Tuesday, September 17, 2002


nestle catches a clue & pizza for charity

long-time readers know that here at bccy we are big fans of independent, local business, and that we feel too often multi-national giants are overly focused on the bottom line to the detriment of the product, the consumer, the workers, and the environment. we prefer foodstuffs that are locally grown in a sustainable manner and made with care by artisan producers.

this is the main reason we have been so critical of the behavior of multi-national coffee sellers, those huge firms like kraft and proctor & gamble that own the supermarket brands of coffee with which americans are most familiar. during the current coffee crisis, the world price-depression that has left coffee growers near bankrupt and coffee workers in latin america literally starving to death, the astute reader will notice how prices of that supermarket coffee haven't fallen. actually, they've risen slightly.

and it's no secret that these large firms have been lowering the quality of coffee in those supermarket brands. for the past 2 years the parent corporations of the large coffee brands have ignored or resisted entreaties to do something to help those being ground fine by the vicissitudes of the world coffee market and have continued to pad their profits by buying ever-lower quality beans at ever-cheaper prices.

let's face it -- the most famous brands just don't taste as good as they used to! this has led many americans to give up coffee for sugary soft drinks or driven them to starbucks for too-sweet coffee drinks topped with large amounts of whipped cream. these parent firms almost didn't seem to care that they were destroying their own consumer base to prop up their stock prices in the short term. and by failing to take action to help producers of higher-quality coffee survive, they were ensuring the permanent decline of their product.

yesterday nestor ostorio of the ico, a coffee trade group, said it like it is: "multi-nationals are doing themselves no favors by profiting from the low prices. . .consumers will turn to alternative drinks if manufacturers continue to substitute low-grade beans."

so here we are now. i almost hate to do it, but in all fairness, i have to -- i'm going to praise nestle for finally coming out and saying that something has to be done to restore stability to the coffee situation. nestle appears to get it, with a reluctant statement: "it is in everybody's interest that there should be a better balance between supply and demand."

even if it is only a public relations announcement to try to spin the release of a critical oxfam report, nestle's taking a step in the right direction. when will the other large firms do the same?

and while i'm spreading the praise, i wanna heap some on the the transit authority of toronto, canada. to raise funds for charity, transit workers are hawking fresh pizza slices at selected subway stops. what a great idea -- thinking out of the box, so to speak. . .

posted by fortune | 6:12 PM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments