Fairtrade | Publications | Fair Comment | Spring 1998 (#)

  „With organisations to represent their interests, farmers can cut out the middlemen, get a better price, and gain more control over their lives. Coffees with the Fairtrade Mark are bought directly from this type of small farmers' organisation at a guaranteed fair trade price. This covers the cost of production, a basic living wage, and allows for investment, no matter how low the world price drops. Mario Perez, a Nicaraguan farmer who has only recently been able to sell coffee under the fair trade system, says 'Three years ago we practically had to give away our harvest - we were losing money on the deals.“

http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/fc-spr98.htm - Cached

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Some slightly related:

Fairtrade | Suppliers | Growers | Sivapackiam, Fairtrade tea picker

  „All workers on tea estates that supply the Fairtrade market have a workers' organisation to represent their interests. In Sivapackiam's case, she represents her fellow workers on a 'Joint Body' which decides the use of the Fairtrade premium. She gives an example of the difference this can make: "A year ago, we didn't have any electricity in our houses.“

http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/ suppliers_growers_tea_sivapackiam.htm - Cached

Fairtrade | News | Press Release

  „In 2001, prices of coffee on the international markets collapsed to record-breaking lows, slashing the farmers’ and national country incomes. Between 1994 and the end of 2001 the price of robusta beans (used chiefly in instant coffee) plummeted from around 180 cents per lb to just 17 cents, a 30 year low. The value of the other coffee bean, the high quality arabica, suffered similarly.“

http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/pr040502.htm - Cached

Global Exchange : bostonglobe072901.html

  „If farmers object, the middlemen simply turn elsewhere. If coffee is too expensive in one country, buyers simply turn to another.“

http://www.globalexchange.org/economy/coffee/news2001/ bostonglobe072901.html - Cached

CRS Fair Trade

  „This two-page document shows how Fair Trade puts more of your coffee dollars directly into the hands of small-scale farmers than the conventional system, in which middlemen, processors and coffee companies can earn more than the men and women who actually grow the coffee.“

http://www.crsfairtrade.org/what_is/ edu_material.htm - Cached

Fairtrade | Suppliers | Growers | Isabel and Adolfo, Fairtrade coffee farmers

  „'I hope consumers will buy more Fairtrade coffee so we can maintain ourselves like this,' says Adolfo. 'If it wasn't for Fairtrade with prices so low at the moment, we would get deeper and deeper into debt. I know other producers who are getting into debt.“

http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/ suppliers_growers_coffee_isabel.htm - Cached

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