Coffee Tour Dispatch #3 - Ethiopia: Four years of remarkable change.

The last five days have seen us covering thousands of miles of Ethiopian road as we met with coffee farmers. From the lush shade-grown coffee region of Yiracheffe in the south, across to the mountainous areas of Harar in the mid-east – it has been our great privilege to sit down with dozens of coffee farmers and their cooperatives and hear how Fair Trade has been making some big changes in their lives.

The great thing about this Ethiopia trip is the comparison I can make from the last trip of December 2005, as we have basically re-traced that trip's steps, adding on a few new groups to visit.

The previous years harvest was not a great one for both Yirgacheffee and Harar farmers. The changing weather patterns meant rain came when they didn't want it, then didn't come when needed! This years coffee crop however is going to be very bountiful with the harvest well underway in Yirgacheffe, and Harar about to begin a month late in December.

Alongside the excellent coffee we have seen being processed, one of the huge improvements has been in school education for all primary cooperatives we visited. It is the dream of every coffee farmer to give their children a decent education. Since our last visit we have been blown away to see all groups at least double the size of their school buildings and the number of children going through school (I will have a detailed report of this on return to NZ for those who might be interested).

These developments have been funded through the use of their Fair Trade premium.

Every season, on top of the prices farmers, each group receives USD$0.10/pound of coffee sold that the cooperative must collectively decide how to spend. Some other uses have been: health clinics, washing stations for coffee processing, and road improvements to name but a few. But by a long country mile, farmers spend this on building schools.

Group after group, farmers tell us the same thing: Since joining the Oromia Union, and their primary cooperative started receiving the Fair Trade premium, developments have come that they could not dream possible.

It is always heartening to hear farmers themselves talk so positively about the effects of Fair Trade.

Four years on in Ethiopia, Fair Trade is making a world of difference – we at Peoples Coffee (Thanks to our customers!) are proud to be part of that change.

Tags // Harar, Fair Trade

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