Fair Trade Coffee

Fair trade coffee is often misinterpreted as made from inferior beans. However Fair trade coffee is as good as any traditional coffee. So what makes this a different type of coffee? It’s just the fact that the main objective is to protect the coffee farmers by eliminating the middlemen and the people who do all the hard work are taken into consideration

The Traditional Coffee Middleman
Conventionally, between the coffee harvesting and the consumer there exists a long and wide-ranging process involving large number of middlemen who in order to have their cut don’t leave much for the farmer. Thus fair trade coffee organizations work by paying the farmers directly at a fair price that has already been decided. Not only it helps farmers become financially strong but also ensures sustainability.

Fair Trade Organization
Fair trade organizations have been built on the root levels so that they are able to communicate with the farmers directly and provide them with facilities like fair prices as well as loans at lower interest rates. Most of the farmers or individual producers are not very well educated thus they are strained into selling to middlemen at very low rates.

Not only do these organizations ensure fair pay, they also make sure that the methods used by the farmers to harvest fair trade coffee meet certain environmental standards. Thus these organizations teach the local farmers environment friendly methods of producing coffee as well as fertilization. They are also taught methods of enhancing the nutrient content of the soil intact so that it benefits the local vegetation as well.

Economics of Coffee
Thus fair trade coffee has proved to be boon for the economies that are dependent on local agriculture. Obviously the higher income of rural population results in a trickle down effect to local infrastructures such as health care and education. Whenever you drink fair trade coffee you will feel the appreciation of having paid a fair price for your coffee commensurate the cost of coffee production and to the farmers who grew your coffee beans.