As a leader at PRODECOOP, one of Nicaragua's largest coffee cooperative networks, Merling Preza has watched Fairtrade grow from grassroots handshake agreements into a globally certified system where producers hold real decision-making power. Our Executive Director Amanda Archila sat down with Merling to hear her story and learn why after more than 30 years, she continues to “fight with the sack on her shoulder – but now with more tools and experience.”

You can watch the full interview here

You were part of the very beginning of the fair trade movement - can you share your personal history with it? How did you become involved?

Fair trade helped shape who I am today. I started working with cooperatives in northern Nicaragua, living alongside producers and seeing firsthand what it meant to grow coffee under extremely difficult conditions – remote areas, no infrastructure, and prices so low they kept farmers in extreme poverty. My main objective was to figure out how to get their coffee into the  market.

That's how I found the fair trade movement: a market where small producers could sell at a fairer price. International coffee prices at the time were very low and producers were receiving only about 25 cents per pound, but buyers in Europe and the US were purchasing "solidarity coffee" as an early expression of what would become a global system. I traveled to Europe as a seller, where our producers helped create the first producer registry in the Netherlands – an early roster of vetted organizations and the foundation of what fair trade would eventually become. There was no formal certification yet, just guiding criteria and people deeply committed to making it work.

Fairtrade International is part of a long history that involves many groups and individuals fighting for a just world. From your perspective, how did the global fair trade movement begin?

The movement emerged to address the structural problems farmers faced: dependence on intermediaries, exploitation, no access to financing, and no negotiating power. The primary goal was reducing rural poverty. Though fair trade began as an international solidarity movement, it took shape differently across countries, with national initiatives operating independently – until a turning point came with integration into one global system, then called FLO, now Fairtrade International. It was a challenging process, but a critical one. It changed the role of producers entirely. Through the creation of three producer networks, we became co-owners of the system, with seats at the table and real influence over decisions. Today, certification serves as the backbone, demonstrating the economic, social, and environmental standards we uphold.

That said, the macroeconomic and geopolitical context makes this work increasingly difficult. What is important is the resilience of producers –despite climate change and mounting hardships, producers are still here, still producing coffee. Fairtrade standards help protect their rights to a quality life while they do the work. 

What are your most powerful memories – the moments of success and the main challenges?

It's hard for me to choose, because there are so many powerful memories, many of them deeply emotional. Two moments stand out to me personally. The first is what I call "carrying the coffee sack on my shoulder" when I traveled across Europe to promote coffee from small producers in supermarkets, churches, and grassroots networks. We carried their message: the difficulty of producing in remote places, the struggle to reach market. And we were met by people passionate about making trade more just – advocates who volunteered their time simply because they believed it was right.

The second is watching our sales grow, not just for Nicaragua, but across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. That growth validated our efforts and proved it was worth carrying the sack. The biggest challenge was breaking the paradigm that small producers lacked the capacity to export quality goods – a narrative deliberately used to keep us out of markets. It took many years, but we changed it. Watching consumers recognize our products and seeing that translate into real market growth across all three producer network regions remains one of our greatest achievements. 

With those memories, how can we act in our world today? Are there characteristics of the current world that resemble that era when the fair trade movement began?

Realistically, we cannot continue acting as we did in the past. Reaching consumers is still a challenge, but these are new consumers with different demands and more actors competing for their attention. On the producer side, climate change, volatile markets, and the increasing difficulty of both producing and commercializing continue to persist. What this requires is deeper commitment from the industry to keep buying Fairtrade. Fairtrade remains a differentiator, and for those who commit, it generates real additional value. The industry is still our most important ally, because it can demonstrate the difference to consumers in ways we as producers cannot do alone.

We as producers and producer networks continue to work hand in hand to be more competitive and resilient. We are still fighting “with the sack on our shoulder”, as we were in the early 90s, but with more tools and more experience. The essence of fair trade is still there, and its potential to improve the lives of thousands of farming families and generate more just relationships throughout the entire system is stronger than ever. That is exactly why we must work together to keep convincing consumers to choose Fairtrade.

How do you envision the future of fair trade, and what is the role of leaders in the commercial world?

My hope is for fair trade to become the norm in the market – better quality products, better quality of life, produced with social and environmental integrity that take into consideration the workers and families who live off coffee farming.  

For me, the role of commercial leaders is very important and fundamental. Because they are the voices that are heard throughout the supply chain – and the market listens in general, as well as the consumers. If commercial leaders become ambassadors of Fairtrade in the market, producers and everyone in the supply chain benefit. To keep these products in the market, investment is required. This comes back to the idea that convincing leaders that contributing to the supply chain is essential so that we can invest in the communities. Resources must be distributed in more equitable ways, meaning, Fairtrade minimum prices and premiums to invest in social, environmental, and productive ways. If our commercial leaders are convinced of this, the consumer will follow. That is how Fairtrade sets us apart.