Keeping Coffee Farmers in the Business

Juan Jimenez, one of the Guatemalan coffee farmers we buy our coffee from recently made this comment:

"I'd like to renew my farm by planting new seedlings. Higher prices alone aren't enough for us, as our production is continually falling."

Like a lot of coffee farmers around the world, Juan is facing the fact that his coffee trees are not as productive as they used to be.

And given that the production of speciality, high quality arabica coffee we get in Aotearao will continue to fall, we may be in for some trouble in the next few years for want of actually having the stuff to roast and sell ( Or it will be ridiculously expensive!).

The obvious answer is to plant new ones.

Thats just what we plan to help the cooperatives we buy from do.

Bear in mind that these folk don't have access to short-term loans, and the cost of renovation is around US$5,000 per hectare (average coffee farm size around half to one hectare). There is also the down-time of around 3 years before the trees will be producing coffee. All costly stuff for a farmer trying to maintain their livilihood.

So, in following Trade Aid's lead (the folk we visit farmers with and buy all our green coffee from) we we want to find some ways to contribute to the NEXT GENERATION COFFEE FUND.

And we would love your help with ideas on how to do this. While we could put donation boxes in our stores and cafe accounts, we think there are more clever ways of doing this and we would be keen to hear what you think.

While you are musing about this, read the full story here about what is happening - and don't forget to make a comment - our thinking + your comments = a more peoples driven action.

Tags // Fair Trade, Coffee, Farmers

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