Coffee prices lift Vietnam spirits

By Tran Dinh Thanh Lam

HO CHI MINH CITY - The improvement in the prices of coffee beans is giving hope to Vietnamese farmers who have suffered steady losses over the last five years. Coffee growers faced lean times last year as oversupply on world markets saw prices plunge.

But Vietnam's coffee growers say their fate is changing thanks, in part, to a campaign by Oxfam America. Oxfam is calling for the adoption of a new plan put forward by the International Coffee Organization to take some lower-grade beans off the market, and for the top four coffee-roasting multinationals, which dominate the world market, to pay a fair price for the beans.

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