COFFEE has come on in this country since the whodunit writer Agatha Christie described it as: "What, in England, tastes like a chemical experiment."

Now we know what good coffee should taste like and we are surrounded by coffee bars offering a bewildering array of drinks.

So there might seem nothing controversial in the frothy cappuccino bought in the city centre or the instant made at home. However, today two stories illustrate there is more to a cup of coffee than you might think.

Milk producers in North Yorkshire and coffee growers in, say, Brazil may seem a world apart, yet both complain they are not being treated fairly.

Farmers around the country, including some in this region, are planning to restrict milk supplies in protest at the milk processing firms. At present, farmers receive nine pence from every 36p pint of milk sold. They want their share to be increased and their case would seem to be strong.

Cheap milk in the supermarket is all very well, but if the farmers don't make a respectable profit the whole system of supply could dry up.

From the milk, or indeed the cream, to the coffee itself. Coffee farmers around the world are facing economic ruin due to the collapse in the price of coffee, which has fallen by nearly 50 per cent in three years.

According to the charity Oxfam, the "corporate giants" are making huge profits selling coffee, while the growers, often in Third World countries, are going hungry. On average, just five per cent of the shop price of coffee reaches those who grow the crop, Oxfam calculates.

Over production is largely to blame and Oxfam suggests five millions bags of coffee stock should be destroyed, leaving companies to trade only in quality beans. This might sound drastic but something has clearly gone wrong with the world coffee market.

Those who produce our food, farmers at home or coffee growers abroad, deserve to be paid a decent price for their work. After all, it's only fair.

Updated: 10:31 Wednesday, September 18, 2002