(ANSA) - Milan, September 30 - Oxfam and the International Coffee Organization (ICO), in collaboration with Expo, Illy and Lavazza, are launching a fundraising campaign from Thursday through October 31 to fight poverty among small coffee growers.
    Every year, the world consumes 500 billion cups of coffee, roughly half in Europe alone. Despite these numbers, the majority of small coffee producers in the southern hemisphere still live in poverty.
    From October 1 to October 31, it will be possible to make a donation to Coffee4Change starting from the standard price of an Italian espresso: one euro.
    Funds will go to support Oxfam projects in the southern hemisphere regarding coffee production in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras, Uganda, East Timor and Papua New Guinea. The campaign will be presented at the Global Coffee Forum on Thursday, International Coffee Day. The Global Coffee forum is the first global event on the sustainability of the coffee supply chain promoted by the ICO.
    "In every cup of coffee we drink, there is the work of more than 25 million small producers in the (southern hemisphere) and many of them still live in poverty," said Roberto Barbieri, the general manager of Oxfam Italia.
    "Coffee4Change is an opportunity to improve their conditions of life and work," Barbieri continued.
    The campaign is inspired by the Neapolitan tradition of the "caffè sospeso" or "suspended coffee", the custom of leaving money to pay for coffee to benefit a stranger who cannot afford it.
    Collection bins will be available in all the points of sale for Illy coffee at Expo's coffee cluster of pavilions, as well as at the pavilions of the US, Spain, Germany and Eataly.
    Collections will also be made at Lavazza's points of presence at Expo: the Piazzetta del Caffè inside the Italian Pavilion, the Terrazza Martini & Rossi, and at Coop's Supermarket of the Future.