Victims of Cheap Coffee 2003
Distributed by Filmakers Library, 124 East 40th Street, New York, NY 10016; 202-808-4980
Produced by YLE/Finnish Broadcasting Co.
Directed by Pertti Pesonen
VHS, color, 50 min.
Jr. High - Adult
Agriculture, Central American Studies, Economics, Ethics, Latin American Studies, Multicultural Studies, South American Studies, Asian Studies
Date Entered: 06/18/2004
Reviewed by Brad Eden, Ph.D., Head, Web and Digitization Services, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las VegasThis video tells the story of how collapsing coffee prices around the world has affected millions of growers and harvesters around the world. Coffee plantation owners, as well as coffee farmers and workers, are bankrupt and starving due to the low cost of coffee. This video was filmed in Vietnam and Nicaragua. Nicaragua is more dependent on coffee production than any other South American country, and therefore is truly struggling to survive. Vietnam, on the advice of the IMF and the world bank, switched from rice to coffee as their main product for export in the 1990s. As a result, they also have been hard hit by the drop in coffee prices. The film portrays and interviews dozens of farmers, harvesters, and workers whose lives have become impoverished and destitute because of this situation.
The video shows how farmers and workers of coffee in Nicaragua and Vietnam are trying to survive in today's low-price coffee market world-wide. Interviews with workers and farmers comprises much of the film, as well as opinions with experts. An interesting examination of how world markets and prices affect ordinary people.