Coffee companies are posting record profits while producers still live in extreme poverty, a report claims today.
Development agency Oxfam also warned failure to tackle the growing gulf between poor suppliers and cash-rich companies would do nothing to end the continuing "crisis" in the world's coffee markets.
It said failure to address the issue would consign millions of coffee farmers and their families to extreme poverty with "devastating consequences" for health, education and social stability.
Details from Oxfam's report were made public ahead of tomorrow's start of the three-day World Coffee Conference at London's Hilton Hotel.
Coffee prices had fallen by more than 60 per cent in the last three years to their lowest-ever levels in real terms, said Oxfam.
The finding, it said, came against a background of spiralling profits for Western coffee firms, with US-owned coffee shop giant Starbucks typical of the trend after posting a 41 per cent rise in profits in the first quarter of this year.
The agency said it was calling for an international minimum coffee price to producers of 1 US dollar per pound. Current prices are as low as 49 US cents per pound.
AFP