Seattle-based coffeehouse giant Starbucks Coffee Company has pledged to invest in a pilot collaborative quality programme to help small-scale Mexican coffee producers expand their access to the global marketplace and increase the availability of high quality fair trade certified coffee.
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Ultimately, the project seeks to strengthen trading relationships between small-farmer fair trade cooperatives and coffee roasters in the US specialty coffee industry.
Together with the philanthropic Ford Foundation, Starbucks will donate US$250,000 to the pilot programme for its first year, which will be used to provide technical assistance and employ dedicated personnel. Starbucks will also offer market information and quality feedback.
Development charity Oxfam America and CEPCO, Mexico’s largest cooperative of small-scale coffee producers, will implement the innovative partnership in the state of Oaxaca, working with farmers on all aspects of post-harvest quality control. One of the key elements of this work will be the introduction or refinement of coffee tasting, “cupping”, an essential skill for small farmer organisations to develop in order to better manage coffee quality. Participating farmers will be trained to teach other farmers the same techniques.
With coffee prices at historic lows, farmers who produce high quality coffee are better positioned to earn higher prices and generate greater income for their families. Oxfam America has worked with small-farmer coffee cooperatives for more than 30 years, and believes that quality is one of the major challenges to increasing the amount of coffee sold at fair trade prices. This partnership will support small-scale farmers’ efforts to redefine `quality coffee’ to mean coffee that is environmentally, socially and economically beneficial, in addition to being high quality.
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By GlobalData“Oxfam America is committed to finding new and innovative ways to secure a greater market share for small-scale coffee farmers – CEPCO is incredibly well positioned to pioneer the implementation of this effort,” said Raymond C. Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America.
Jaime Hernandez, general manager of CEPCO, added: “CEPCO’s coffee farmers are hardworking and they’re very proud of the coffee they produce. In addition to feeling responsible for making a product that is of high quality, clean and tastes good, they know that coffee is their livelihood, part of their lives. We’re aiming to increase coffee consistency so we can always offer the same high quality coffee. We’ll be able to ask for the right price for our good work too – improving our business.”
In the fair trade system, farmers form and participate in democratically run cooperatives that sell their beans at guaranteed prices. The minimum fair trade price the buyer currently pays for non-organic green coffee is US$1.26/lb and US$1.41 for organic green coffee. In addition, fair trade seeks to create direct trade links between farmers and their customers, to provide access to credit and crop financing, and to promote sustainable farming practices. Fair Trade Certification provides consumers with a guarantee that the fair trade price was paid for the product, and that it was purchased from one of the cooperatives listed in the Fair Trade Labelling Organisation’s International (FLO) registry.
