Black Gold

A film reflection I did about "Black Gold", a good documentary film of coffee and trade. Just think there should be some conections between this film and our topic this quarter, like poverty, people who are low-educated and something else. I'd love to share my work with you guys, to see if we are thinking about this in the same way. :)

On the day I spend three dollar for one cup of coffee and feel quite nice with the unique taste of baked coffee technology by Starbucks, I watched this documentary film, a film about coffee, trade and unfair economic transaction among the world.

            At the first of the Black Gold, the leader from the local farmer cooperatives asked coffee farmers, guess how much a cup of coffee in Europe? All the people were shaken heads and said they don't know. Then the person asked, then how much a cup of coffee in your hometown? A coffee farmer said thirty cents. The leader told those farmers, a cup of coffee could sell to three dollars. Those farmers were silent by that time, someone asked soon, then why we just make a little money?

            Yes, why? We know on the day we are enjoying the economic globalization, all over the world are consummated the coffee beans produced from Ethiopia. The truth is the bottom farmer in this industry chain cannot even earn 1/10 of the final products' prices as their wages. Most of them are working hard for walking out of poverty or pursue education. But the people who watched this film know, their future that waiting for them out there are usually not that bright.

            Black Gold emphatically tells the story of the whole industry chain of coffee. For the global coffee industry, the final decision of price making on the hand of the New York stock exchange department's brokers and big buyers. The top four largest companies: Kraft, Nestle, Proctor Gamble and Sara Lee control the more than 70% of the import and export trades of the coffee beans in the world. They are not directly get the acquisition from Africa, but rather through middlemen or Africa middle local suppliers. Then they tried to seek the profitable price of financial derivatives market price to sell the original beans to the roasters all over the world. The process intermediate often pass through six or seven links to the final make-up, so the layer of detail prices are higher than the cost more than ten times. The prices' difference is not the only inequality, which the key question is the African farmers in the whole negotiation mechanism are absolutely out of the chance to speak up.

            The  Farmer cooperative organizations represents a kind of trying, like the peasant association in China before. The FCO put the production of coffee farmers organized and increase their ability to negotiations. Even step out of the intermediate links across the supply chain, just approach international processors directly. The process is very difficult, like persuading those farmers to join a peasant,  to earn money into education and other basic construction but not immediately points out.

            There's no answer in the film, but it shows the facts. The fact told me, if you spend a few cents when you drink coffee, and pay more attention on the products of "Fair Trade Certified", those farmers can get their actual gains.

            As you know, we are all together.