Black Gold

The film Black Gold, which tells of the situation of coffee-growers in Ethiopia, is now beginning to be seen by general-public audiences. But does this film tell the story well - and if so, how can the trade best use this film?

Several players have been quick to show their support for the concept of care for farmers, by putting on screenings - Java Republic was first, then Cafedirect, and then the Atkinson roastery of Lancaster, who rather neatly made sure they tied in a promotion of the coffees featured in the film.

But is it a good film? And should the coffee trade support it, or be scared of it?

Black Gold is a documentary, following Tadesse Masekela of the Oromia farmers' union of Ethiopia, as he travels the world putting his case for a fair price.

On a purely critical basis, some say Black Gold is not a great film - it's a little slow at times. One of our major wholesalers says he watched it with his wife, a non-coffee person, who said if he had not been there, she would have switched it off.

Indeed, by the time Tadesse says 'a better life doesn't mean buying a car, a wardrobe or a motorbike - it means sending children to school', we are already 30m into the film. By the time we get to famine among coffee farmers, the general public may be asleep - although the scene of a baby not being admitted for care because 'she is not malnourished enough' should shock anyone into waking up.

Although there is a current trend in many TV shows to have narrators, as if viewers aren't intelligent enough to follow a story, this one could have used a storyteller - ideally, from inside the trade. As it is, a barista championship segment is going to mean nothing to non-coffee people… and heaven knows what the inane burblings of bimbo baristas in the original Starbucks is all about.

And yet, everyone agrees that it succeeds in making points.

"It's true that everybody laughed at the Starbucks girls," confirms Louise Whittaker of Cafedirect, who put on a public showing in London. "But hundreds of people clearly did engage with it - I could hear tuts, oohs, and claps during the film.

"I think it does trigger questions, and so the way to use it is like we did - a panel of people answering questions. I'd put this film in the same category as The Corporation and An Inconvenient Truth - it will attract those who are open to being stimulated, and there will be more people logging on to the Trade Justice website after a screening than before."

The first in the trade to back a public screening was Java Republic, whose David McKernan was himself greatly affected by visiting Ethiopian farmers. He too laid on a question-and-answer session.

"This was interesting, as it showed how little the consumer knows," observed Tessa Van Rensburg, Java Republic's marketing director. "The consumers thought that if they are buying Fairtrade, then all coffee farmers everywhere are benefiting - and this is not the case.”

The showing in Lancaster went very well, said Ian Steel of Atkinsons. "We gave the Dukes theatre the most successful event of its kind that they've ever had, and they want to do something similar again.

"Before the film, Simon Wakefield (the coffee trader of south London who also appears briefly in the film) and I were introduced to a room full of hard-line activists and hard-core coffee nuts - a really fantastic response from the local community, but not from the trade, who were probably busy.”

Atkinsons stocks a long list of Rainforest Alliance coffees, and is an advocate of paying farmers higher prices through higher quality.

"We did find it difficult to widen the horizons of the blinkered Fairtrade lot. I resent the fact that people are 'greenwashed' into thinking that by implication all other coffees are 'Unfairtrade' and that somehow by not converting our entire list of over 70 coffees to Fairtrade that makes me a bad person! (This was actually suggested to me at the end of the event - however, I managed not to hit any of the Fairtrade lobby.”

Coffee importer Ian Breminer of Ridge and Breminer, who has been known to demand the attention of heads of government over ethical trading issues, was worried about the same issue, and also the timing of the film’s release.

"The film is three, if not four years out of date," he said. "I suspect it was made in 2002/3/4 when the market would have been at the lowest ebb.” (From the makers’ own data, that appears to be about right).

“If the film is now being released at a time when farmers the world over are receiving reasonable and remunerative prices, it seems to me to be unfair not to mention this.

"It does appear to be a long advert for Fairtrade. It is too sentimental and does not address the economic issues.

"I particularly liked the part on the WTO talks, but again I think it is a pity that they didn't bring the talks up to date - this might have had an even greater impact on people because it does look as though this whole round is going to collapse this year.

"I absolutely agree with the developing countries that if we are to have fair (in the widest sense of the word) trade, then we need the EU and the USA to slash protectionist tariffs. Trade not Aid is the best way forward, but without change in the trading system of the world it isn’t going to go very far."

If the trade is really in favour of fairness, then how do we counter the same old accusation (which occurs again in this film) that we pay the farmer pennies for coffee which we sell for pounds? It is not, of course, a like-for-like argument - coffee is not like bananas, in which the product is consumed in the same state as it left the tree.

“It would be good for the farmer to partake in the 'added value' chain,” responded Ian Breminer. “That is what the Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia are trying to do with their Juan Valdez coffee shops. But they are actually entering into this part of the chain - they expect to earn that share by doing what Starbucks are doing.”

There is a hazard to concentrating on such figures, said Simon Wakefield. It will not help the pride of the farmer to suggest to him that he is getting screwed, when the trade here is trying to encourage him to produce better coffee, as the way of winning a better price!

It could also prevent people here from buying coffee, as some kind of protest, he added - and i.ndeed, on the same day, a forum entry on MP David Cameron's website was from somone who said just that. And the makers of Black Gold agree that such a public response would be a disaster.

Does the trade approve of this film, and if so, who needs to see and learn from this film? Should the trade support more public screenings?

There is agreement on one point - employees inside the beverage trade should be shown it.

"The industry needs to see this film," agrees Simon Wakefield. "Seeing it will help the trade make the most of the positive parts, and defend other parts which can be legitimately explained."

In support of this, Espresso Warehouse has said that if the producers make Black Gold available for sale to the trade on DVD, Warehouse will sell it and donate its profits to Coffee Kids.