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GCA Statement on Piracy

The Green Coffee Association is a trade association that provides resources and other benefits for individuals and companies dealing with the export, transport, storage, insuring, financing, importing, trading and/or roasting of green coffee. We recognize the threat that piracy in the Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea, the wider Indian Ocean and elsewhere poses to the world’s seafarers, and ocean going vessels as well as the water-borne cargo owned or controlled by our membership.

The International Chamber of Commerce along with other international government and non-government organizations have been addressing this crisis with the world’s political and business leaders. The Green Coffee Association supports the International Chamber of Commerce in its recent “Call for Action on Piracy” and implores our own U.S. government to immediately act within the international community to:

  1. Improve the Rules of Engagement given to naval vessels in the areas of most risks, focus on locating,
    shadowing and disrupting the operation of motherships in order to reduce the operating scope of the pirates, and continue to support or increase the number of naval vessels on anti-piracy operations in the area;
  2. Refocus the efforts of the United Nations and other international bodies to ensure that infrastructures are built in south central Somalia to prevent that part of the country from being exploited by criminals and pirates;
  3. Ensure that piracy suspects are swiftly brought to justice and not sent back to Somalia without being
    held accountable for their crimes. 

To learn more about the worldwide efforts being made to increase awareness and combat this crisis, please visit the following website links: 

As shippers of green coffee from and through these areas of the world, we are very concerned about the risks to our shipments, supply chains and cash-flow. We are also concerned about the dangers posed to our carriers and the lives and well being of their crews. As we are all close partners in the global coffee supply chain, the GCA encourages our membership to learn more about these threats and express these concerns to our government representatives seeking their support towards an international solution to this global crisis. 

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