Dirt cheap coffee starves Ethiopians

Bob Geldof is back in Ethiopia almost 20 years after the Live Aid concert that helped raise $60-million for famine victims. Now, as then, the singer turned activist wants to sound the alarm over a renewed threat of famine.

This time, a sophisticated relief effort has averted mass starvation, but some 3,5-million people still risk starvation according to the United Nation's Children's Fund (Unicef).

Some of the reasons for Ethiopia's plight are well known. They include a legacy of misrule under its former dictator, Mengistu Haile Mariam, a swelling population, and flooding. Less well-known has been the devastating impact of slumping coffee prices for a country that relies heavily on coffee exports.

Coffee accounts for 54% of Ethiopia's export revenues, with some 700 000 households depending on coffee for their livelihoods, and millions more for part of their income.

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