At Fairtrade we are mesmerised by all things coffee, and wanted to share five things we believe you need to know on this special day:

Coffee was the first Fairtrade product

Coffee was the first product to be sold under a Fairtrade label. In 1988, small-scale coffee farmers in Mexico and activists were looking for a way to trade their products more directly, so they launched the Max Havelaar mark in the Netherlands. This was only the beginning.

Today, there are more than 20 Fairtrade product categories, however according to the latest Fairtrade-GlobeScan consumer study, the most recognised Fairtrade product is none other than…coffee.

Coffee is a driving economic force

Coffee is one of the world’s most important commodities with a market value of more than $250 billion. It provides economic benefits at each step of the global value chain that links growers to consumers.

There are currently more than 775,000 smallholder coffee farmers, located in over 20 countries, who are members of Fairtrade certified cooperatives and the volumes they produce total more than 578K metric tonnes. That’s a lot of coffee. 

Coffee production needs to support more women farmers

Women perform the majority of labour in global coffee production - often up to 70 percent of the work from planting to processing - but they own fewer farms and their access to resources such as land, credit, and training is limited compared to men.

Fairtrade’s gender approach supports farming organisations in tackling unequal power relationships – through Fairtrade Standards that prohibit discrimination, Fairtrade Premium projects that directly benefit women, and programmes such as Growing Women in Coffee that encouraged the transfer of coffee bushes to women coffee farmers in Kenya, enabling them to earn an independent income. Promoting fairness for all.  

Coffee nerds, Fairtrade has a dashboard

Fairtrade has an interactive Coffee Dashboard with the latest information available on the Fairtrade coffee sector.

This is the place to learn more about producers and their farms, including global, country, and regional overviews, the key Fairtrade benefits, such as the value of the Fairtrade Premium and how it’s being used, as well data and insights from third party research.  Browse around.    

Coffee is also known as…

There are thousands of ways to say/pronounce coffee, but it’s one of the few beverages also known by its slang and colloquial terms. Here are some examples:

Brew:  refers to a cup of coffee.

Java:  refers to a particularly strong brew.

Joe: refers to coffee as your bestie.

Liquid Gold: used for speciality, high-end coffee.

Mud: used for dark coloured coffee.

Fairtrade coffee, however, is best known by its certifying logo, the FAIRTRADE Mark, which means it has met Fairtrade Standards that incorporate a blend of social, economic, and environmental criteria. Look for it.