Coffee is the second most valuable commodity in the world after crude oil, yet tens of millions of farmers who produce coffee are forced to live in abject poverty.

The UN World Food Programme says that in coffee-producing Nicaragua one in eight children is starving. Prices for coffee have nosedived - dropping by more than 70 percent in the last five years.

At the same time the world's biggest coffee processing corporations, Nestle, Kraft, Sarah Lee, and Procter and Gamble, control nearly 50 percent of the world coffee market and make huge profits.

Amsterdam Forum, at Radio Netherlands