This would make plantations more productive but would force out smaller farmers who hand-pick the berries as they ripen at a natural and uneven rate, Action Aid says. The technology is unsuitable for small farmers, who inter-crop coffee with other food crops to provide shade and diversity. The Action Aid report has been published to coincide with the beginning of a two-day World Coffee Conference in London that will be attended by coffee producers, buyers and consumers from 63 countries. Included in the discussions will be ways of correcting the imbalance between supply and demand, which has led to steep falls in world coffee prices. Seventy per cent of the world's coffee is produced by small farmers, mostly in developing countries, says the report, and it is often their only source of income.
Millions also work as coffee pickers on smallholder farms and coffee plantations.
Small farmers will be squeezed out of the market with GM coffee. Coffee exports account for nearly 70 per cent of Ethiopia's foreign earnings. We consumers have a simple choice. While GM coffee is still in the pipeline, we can send a strong message to the industry that we don't want it.