Fairtrade Foundation, UK

Tadesse Meskela relaxes with a cup of coffee in the bustling Café Progresso, one of a new chain of Fair Trade coffee shops that are co-owned by coffee producers and Oxfam. Oromia’s members are indigenous farmers from the rainforest of south-west Ethiopia, growing coffee at altitudes of 1,500 to 2,000 metres. 11 of Oromia’s 74 cooperatives have been Fairtrade certified since May 2000. The cooperative represents 8,963 farmers, who produce 3,000 tonnes of coffee a year.

Whilst for many Europeans the word “Ethiopia” conjures up images of drought and starvation, they are often unaware that the country is also the birthplace of coffee. Ethiopians have been drinking coffee for some 3,000 years and exporting it since the 16^th century. It accounts for up to 65% of the country’s total export earnings. A whopping 1.2 million coffee growers and around 15 million Ethiopians are dependent on coffee for their livelihoods.

But the collapse of international coffee prices made this dependency a dangerous game, with the average coffee farmers’ earnings dropping from $ 1.20/kg to $ 0.40/kg. Tadesse explains that the price crisis made many farmers consider alternative production, such as growing chat, a legal amphetamine-like stimulant. However, the speciality coffee market offered another option and in 1999 the Oromia cooperative was founded by 35 small cooperatives who joined together to export their coffee directly to the West. Oromia supports small producers in becoming economically self-sufficient and to ensure their household food security. “With Fair Trade, coffee farmers in Ethiopia are getting their deserved reward. To simply put it, the picture of unequal dynamics is being reversed day by day, week after week, month after month. And over the past few years, I can see a ray of hope…” explains Tadesse, Oromia’s general manager.

Good practice is the key:

The high quality of the coffee is achieved through organic, chemical-free farming and intercropping to enhance soil fertility. As Tadesse explains, the coffee bushes are interspersed with plants such as cardamom and ginger, fruits such as papaya, mangoes and avocadoes, and root crops such as sweet potatoes. Acacias and cordias provide shade. The cooperatives that are Fairtrade certified receive a premium on top of the Fair Price to invest in development. Four elementary schools are being constructed along with two health clinics and several coffee processing stations. Future plans are just as exciting explains Tadesse, with quality improvement programmes and the construction of more coffee washing stations as well as a processing plant and warehouse. Finishing the last of his coffee, Tadesse sums it up –“Fair Trade is not just a selling and buying process. It is creating a global family”.