Sir, - Nestle's chief executive, Peter Brabeck, has the cheek to remark (Business, April 12th): "The social values we have are so strong that once you commit to them, you live them. This is a big difference with other companies."
According to a survey by the World Bank and others, coffee prices (inflation-adjusted) are at their lowest for 100 years. The London Financial Times has reported: "The collapse has thrown as many as 540,000 people out of work and cost at least $713 million in foreign exchange receipts for some of the world's poorest countries. . .The slump has also hit related sectors such as transport and finance, and forces some governments to cut social spending because of declining tax revenues."
Nestle is one of the biggest players in the global coffee system. Do the company's boasted "social values" extend to paying a decent price for the coffee beans it buys from those poor farmers in Latin America, Africa, and elsewhere? Has the company even passed on to its rich country customers any of its huge cost savings on its basic input?
Or could Nestle's appalling behaviour actually be intended to illustrate the unfair way the world trade system works? Perhaps Mr Brabeck wants, graphically, to draw our attention to how trade rules and power inequities are impoverishing hundreds of thousands of families in poor countries. Perhaps Nestle feels trapped in an unfair set of rules and just can't do the decent thing, despite its "social values" that are "so strong".
If so, then I would encourage Mr Brabeck to sign on to Oxfam's website www.maketradefair.com and help to bring about the changes that will enable his conduct and values to go together. - Yours, etc.,
Dr BRIAN SCOTT, Executive Director, Oxfam Ireland, Burgh Quay, Dublin 2.