Coffee giant's ruse denies aid to farmers

Antony Barnett, public affairs editor
Sunday June 13, 2004
The Observer

One of the world's largest coffee traders, which supplies beans to Nescafé and Maxwell House, is accused of using a British tax haven to avoid paying millions of pounds to the developing countries from which it buys.
Campaign groups and charities have accused Volcafe - which provides the beans for one in every seven cups of coffee drunk - of employing financial tricks to deprive some of the poorest parts of the world of much-needed revenue. The company denies any wrongdoing, but British MPs are calling for an investigation.

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