Glory to God, our children have already finished school. The co-op gave us money to help pay for school and provided books and registration.
Abebech Argeta farms coffee with her husband and three children in Yirgalem, Ethiopia. They are members of the Fero Cooperative, a member of the Sidama Coffee Cooperative Union. Read their full story here.
Seventy percent of the world’s food is produced by 500 million smallholder farmers; this group also represents half of the world’s hungry people. On World Fair Trade Day, Fairtrade International releases the report, ‘Powering up Smallholder Farmers to Make Food Fair, calling for urgent action to support smallholder farmers.
Hanta Hayesso is an accountant at Fero Cooperative in Yirgalem, Ethiopia, a member of the Sidama Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union. The office walls are peppered with posters listing the co-op membership, coffee sales, prices, partnerships and how they plan to spend Fairtrade Premium Funds. Read their story here.
Fairtrade America, the CLAC (Latin American producer network), the NAPP (Asian producer network), Fairtrade Canada and Fairtrade International spent the weekend celebrating coffee, connecting farmers and traders, and having an all around great time at the SCAA Event in Boston. Trade fairs like this one play an important role in bringing producers and traders, roasters and retailers to talk business and continue pushing coffee further.
Left to right: Fairtrade farmers check out their new Fairtrade t-shirts; Brazilian coffee farmers cupping coffee at the Specialty Coffees of Brazil booth; Jose Abad-Puelles of Fairtrade Canada reviews some material with Bijumon Kurian of India; and Fairtrade coffee farmers from Huatusco, Mexico, get a taste of their own coffee in Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.
Some great photos from the SCAA Coffee Conference in Boston. Producers meeting traders meeting business making connections!
This is the coffee cuppers song, the ebb and flow, the slurp and spit. Sensory notes and subtle overtones. Yesterday at the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s annual conference, the Brazilian Specialty Coffee Association (BSCA), SEBRAE and Carmo Coffees teamed up with Fairtrade Regional Coordinator Catalina Jaramillo and Fairtrade farmers to hold a cupping session to show off winners of a Fairtrade quality contest that took place early in the year. This is just a small sample of the action.
After three years of patient preparation and collaboration between importers, traders and farmers: Saffron and Iran are on the Fairtrade map!
Saffron is derived from the dried stigmas of the purple saffron flower. Anything from 60,000 to 250,000 flowers (weighing around 100 kilos!) are needed to make just one kilogram of dried saffron. The flowers are individually harvested by hand and it takes at least forty hours’ labour to pick 150,000 flowers. No wonder it’s the most expensive spice in the world.
Around 85% of global saffron exports come from Iran. Production of the exotic spice is a real family affair. Every family member is involved in some way, whether it be harvesting, extracting fresh stigmas, hygienic drying, or processing and packaging. And that means each family is utterly dependent on the crop for their income. They have to produce good quality, and they have to find a buyer. This makes them very vulnerable to the whims of the market.
But thanks to a unique collaboration between importers, a processor, saffron producer families and Fairtrade, this is about to change.
In 2010, importers VARISTOR and Antonio Pina Diaz teamed up with the Global Saffron Company and Fairtrade field staff to support 40 saffron producer families in forming their own cooperative. It was a long process but “Arghavan Dasht e Paeezan” co-op was finally legally registered in October 2012 and, following a successful Fairtrade audit, has now become the world’s first Fairtrade certified saffron producer organization.
The farmers already have high expectations about the impact Fairtrade can have on their lives:
“We expect it will enable us to raise the level of mechanization on our farms, which in turn will help us increase production. Farmers who have small pieces of land can learn to use modern technology effectively, by participating in training programs. We will then be able to improve our production and increase our annual income”.
When asked what Fairtrade Premium projects/activities they hope to develop, they told us:
“The Fairtrade Premium from the sale of our saffron will create a great sense of motivation and encouragement to us farmers. Projects such as purchasing appropriate cloth, hygienic gloves and proper tools for all members of the cooperative will enable us to perform better while further improving the quality of our saffron. Another major project is to convert to organic farming practices, so we can produce organic saffron which is in demand from consumers”.
Arghavan Dasht e Paeezan’s Fairtrade saffron will soon be on sale in Switzerland.
If you are interested in sourcing Fairtrade saffron, please contact Sumedha Karunatillake: s.karunatillake-external@fairtrade.net
Like your coffee? Like it Fairtrade? Then keep up with our friends at www.fairtradeamerica.org! Fairtrade America is the new organization representing the international Fairtrade system in the USA.
Share this picture & follow along!
In this photo: Birhanu Kabeto, a member of the Fero Cooperative in YIrgalem, Ethiopia, drops coffee cherries into his basket.
Do you like Ethiopian coffee? Abebech Argeta and her husband of Yirgalem, Ethiopia, have been farming coffee together for nearly 40 years. They sell their coffee to the Fero Coffee Cooperative a member of the Fairtrade certified Sidama Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union.
Get the full story on the farmers of the Fero Cooperative on the Fairtrade International website.
Sports clubs, computer literacy training, crèches, a leadership training camp…Bosman wine estate’s Fairtrade project report makes for impressive reading!
All these projects were organized by the Joint Body: a committee made up of workers and management on Fairtrade estates and plantations, which manages the Fairtrade Premium money and consults with their fellow workers on the best way to spend it.
One particularly interesting initiative is a gardening competition: Workers compete for prizes for best ornamental garden and best food garden. As well as creating a sense of pride in their homes and community, the competition also helps the workers to grow their own fruit and vegetables and become more self-sufficient. The winners receive vouchers for the local garden centre, or gardening equipment to spruce up their gardens further.
Cilmor wine estate’s Joint Body travelled to Bosman’s to get inspiration for their own Fairtrade projects…and they certainly weren’t disappointed. They came away with many new ideas to share with their fellow workers and a much broader view of what is possible with a committed and hard-working Joint Body.
Read more about the Cilmor exchange visit here.
Malin Olofsson, Fairtrade liaison officer in South Africa joins Fairtrade wine producers on a journey of discovery….
“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” – Benjamin Franklin
Exchange visits are a great way of involving producers in a more active approach to learning. To see what other farms have achieved and to learn from their struggles, mistakes and achievements is an invaluable experience.
Workers from Cilmor wine farm in South Africa were recently able to benefit from such a visit. Having been inspired by stories from other Fairtrade farms at a workshop, they wanted to go and see their projects first-hand. So they planned it into their budget, and I happily accompanied them on their trip!
First stop was Fairhills, another wine farm in the Western Cape. They shared about their many various projects to date, giving details about the process and challenges along the way. What was most interesting for the Cilmor group was to find out just how much support, both in cash and in kind, they have being able to leverage as a result of being Fairtrade certified. By approaching individual retailers and government departments they have received funding for specific projects such as a library, computer centre and building a primary school. This means they can use their Fairtrade Premium income to fund the day-to-day running of the projects.
They have even been able to hire a psychologist and set up a rehabilitation programme: a really valuable investment for a community where alcoholism is rife. This approach left the Cilmor visitors with much food for thought.
The women of the Tighanimine Cooperative
The fact that Agadir in southwest Morocco has an abundance of argan trees was not lost on a group of village women in a literacy class organized by Nadia Fatmi. They also knew that their region was very poor, and they had no means of generating income for themselves.
Given that argan trees only grow in that part of the world, and that the oil had been a staple in homes in the village for some time, the women in Fatmi’s literacy class decided to do something to lift themselves out of poverty.
In 2007, they started the world’s first argan oil cooperative - Tighanimine - which became Fairtrade certified in 2011.
“It is the ancestral work of women in the south of Morocco,” says Tighanimine spokeswoman, Afafe Daoud. “They are the only ones who can break the fruit and extract the oil.”
Argan oil has become a key ingredient of luxury cosmetics, and quickly found markets around the world.
By forming a cooperative, the 60 women farmers of Tighanimine challenged a long-standing tradition in their area that a woman’s husband or father was the sole bread-winner.
“They were financially dependent on men, one hundred percent” says Daoud.
Initially, the men resisted the women’s initiative – that is, until the extra money started to come in.
“Little by little, when they began to see the economic benefits, they became more cooperative and even encouraged other women to join the cooperative,” Daoud recalls..
Tighanimine’s Fairtrade volume remains relatively low, but the cooperative was recently licensed to sell their argan oil with the FAIRTRADE Mark. They have developed their own brand called Tounaroz and plan to sell in Morocco, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, and the USA. Moving up the value chain ensures that even more benefits reach the women in the cooperative.
In addition to developments on the market side, the cooperative was given an award by the Moroccan Network for Social and Solidarity Economy and the Pan-African Institute for Development for its work in good governance and economic development. And, Fatmi has since been elected to the chair of Fairtrade North African Board.
Daoud says it’s easy to see some of the effects Tighanimine has had on the women – such as nicer clothes for themselves or their children, or households that are better maintained. Other benefits, says Daoud, are less obvious.
“Women who work in the cooperative began to have more confidence in themselves, because they feel important in their home.”
Read more stories of Fairtrade women in our piece celebrating Internationa Women’s Day last Friday.
It’s International Women’s Day tomorrow and our friends at Kopepi Ketiara in Indonesia couldn’t be happier about it. This women-led cooperative is just one of the groups we’ll profile on our website tomorrow! Check it out here!
Kady Waylie, a cotton farmer in Sitaoulé Bananding, Senegal, throws freshly picked cotton onto a heap. The harvest is a celebration that marks the end of a season’s hard work.
Photo by Sean Hawkey, who has a photo exhibition coming up in Dublin for Fairtrade Fortnight. Check out all the Fairtrade Fortnight activities throughout the UK and Ireland!
Fairtrade products are produced by 1.24 million farmers & workers. Sold in over 120 countries. Bought by millions of consumers, sold by thousands of companies. It’s time to ‘Unlock the Power of the Many’ and help Fairtrade do more. Read up on our new Strategic Framework that will guide our work in the coming years.
We were all saddened and shocked at the loss of Raul del Aguila, a global leader for trade justice, a dedicated fair trader, a coffee man, and a friend.
“Raúl was a tireless servant advocating for trade justice and pushing for the interests of the small producers everywhere,” said Marike de Pena, Vice-Chair of the Board at Fairtrade International, President of CLAC, and Director of Banelino, a banana cooperative in the Dominican Republic.
