Background
INTRODUCTION
People in the business call it a "coffee crisis," but most consumers are blissfully unaware that unstable prices and lack of direct market access are causing devastation, despair, and hunger for 25 million coffee farming families around the world. Even as the price of coffee rises from a 30-year low, small-scale coffee farmers still cannot earn a decent income, not to mention afford basic family expenses like food, healthcare, and education.
In Central America, the signs of crisis are obvious. Half a million jobs were lost when prices crashed in 2001, and thousands of farm workers without food or hope left their lands, seeking jobs in cities and foreign countries. In La Dalia, Nicaragua, press reports in 2001 estimated there were 16,000 people begging in the streets and feeding their children from garbage cans.
Structural dynamics and power imbalances in the coffee supply chain continue to cause instability for farmers in the 60 countries where coffee is produced.
Oxfam research indicates that the coffee crisis continues, and that small-scale coffee farmers require:
- price stability
- access to finance
- market access
- technical assistance in quality improvement and diversification
- organizational strengthening
- participation in international debate.