'Ethical' coffee pours into mainstream

AMSTERDAM: Just as Starbucks popularised cappuccinos for mainstream America, a new group wants to put "ethical" coffee on supermarket shelves across the globe.

The Utz Kapeh Foundation (www.utzkapeh.org), whose name means "Good Coffee" in an ancient Mayan language, guarantees basic standards for poor peasants hit by rock-bottom prices and inhumane living and working conditions.

And it strives to do so without putting up retail prices out of the reach of ordinary consumers.

With coffee bean prices trading at around half the levels of four years ago, weakened by a glut of supply, coffee firms have come under fire for reaping huge profits while peasant farmers suffer.

"I don't want to make use of child labour, and I want to prove that I don't," said Ward de Groote, who as head of coffee at Dutch retailer Ahold helped launch the concept. "I want to make sure there is free schooling (on plantations), I want to make sure the environment is in balance."

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