Fair Market Coffee

Fair Market is a ground-breaking new trend. A progressive move this system is a voluntary attempt to provide poor coffee growers with a fair living wage. A radical shift from conventional market driven solutions. Fair Market comes from a European response to years of failed international coffee agreements.

With the help of Transfair International, small farmers organize into democratically run co-operatives. Huge financial and social benefits to the individual farmers come from these co-operatives. The least of which is, Transfair certified coffee guarantees that the coffee co-op earns a minimum price of $1.26 USD per pound of Arabica coffee. Nearly five times the average price of .20 USD in 2003, which was below the cost of production. There are added incentives for obtaining organic certification.

Transfair specifies that a farmer in the system must have a small farm — 2.5 hectares or less. This makes certain that the people benefiting are really the people that need the help. The member farmers of a co-op can jointly own equipment and even processing facilities. If we understand that a coffee farmer, on their own, could never even own a truck to take their coffee cherries to market we can see just how important these benefits are.

Look for the Fair Trade certification when you buy.