Black Gold [DVD]

Coffee multinationals dominate shopping centers and supermarkets, controlling an industry that moves more than 80 billion dollars annually and turning this product into the most valuable traded commodity in the world after oil. But while we continue to pay more and more for a cappuccino, the price paid to farmers who grow coffee remains very low, to the point of forcing many to abandon their crops. Nowhere is this paradox more evident than in Ethiopia. Tadesse Meskela is dedicated to protecting more than 74,000 farmers from bankruptcy. While they strive to grow some of the highest quality coffee beans on the international market, Tadesse travels the world looking for buyers who will pay a fair price for them. Against the backdrop of Tadesse's trips to London and Seattle, the enormous power of the multinationals that dominate the coffee trade comes to light. New York merchants, international coffee exchanges and the double trade of World Trade Organization ministers reveal the many challenges Tadesse faces in his search for a solution for his farmers. Filming for two and a half years with Tadesse in Ethiopia, London and the United States has been very inspiring for the film's directors. He has found a way to pay the farmers a fair price. However, as he says about himself in the film, this does not only affect coffee cultivation but all products that come from the poorest countries in southern Africa.