Costa Rica Coffee and Fair trade
Here is some info that may be useful about the coffee indusrty in Costa Rica:
Isabel and Adolfo, Costa Rica
Raw coffee beans, better known as red cherries.Photo: OxfamGB.
Isabel and Adolfo are married with four children and are aged 31 and 32. The couple cultivate coffee and rear cows for milk and cheese on their two-hectare farm. Coffee provides 70%of their income.
”If the family stays together, it protects the children.”
Adolfo and Isabel are passionate about their children. They want to give them a good education and also want to preserve their close-knit family life on the coffee farm where each child already has his or her own little patch of coffee plants.
“I hope consumers will buy more Fairtrade coffee so we can maintain ourselves like this,” says Adolfo. “If it wasn't for Fairtrade, with prices so low at the moment, we would get deeper and deeper into debt. I know other producers who are getting into debt. Some abandon coffee altogether and then the father seeks work in the city or in a hotel, or in the United States. When that happens the family is split up. If the family stays together it protects the children against problems such as drug addiction.”
Adolfo and Isabel are members of Coopeldos which exports part of its crop to the Fairtrade market. For these sales, the couple get a price guaranteed to cover the cost of production.The rest of their crop, however, attracts a much lower price.
Coopeldos would like to export more to the Fairtrade market but there’s not enough consumer demand yet.
All groups of small farmers who supply to the Fairtrade market must be organised in a democratically run group like Coopeldos. Adolfo's father was one of the founders of the co-operative 30 years ago. Before this, farmers sold to private middlemen and had to go to San José to get paid. This involved two days of travelling and it could take up to six months before they were paid. The co-operative pays farmers on the day they deliver their crop.
Fairtrade farmers stories courtesy of the Fairtrade Foundation, UK.
http://www.oxfam.org.au/campaigns/mtf/coffee/stories/index.html
Isabel and Adolfo, Costa Rica
Raw coffee beans, better known as red cherries.Photo: OxfamGB.
Isabel and Adolfo are married with four children and are aged 31 and 32. The couple cultivate coffee and rear cows for milk and cheese on their two-hectare farm. Coffee provides 70%of their income.
”If the family stays together, it protects the children.”
Adolfo and Isabel are passionate about their children. They want to give them a good education and also want to preserve their close-knit family life on the coffee farm where each child already has his or her own little patch of coffee plants.
“I hope consumers will buy more Fairtrade coffee so we can maintain ourselves like this,” says Adolfo. “If it wasn't for Fairtrade, with prices so low at the moment, we would get deeper and deeper into debt. I know other producers who are getting into debt. Some abandon coffee altogether and then the father seeks work in the city or in a hotel, or in the United States. When that happens the family is split up. If the family stays together it protects the children against problems such as drug addiction.”
Adolfo and Isabel are members of Coopeldos which exports part of its crop to the Fairtrade market. For these sales, the couple get a price guaranteed to cover the cost of production.The rest of their crop, however, attracts a much lower price.
Coopeldos would like to export more to the Fairtrade market but there’s not enough consumer demand yet.
All groups of small farmers who supply to the Fairtrade market must be organised in a democratically run group like Coopeldos. Adolfo's father was one of the founders of the co-operative 30 years ago. Before this, farmers sold to private middlemen and had to go to San José to get paid. This involved two days of travelling and it could take up to six months before they were paid. The co-operative pays farmers on the day they deliver their crop.
Fairtrade farmers stories courtesy of the Fairtrade Foundation, UK.
http://www.oxfam.org.au/campaigns/mtf/coffee/stories/index.html
posted by shazza at 8/07/2006 05:59:00 PM
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