By Graham Smout

Mmmmm! That smooth Espresso taste, but where does it come from and what hardships do people go through to give you the coffee that you know and love?

Coffee is produced in Latin America, the Caribbean, in Asia and in Africa. The main producer is Brazil which produces about a quarter of the world’s coffee.

Since the early 1950’s, these countries have been persuaded by buyers to give up farming more traditional crops in favour to producing coffee. This has lead to overproduction, plummeting market prices and sweatshop working conditions.

Coffee prices in 2003 were at an all time low. The market price for 500g of coffee was NZD $0.80 but the same amount of coffee sold for about NZD $15.00 in the shops!

Despite the incredibly harsh working conditions, producers receive none of this massive profit margin.

Buy fair trade
As a consumer you have a choice. You can either buy “free trade coffee” for a cheaper price, and which has been produced under sweat shop conditions, or you can pay a little more and buy “fair trade coffee”.

Fair trade coffee allows farmers to receive enough money from their crops for them to survive and not fall into poverty.

A recent survey has shown that around half of the coffee producers in Guatemala only receive about NZD $6.00 a day for picking about 45 kilograms of coffee!

Fair trade requires that all producers earn at least NZD $5.00 for every kilo of coffee produced.

So next time you decide to grab a quick espresso or mochachino, think of those poverty stricken farmers and buy “fair trade coffee!”

Learn More
Global Exchange: Fair Trade Coffee
Trade Aid: Fair Trade

Take Action

• Find Fair Trade suppliers in your area :Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand: Fair Trade Product Finder and
  Trade Aid: Where to buy fair trade
• Next time you drink coffee, make sure it’s fair trade. If they don’t have it in your local cafe… ask that they start serving it. Do the same in your supermarket – ask the management to stock fair trade coffee, tea and chocolate for starters.
• Buy a bar of Fair Trade chocolate as a present.
• Show your support for Fair Trade by encouraging friends and family to buy Fair Trade products.
• Fair Trade is more than coffee and cocoa. Many products are being made under fair working conditions. Check out more of our articles on fair trade.

This article was written as part of Global Focus, a collaborative project of Tearaway Magazine and the Global Education Centre. It was first published in Tearaway magazine and is reprinted here with their permission

Photographer: Eva Lawrence

This entry was posted on Monday, August 8th, 2005 at 8 August 2005 and is filed under Trade, Society.

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