Coffee Partners Head to Nicaragua To Take On The Coffee Supply Chain
The CRS’ Cafe Livelihoods Project is on a roll! CRS coffee partners Higher Grounds Trading Company and Cafe Campesino are in Nicaragua right now working with CRS and 40 Nicaraguan coffee farmers to tackle the issue of just how to increase the amount of profit retained by coffee farmers. The meeting, organized as a part of the Cafe Livelihoods project, aims to bring together a representative from each step along the supply chain to explore how growers can have a greater stake in the commercialization of their crop. Read more about the trip from Higher Grounds, Chris Treter.
If you receive the Higher Grounds newletter you’ve already seen that the CRS Nicaraguan Blend is the featured coffee! Don’t forget you can support the same coffee farmers CRS works with in Nicaragua by simply purchasing their coffee.
Tags: cafe livelihoods, Coffee, fair trade
The link “Nicaragua right now” has this this sentence leading the last paragraph:
“Central to it all is strengthening the cooperative structure to combat the large transnationals driven by purchasing coffee at the cheapest price possible.”
My questions:
1. Is it a goal of the CRS to “combat the large transnationals”? If so, why?
2. It appears that it is the Higher Grounds Trading Company’s goal to raise the price the consumer pays for coffee so that the grower’s income increases. Is this a CRS goal, too?
Thank you.
Thanks for the comment, Chuck. Maybe it would be best to start with what IS the goal of CRS, and that would be to assist the poor and vulnerable overseas and to work with Catholics in the U.S. to live their faith in solidarity with the poor overseas.
From our experience working with small-scale coffee farmers overseas we feel that the Fair Trade market is the best option for farmers living in poverty to begin to improve their lives. One of the Fair Trade principles is having farmers organized in cooperatives, which is beneficial because it allows the farmers to sell their coffee as one entity, reaching greater economies of scale and having more leverage in the market. It also involves farmers in the decision making process of the cooperative, as well as helps them learn more about the exporting process. Very important activities that help farmers learn skills to help them take control of their own livelihoods and prepare them for negotiations with any coffee buyer, whether they’re a large corporation or small, local company.
We partner with Higher Grounds Trading Company. I can’t speak to all their motivations for supporting cooperatives and would welcome you to ask them directly to clarify any questions resulting from that statement. However, I can say they have helped organize and support many coffee cooperatives over the years and we’re fortunate that we are able to benefit from their experience while working with farmer cooperatives overseas.
Regarding your second question, I don’t think anyone wants to raise the price of coffee to consumers. However, a part of the goal is to increase the amount of value that remains with the coffee farmers as a way to increase their income. I say “a part of the goal” because I want to be clear that price is just as important as say, long-term relationships with buyers, which is another principle of Fair Trade. From CRS’ perspective, in supporting the long-term development of farmers living in poverty, a better price can only begin to lead to income security if it comes with a long-term partner/buyer. For all the principles of Fair Trade, I suggest checking out our “What is Fair Trade” resource at http://www.crsfairtrade.org/resources/. This may help to understand how Fair Trade can help us achieve our goal of promoting long-term development through all the Fair Trade principles.
But, back to the goal of increasing farmer’s income by increasing the amount of value that remains with the farmer. This may seem like supply chain jargon, but really, if you analyze the coffee supply chain, it’s possible to find ways to make adjustments so that farmers earn a higher income without raising the price to consumers. One way of doing that is seeing how farmers can perform more of the processing of the coffee bean at the source so they can sell the beans to the buyer at a higher price. This may simply be the cooperative weighing and bagging the beans themselves rather than outsourcing this task, or on a grander scale, it could mean the cooperative considers roasting and packaging their own coffee and selling a finished product to buyers in the U.S. In each case, the final cost of the product hasn’t changed for the consumer, but the income for the farmers has increased.
And this is our ultimate goal, helping those living in poverty get the resources they need to build their capacity and work toward a better future for themselves and their families.