Chavez: Lets Form a Gourmet Coffee Union

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has asked the coffee producing countries to form a international       co-op as a means to control pricing. As for controlling pricing Chavez states the USA and George Bush have taken advantage of the Latin American countries long enough and the café brothers need to band together to keep prices up. His passionate speech came amid reports that coffee production has far exceeded expected production reports which in normal market conditions will cause prices to drop.

Furthermore Chavez called upon his Asian and African brothers to band with them and to keep coffee prices high.  He asked countries to control exports and to keep prices high. He stated his gourmet coffee teams must united for the good of all. Venezuela is a coffee growing country but is not a major player in the coffee world. Venezuela produces three lines of coffee but exports very little of it. Venezuela produces less than three percent of the worlds coffee and less than one percent of the coffee exports. In reality no Venezuela coffee to speak of is exported to the United States. Chavez called upon the coffee countries to follow the model of OPEC in controlling the quality of coffee produces, the quantity of coffee produced and of course the pricing of coffee.

The FDA announced this week that world production of coffee would far exceed  expectations and that many countries contributed to the higher levels.  The Africa coffee countries expect production to exceed last years numbers by 75 percent and to exceed this level projections by fifty percent. Favorable weather conditions, improved water supply and improved farming techniques contributed to the improved farming productions. None of the Africa countries commented on Chavez’ remarks nor made any suggestions that they would follow his lead.