 Equal Exchange / Fair Trade
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Equal Exchange, Fair Trade Certified and Devine help to stabilize and boost the income
for poor farmers and their families in developing countries.
Coffee is big business -- it's one of the most heavily traded
commodities in the world. But for the majority of small coffee farmers, who live in rural communities in some of the poorest
countries in the world, the benefits are small. The chain of events that leads from the farm to your cup is long and expensive.
Producers, creditors, exporters, brokers, and a cast of middlemen -- known to Latin American farmers as "coyotes"
-- can all come between you and the farmers before you get to sip your morning brew. Isolated from markets, coffee farmers
never know what they'll get for their crops as they struggle just to make a simple living. The producers of a rich crop
are often trapped in poverty.
Using the internationally recognized fair trade standards, Equal Exchange seeks to balance the inequities found in the conventional coffee trade. Coffee is a leading source of income for the developing world. Through fair trade, it can be a delicious and powerful tool to bring about positive change for small farmers and their families. Equal Exchange was founded in 1986 to create a new approach to trade, one that includes informed consumers, honest and fair trade relationships and cooperative principles. As a worker-owned co-op, we have accomplished this by offering consumers fairly traded gourmet coffee direct from small-scale farmer co-ops in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Certified Organic; Our organic coffees are grown by farmers who manage the soil in a sustainable agricultural system promoting natural cycles and controls, rather than chemical pesticides and fertilizers, to develope the beans to their fullest potential. By paying a premium to these farmers for there certified organic beans, we are supporting their commitment to the environment. Fair Trade Certified. In 1991, Equal Exchange became the first U.S. company to officially adopt European fair trade standards as guiding principles. With the recent establishment of TransFair USA, an independent certifier belonging to the international association of Fair Trade Labeling Organizations, we proudly sell more "Fair Trade Certified" coffee than any other company in North America. As a fair trade organization, Equal Exchange is committed to these principles, not just in our products, but at the core of our mission and the way we do business. Divine, the first farmer -owned chocolate company in the world! The Fair Trade Certified cocoa beans that go into every bar of Divine Chocolate are grown by Kuapa Kokoo, a 45,000 member farmer owned cooperative in Ghana. Not only do these farmers receive Fair Trade premiums for their cocoa beans, they are part owner of the Divine Chocolate brand. Divine chocolate is made with premium quality single-origin cocoa beans and comes in a variety of blissful recipes. Reprinted as excerpts from the Equal Exchange and Divine published brochures. "Fair Trade Certified" is a registered trademark/logo. |
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