TV CHEF Sophie Grigson was this afternoon due to use the York Festival Of Food And Drink as a platform to highlight concerns over the plight of the world's coffee growers.

Ms Grigson, who headlines today's events at the Parliament Street festival, was supporting Oxfam campaigners who claim they are fighting for the rights of more than 25 million coffee farmers around the world.

The charity says they face economic ruin due to the collapse in the price for coffee.

Oxfam wants "corporate giants" such as the York employers Nestl and Kraft, to pay farmers a decent price for their coffee.

The campaign has the backing of Chris Martin, lead singer of rock band Coldplay, who said: "If a few companies were less greedy, the people at the bottom would have a lot more. We can do our bit by pressuring politicians to change their insanity."

Actor Colin Firth, another supporter, said: "Coffee is something we all take for granted, but the farmers who grow the beans that make the coffee we drink live in destitution.

"They are being ripped off. It is the big companies which are making the profits - that's got to stick in anyone's throat."

Mark Dawson, of the York Oxfam Campaigns Group, said: "With designer coffee bars opening every other week, and supermarket aisles packed with new roasts and speciality blends, walking around York you would be forgiven for thinking it was boom time in the coffee industry. It's not.

"The world coffee market is in crisis. But while crashing prices force coffee growers to take their kids out of school and watch their families suffer without medicines, the big four coffee roasters - Kraft, Nestl, Sara Lee and Procter & Gamble, who between them buy almost half of the world's coffee crop - continue to rake in the profits."

Part of the new campaign will call on these companies to take action to pay farmers a decent price for their crop.

The price of coffee beans has fallen almost 50 per cent in the past three years and now stands at a 30-year low.

Farmers in developing countries, mostly poor smallholders, are forced to sell their crop for less than the cost of production, according to Oxfam.

Oxfam calculates that, on average, only five per cent of the shop price of instant coffee reaches the farmer.

The charity has called for a Coffee Action Plan "to make the market work for the poor as well as the rich".

It wants coffee companies - or roasters as they are known - to pay farmers enough to send their children to school, afford medicines, and buy sufficient food.

Part of the current problem is over-supply in the market. About eight per cent more coffee is being produced than is consumed, which further adds to the buying power of big companies, Oxfam say.

The action plan suggests the destruction of at least five million bags of coffee stock, with companies trading only in quality beans, and an increase in the amount of coffee bought under Fair Trade conditions.

Adrian Lovett, campaign director at Oxfam, accused the big coffee roasters of turning a blind eye to the problems in their industry.

"They know there is terrible human suffering at the heart of their business and yet they do virtually nothing to help."

Nestl makes an estimated 26 per cent profit on its Nescaf and Gold Blend coffee brands, according to Oxfam.

The company said: "Nestle's most direct way to help the farmers is to increase demand for coffee. For many years Nestl has had a positive effect on coffee consumption."

Updated: 12:03 Wednesday, September 18, 2002