Etiopien er kaffens fædreland og megen kaffe herfra er fortsat af ypperste kvalitet, men det mærker de fattige kaffebønder langt fra altid noget til – hvorimod forbrugerne må betale dyrt for de velsmagende gourmet-dråber.
ADDIS ABABA, 21 August 2012 (IRIN): Ethiopia is regarded as arabica coffee’s birthplace, but while the country’s high-quality coffee has made it to the gourmet shelves of major coffee houses around the world, many of its growers remain poor.
Ethiopian coffee cooperatives have gained critical access to international coffee markets including the fair trade movement, but questions remain about what constitutes (der egentlig er) a fair price for farmers picking the red cherry that coffee beans come from.
“Ethiopian coffees are still too moderately priced for what they are worth,” said coffee consultant Willem Boot, who has managed coffee development projects for national coffee organizations in Ethiopia, Panama and El Salvador.
“Their specialty coffees are significantly better than others and are really undersold”, added he.
After oil, coffee is the world’s second most valuable legal exported commodity, worth an estimated 15,4 billion US dollar in 2010, according to the International Coffee Organization, a global intergovernmental body aimed at strengthening the coffee sector.
Coffee is Ethiopia’s primary export and its largest generator of foreign capital, totalling 840 million dollar in 2010. But it is not enough for a struggling economy and a country where an estimated 39 percent of the population lives on less than 1,25 dollar (godt syv DKR) a day.
“The main reason for poverty is trade. It is not a lack of natural resources but the formulation of trading mechanisms that makes us poorer and poorer”, said Tadesse Meskala, Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union’s general manager.
Fair Trade – but fair prices?
Fair trade is intended to be a transparent system of business mutually beneficial to consumers and producers. The movement began in 1960s Europe, and today Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO) is the most widely recognized fair trade certification system.
FLO sets the minimum price per pound of fair trade green coffee beans at 1,60 dollar or at the New York Stock Exchange Commodity price, whichever is higher. It also mandates an additional Fairtrade social premium of 0,20 dollar, and another 0,30 for organic (økologisk) coffee.
There are two types of fair-trade buyer, said Tsegaye Anebo, Sidama Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union’s general manager.
One type of buyer, such as Starbucks Corp., will only buy if the Fairtrade price is low enough. The other consists of smaller roasting companies that buy whatever the price – absorbing cost fluctuations; one such roasting company is Third Coast Coffee in Austin, Texas.
Third Coast Coffee pays more than the Fairtrade minimum in recognition of the coffees’ quality, said roaster Clay Roper, for example, purchasing a batch of 300 bulk coffee bags at 27.777 dollar above the Fairtrade minimum.
Tangible benefits (mærkbare fordele)
Læs videre på
http://www.irinnews.org/Report/96140/ETHIOPIA-Getting-a-better-deal-for-coffee-farmers
