ICO coffee body alerts G8 summit to farmers' plight

05 July 2005

LONDON: The International Coffee Organisation (ICO) called yesterday for leaders of the rich world to address the trade barriers and market imbalances that aggravate poverty in many commodity-dependent developing countries.

"Coffee is an extremely important source of national export revenue and internal cash income for farmers in many poor countries," ICO Executive Director Nestor Osorio said in a letter addressed to UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, who will host this week's Group of Eight summit in Scotland.

Tackling the imbalance between supply and demand that lead to a crisis for coffee farmers earlier this decade is vital for sustainable development, particularly in Africa, Osorio said.

A collapse in coffee prices to a 30-year low in 2001 increased poverty, social unrest, the planting of illicit drugs and rural unemployment in parts of Latin America, Asia and Africa.

In 2000 African countries like Burundi, Ethiopia and Rwanda depended on coffee for more than 50 per cent of their total export earnings, according to the ICO.

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