This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
World coffee prices have dropped by almost fifty percent over thelast three years. They are at their lowest level in thirty years.Low prices are affecting about twenty-five-million coffee growers.Most of them have small farms.
Coffee is an important crop for the developing economies of LatinAmerica, central Africa and southeast Asia. However, theinternational aid organization Oxfam says that coffee growers aregetting less for their crop even as the world market has grown.Oxfam says producers receive less than ten percent of the incomecreated in the world coffee market.
World coffee production has grown by about two-hundred percentsince nineteen-fifty. New growing methods have caused part of thisincrease. Farmers have traditionally grown coffee under the cover oftrees, often fruit trees. Trees protect the coffee plants from toomuch sun and provide fertilizer. Fruit trees also can provideanother crop for coffee farms.
However, the introduction of chemical fertilizers and moreproductive kinds of coffee plants have changed the traditionalmethods. Now, many coffee farmers grow their crop in full sun anduse man-made fertilizers. The result is a larger crop and whatappears to be too much coffee on the world market.
The World Bank has suggested that farmers use traditional methodsof growing coffee. It has also studied production methods thatpermit better prices and continued development. It calls this”sustainable coffee.” The World Bank says that sustainable coffeerequires more investment in coffee production methods.
In October, the World Bank announced the first internationalprice insurance for small coffee producers. Price insurance isfinancial protection that farmers buy. It protects them from losingmoney on insured crops. The insurance will help two-hundred-fiftycoffee growers in Matagalpa, Nicaragua. Nicaragua, and companiesfrom Sweden and Switzerland provided support for the project.
The World Bank also says that people in rich countries should bewilling to buy what is called “fair trade coffee.” That is coffeesold by growers who observe rules on record-keeping, growing methodsand safe working conditions. These coffees cost more, but may helpprotect coffee growers in developing economies.
This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by MarioRitter.