The EthioRussian

Nowhere is this paradox more evident than in Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee. Tadesse Meskela is one man on a mission to save his 74,000 struggling coffee farmers from bankruptcy. As his farmers strive to harvest some of the highest quality coffee beans on the international market, Tadesse travels the world in an attempt to find buyers willing to pay a fair price.

Against the backdrop of Tadesse’s journey to London and Seattle, the enormous power of the multinational players that dominate the world’s coffee trade becomes apparent. New York commodity traders, the international coffee exchanges, and the double dealings of trade ministers at the World Trade Organisation reveal the many challenges Tadesse faces in his quest for a long term solution for his farmers”.

The site for the movie has a forum with alot of interesting points, including a post that appears to be from a Starbucks representative.

With the whole fair trade stuff aside, I am starting to believe that the coffee farmers would not benefit until THEY start selling the coffee at THEIR price, without any middleman organizations acting for them… unless the farmers join forces to set up their own entities to trade with giant corporations like P&G, Nestle, Sara Lee, Kraft and Starbucks (apparently the better one of the bunch… ), the dealings conducted by current middlemen don’t seem to trickle down to the people breaking their backs for us to sit in cozy places with friends sipping on some over-priced coffee.