Introduction

There is a crisis destroying the livelihoods of 25 million coffee producers around the world. The price of coffee has fallen by almost 50 per cent in the past three years to a 30-year low. Farmers sell at a heavy loss while branded coffee sells at a hefty profit. The coffee crisis has become a development disaster whose impact will be felt for a long time. Find out more:

• read the summary
• download the summary (125KB)
• download the full report (1.2MB)

What people said about the coffee report...

"The coffee farmers of Latin America are suffering the worst crisis in a hundred years. I urge everyone concerned with this growing misery to read this report. I hope you will use it to promote action to stop the scandal of hard-working coffee farmers falling further into poverty because of the price which the transnationals pay."
- Raul del Aguila, Junta Nacional del Cafe de Peru (Peruvian Coffee Farmers' Organisation).

"The urgency of the coffee crisis cannot be overstated. The International Coffee Organisation welcomes Oxfam's campaign which makes an important contribution to this search for solutions."
- Nestor Osorio, Executive Director, International Coffee Organisation.

"If a few companies were less greedy, the people at the bottom would have a lot more. We can do our bit by pressuring politicians to change this insanity, and by buying Fair Trade coffee. I hope people will back Oxfam's campaign to Make Trade Fair."
- Chris Martin, UK rock band, Colplay