"Black Gold" - Movie Review

Just finished watching an interesting documentary from the U.K. titled "Black Gold" that details the struggle of coffee farmers to achieving a fair price for their coffee. The film puts a human face on the challenge of increasing the price farmers in developing nations receive for their crops in this case coffee. The directors focus in on the efforts of an Ethopian coffee co-operative led by Tadesse Meskela. Mr. Meskela represents the Oromia Coffee Farmers Co-operative Union and provides viewers with a first hand look at the challenges facing a coffee farmer in a developing nation. He describes the co-operative's efforts to put a greater percentage of the price of coffee into the hands of those that are actually growing the crop. Amazingly the value chain is six links long from the time the coffee leaves the farmers hands until it reaches the consumer in a Western nation. Clearly a number of the steps involving middle men could and should be eliminated for the benefit of both the consumer and the farmer.

Unlike other documentaries on coffee that I've seen very little time is spent on the big 3 (e.g., Kraft, Procter & Gamble, Starbucks) that are responsible for a significant portion of the coffee purchases and resale. Instead this movie takes a slightly more political turn instead focussing on the 2005 WTO meeting in Cancun, Mexico. My view is simple bureaucrats and "professional" diplomats actually have no vested interest in actually solving the problem faced by farmers in their own countries much less developing nations. I'd take a lead from Jim Rogers' commentary on African Aid from his book "Investment Biker" in referring to the waste and overhead that NGOs and other aid organizations actually apply to the system. Instead I agree with the sentiment expressed by a member representing Malawi in the film who indicated that his people weren't interested in foreign aid since this is only a band aid solution nor are they interested in charity instead they are looking for fair and equitable trade. 

I will say that after watching this documentary and another one on the challenges faced by coffee farmers I do tend to look for and choose fair trade coffee when available. To learn more about the film and fair trade coffees visit: www.blackgoldmovie.com