The beans of wrath

A cartel is needed to halt the coffee crash

Leader
Tuesday September 17, 2002
The Guardian

Nestlé's offer to help stabilise the collapsing coffee market may have a strong element of self-interest about it - not least an adverse report about to be published by Oxfam - but it is welcome nonetheless. World coffee prices have crashed by more than 60% during the past decade, with most of the benefit going not to consumers but to swell the profits of corporations such as Kraft and Nestlé. The pain has been felt by the 20 million households in the 50 developing countries that grow the beans, often as their major or only source of income.

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