“Fairtrade is a strategy for poverty alleviation and sustainable development. Its purpose is to create opportunities for producers and workers who have been economically disadvantaged or marginalized by the conventional trading system. If fair access to markets under better trade conditions would help them to overcome barriers to development, they can join Fairtrade.” www.fairtrade.org
We believe the only way to ensure that the coffee which we buy will be available for years to come is to invest in sustainable coffee farming.
Fairtrade offers us a way to ensure that the coffee we buy comes from a sustainable source and by buying Fairtrade coffees we can guarantee that we will be helping the farmer and their community.
The Fairtrade minimum price ensures that, in spite of the market price, all the coffee that we buy will cover the cost of production. We buy our coffee at a sustainable price which gives the farmer enough money to feed himself and his family as well as being able to afford to fertilizer and farm improvements.
On top of the sustainable price that we pay for the coffee we also pay a Fairtrade premium. This premium is used to fund social and environmental projects on the farmer’s farm and with his community.
By buying our Fairtrade Café Express Coffee you will be contributing to the projects which are helping to improve the lives of the farmers in the following communities. In Brazil the Dos Costas community is a group of 84 small scale farmers and their families. Through Fairtrade premiums the community has been able to build a doctors surgery, a dental room and a computer room for the farmers and the whole community.
The community has also built a creche for young children and sponsors the local boys football team by providing them with a playing kit. The community also employs an agronomist who advises the farmers on ways to improve their farms and yields. Prodecoop is based in Northern Nicaragua and was established in 1993. Through Fairtrade Premiums the cooperative has been able to provide books, backpacks and other supplies to hundreds of students whose families belong to the coop.
The coop also provides scholarships for many of the members’ children to obtain primary and secondary education. Through Fairtrade premiums Prodecoop have been able to establish a credit fund for the maintenance of farms and harvesting of coffee. Kagera Co-operative union based in Tanzania is a cooperative of small scale coffee farmers.
The cooperative have also used some of the Faitrade premiums to invest in an instant coffee manufacturing facility ensuring that value is added to the coffee that is grown for internal consumtpion
Through the Fairtrade Premiums gained from the sales of Fairtrade coffee classrooms and health centres have been constructed for the farmers and their children
With the help of the Fairtrade development assessors KCU have improved their labour conditions in their coffee milling plant and now operate exceptional safety standards.
The above examples highlight the true extent of how Fairtrade products impact the farming communities in third world countries. We believe these positive results are essential in taking steps to help eradicate poverty in developing countries.
