Focus on: Coffee

Coffee is one of the most traded agricultural raw materials in the world today and child labour is widespread in the coffee producing industry. According to Global March, in Kenya's central province, 60% of the workforce on coffee plantations are children.

According to Organic Consumers, when visiting the fields as a coffee buyer or visitor, one nearly always encounters children beneath the branches of the coffee trees picking the red beans, their nimble hands often outpacing those of their parents.

They may start working when they are tall enough to reach the lower branches and old enough to identify which berries to pick. Also these children experience the same, poor working and living conditions as the adults.

"More children work in agriculture around the world than any other economic sector" U.S Department of labour.

Where is the coffee

Some coffee facts

There are more than 25 species of coffee, the 3 main commercial types being Robusta, Liberia and Arabica, the latter representing 70% of total production.

Coffee is the world's most popular stimulant: 4 out of 5 Americans drink it, consuming more than 400 million cups a day.

With more than 25 million people employed in the industry, coffee is second only to oil in world trade.

Coffee experts estimate that it takes approximately 2.2 hours of labour to produce one pound of coffee.

In Kenya, approximately 4 million children ages ranging from 6-14 were reported working in the commercial agricultural department.

In the plantations about 50-60% of the workers during coffee pickings peak season were children.

The children working in this kind of environment are exposed to various diseases such as malaria, influenza, and pneumonia.

Children are involved in all aspects of coffee farming and manual processing activities: picking, sorting, pruning, weeding, spraying, fertilizing and transporting.

Written by Harry Dawson, Transition Year Student at Skerries Community School