Good, tasty and ethical
Why would you drink anything else?
My preference? I’ve said it before: Good, tasty, ethically traded coffee, but what does the last part really mean?
Instead of describing how unethical supermarket coffees are, or why Fair Trade isn’t really fair, here are two short stories.
Finca Limoncillo
— is a coffee farm in the Matagalpa region of Nicaragua. Dr Erwin Mierisch and family own the farm. They’re well respected for their coffee output — as well as their experimentation with coffee processing — they have produced cup of excellence coffee. Needless to say, their coffee tastes great.
More interesting for me, is the way the business works with their employees. Depending on the time of the season, there’s around 60 families living and working on the farm.
The families have free housing on the farm, complete with electricity and running water — also for free. All of the workers receive free food. There are day care facilities for the children — free of charge. Healthcare facilities are provided, on the farm, for free. On-site teachers help to educate the employees and teach them things such as pottery and weaving, in order that they have diverse skills are are not dependant solely on coffee. The teachers are well paid for their services.
By this time, you might be thinking; that’s great, but, it probably means the employees are paid very poorly in exchange for all of this “free” stuff? In fact, the employees are paid around 30% higher than the typical wages in the region.
So where’s the catch?
It is true that someone must be paying for all this. The consumer — perhaps the coffee is super expensive? Not so. At retail pricing, the bulk of their coffee isn’t much more expensive than the supposedly premium Italian brands you’ll buy in the supermarket.
So at one end we have a great social business, at the other end, we have affordable pricing — how is this possible? The clue is the middle. Or rather it’s what’s not in the middle. I buy the coffee direct from the roaster — Hasbean. Steve, the owner, buys the coffee direct from the farm at a price that enables them to run a great business.
By cutting out many of the people in the middle, everybody wins.
Finca David Vilca
— actually, the farm is small enough that it doesn’t really have a name, David Vilca is the name of the farmer himself. David and the farm is close to Caranavi in Bolivia.
When Steve from Hasbean, visited the farm in previous years, David didn’t give much attention to Steve. Probably something to do with Steve’s poor attempts at talking Spanish and overly English appearance. Or maybe David just didn’t like Steve — no matter, the coffee tasted great and deals were done.
After the second visit David asked his export contact why he kept bringing Steve to the farm. The exporter explained what Steve and Hasbean does with his coffee.
This year, something changed. On their way for the third visit Steve asked the exporter contact what the problem was, why was David acting this way. It turns our that he’s pretty much deaf, from a life of mining — but, liked what Hasbean was doing so much that he invited Steve into the family home, to eat, drink and meet the family. A whole new level of relationship was formed.
After the visit, Steve asked the exporter contact why David didn’t wear any form of hearing aids. It turns out that the exporter had tried to help before, but David, being the man he is, used the money to buy a satellite dish. Being miles from any form of entertainment, he thought keeping his wife and family entertained was more important.
Steve decided that he wanted to help and offered to buy the hearing aids himself — but, David didn’t want that. Instead, Steve suggested that perhaps his customers — you and me — would be happy to carry the cost, by paying a small extra on each bag of coffee. This was a compromise that worked for David, as it didn’t put the burden on anyone who didn’t want it.
By paying just 11 pence (13 cents) per bag extra, we’ve helped to change the life of a farmer in Bolivia.
His last email said “I can’t wait to hear Stephen’s voice next time he visits.” — a wish he may come to regret.
Now it’s your turn — tell me a story about the coffee you’re drinking.
Follow me on Twitter for more insights: @clogish
Enjoyed this article?
You can send a bitcoin tip, specifically for this article, here:
138GZ3gSeXrZczCpryDCWJGtK3U3mCQ7ry
