Black Gold Trailer

774 Views | 2:26 | Uploaded on May 25, 2013

Multinational coffee companies now rule our shopping malls and supermarkets and dominate the industry worth over $80 billion, making coffee the most valuable trading commodity in the world after oil. But while we continue to pay for our lattes and cappuccinos, the price paid to coffee farmers remains so low that many have been forced to abandon their coffee fields.

Nowhere more evident is this paradox than in Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee. Tadesse Meskela is a man on a mission to save his 75,000 struggling coffee farmers from bankruptcy. As his farmers strive to harvest some of the highest quality coffee beans on the international market, Tadesse travels the world in an attempt to find buyers willing to pay a fair price.

Against the backdrop of Tadesse's journey to London and Seattle, the more powerful sides of the international trading system begin to unfold. New York coffee traders, auction houses and the double dealings of trade ministers at the World Trade Organization reveal the enormity of Tadesse's task to find a long term solution for his farmers.

In English, Amharic and Oromiffa with English subtitles.