The US market leader in providing fair trade coffee, Equal Exchange, has revealed that it will launch its Midwest regional office tomorrow [Thursday] in Madison.
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The opening of the office, which will provide Midwest coffee buyers and drinkers local access to product and education initiatives from Equal Exchange. will be an occasion for founder Rink Dickinson to speak on people-powered business in a profit-maximizing economy.
Last year, Equal Exchange reported record payments of US$960,000 in above-market fair trade premiums to small farmer cooperatives in developing countries. The premium is the difference between the world market price and the fair trade mandated floor price of US$1.26 per pound (US$1.41 if certified organic).
With the conventional market dropping as low as 44 cents, these above-market premiums often make the difference between a developing world family getting by or being forced off the land.
Jack Kloppenburg, professor of rural sociology at UW Madison, added that fair trade markets are a viable means to healthier agricultural relationships between consumers and producers: “The Equal Exchange model is an ideal blueprint for building fair trade in a range of markets from carrots to cotton.”
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