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Over-Grown Globe

© Katherine Austinson

Did you know that for the past few years our earth has begun to be covered with too many coffee beans? As a coffee-lover this news is little hard to swallow, but nonetheless true.

According to Reuters, coffee growers are producing more coffee than the earth's population can consume. "Three years of low prices have dragged many growers into poverty, poor maintenance and even the abandonment of their crops."

Money Magazine also says, "For most of the 1990s, production was lower than consumption, keeping coffee prices relatively buoyant. But that changed when Brazil, the world's largest producer, sharply increased its output and newcomer Vietnam became a top producer. The resulting oversupply in the coffee market caused world prices for beans to plunge, cutting incomes for thousands of small farmers in Latin America and Africa. To some, a frost in Brazil looks like the only solution. "

Hmmm....are they overlooking another potential solution? Seems to me that a good marketing plan is in order - time to stop drinking soft drinks and start drinking the real thing - more coffee!

Just think, we could be on to something here. If each of us could bring one more coffee drinker on board, say one a month, we would no doubt have the coffee economy stabilized within the year! We just need to spread the word!

"In 2001-2002, (coffee) output was about seven million bags above consumption, with production rising at an average annual rate of 3.6 percent and demand by only 1.5 percent, according to the International Coffee Organization" states Money Magazine. "The world produced then 113 million 60-kg bags, which is the standard unit to trade coffee, while it had stocks of 40 million bags and it consumed more than 106 million." With this, record low prices hit in 2001-2002 of about 50 cents a pound, compared with an average of $1.20 in the 1980s.

But on the up side, all that campaigning for fair-trade coffee is beginning to pay off. "Sales of certified Fairtrade beans, which guarantee a minimum price to cover at least costs of production, meant extra benefits for coffee farmers of more than $30 million in 2002, according Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International."

So, coffee-lovers, we've got our work cut out for us again. It's time to buck up and chip in! Keep buying that fair-trade coffee and start converting coffee drinkers by the dozens!! It's time to drink more coffee!!