For those of you looking for a real life account of how the fair trade coffee process works and affects people, here is a brief story about fair trade in action.
In the coffee growing mountains of Columbia, there is a co-op of 270 farming families called APCO (Asociación Pequeños Caficultores de Ocamonte) that was formed back in 1994. The primary goal of the association is to assist members in improving their quality of life through the commercialization of coffee.
Cooperative Coffees is a roaster-owned (comprised of 22 Canadian and American roasters), coffee importing cooperative that has partnered with APOC and other farming cooperatives like them, in direct, fair trade relationships.
Cooperative Coffees works with individual farmers in APCO to help them achieve fair trade certification. They also buy beans from APCO at 9 cents / pound above the fair trade rate (which also has an additional premium for organic beans). This can work out to about 40 cents per pound premium for their coffee and if a small farmer produces 3000 pound that would work out to $1200 per year.
APCO farmers can then invest that extra money in diversification on their farms, such as raising chickens and cows and producing eggs and milk to sell at the market to earn more income. They can also invest in building and improving schools or healthcare to improve the next generation’s standard of living. Maybe they just invest the money in improvements to their own farm or house to improve production and provide better comforts.
Click the following for more information on Cooperative Coffees or the complete story of their visit to APCO.
All in all, for a few cents a cup, lives can be changed and brighter futures can be realized.
Enjoy!
Ian
Tags: Fair trade, Fair Trade Coffee, fair trade stories, Organic Coffee
