, Kraft, Proctor And Gamble and Sara Lee all declined invitations to be interviewed for the film. In a subsequent meeting with senior Starbucks executives, the filmmakers asked a series of questions about the companys buying practices. Five months on, those questions remain unanswered.

Richard Lloyd, Director General of Consumers International, said: "The coffee industry must come clean to consumers about where the profits go, so we can judge for ourselves the ethics of the big coffee companies."

Last week, Starbucks announced that it plans to triple the number of stores worldwide to 40,000 and announced that prices for coffee drinks would increase.

According to their own figures, only 3.7% of Starbucks coffee and 0.2% of Nestles coffee is bought at the fair trade certified price. According to the filmmakers of Black Gold, "even the fair trade price is not fair enough."

Richard Lloyd added: "Consumers International demands that the mainstream coffee industry takes immediate steps to mainstream sustainable initiatives throughout all its coffee brands, not just PR-friendly niche products. "

Welcoming the launch of Black Gold, Charles Abugre, Head of Global Advocacy and Policy at Christian Aid, said: "Trade is the single most important component in reducing poverty in Africa, but rich countries continue to impose policies on poor countries which fundamentally undermine their development. Its time they matched rhetoric with reality, but as the film, Black Gold, shows, time is running out.

Black Gold began production in 2003, when filmmakers Marc Francis and Nick Francis learned that Ethiopia was facing another food crisis. "We were alarmed that coffee farmers supplying some of the largest corporations in the world, earning record profits, were digging up their coffee trees, and then waiting for food aid.

"We wanted to make a film that forced us, as western consumers, to question some of our basic assumptions about our consumer lifestyle and its interaction with the rest of the world."

Notes:
For information and details of preview screeenings in the UK visit www.blackgoldmovie.com

COFFEE FACTS
2 billion cups of coffee are drunk every day
The industry is worth over $80 billion dollars a year
There are 25 million coffee growers in the world who receive less than 3 cents from a $3 cup of coffee

* Starbucks stirred by fair trade film