NICARAGUA: COFFEE WITH A CONSCIENCE- LWR COFFEE PROJECT
My J-Term Visit with Coffee Farmers in Nicaragua
For my January term course this year I made a week-long visit to Nicaragua with the to learn more about Fair Trade and the lives of small-scale coffee farmers. My trip was made possible by a scholarship for seminarians to go on Lutheran World Relief study visits. I traveled with a delegation of 20 people sponsored by Lutheran World Relief and the Center for Global Education of Augsburg College. Representatives from Equal Exchange, a Fair Trade organization that imports coffee, tea and cocoa, were also with the group. We heard from several people working with farming cooperatives, and the positive impact Fair Trade has had on their lives. We spent two nights with a gracious family from a coffee farming cooperative. I joined the nine year old son Julito (see picture) in picking coffee from the trees. We were able to observe all the steps involved in producing the coffee, which I will attempt to summarize. After picking the coffee, it is brought in burlap bags down to a Wet Mill, where it is de-pulped. Later it is brought to a Dry Mill where it is preserved and then cupped and tested for quality.
Coffee is a vital source of income for hundreds of thousands of small-scale farmers and their families in some of the poorest countries in the world. In Nicaragua, coffee has been a leading export and one of the pillars of the national economy. Consequently, coffee growing communities have been devastated as the world market for coffee collapsed from $1.40 per pound in 1999 to just 45¢ in the summer of 2001. Prices have gained some ground in the past two years, but years of low prices have caused massive disruption in farming communities. As a consequence, rural incomes have plummeted, thousands of jobs have been lost and many people are migrating into the cities or out of the country. It is estimated that approximately 300,000 Nicaraguans, many of them coffee farmers, have migrated to Costa Rica to look for work.
“When small-scale farmers can’t get a fair price for their coffee, it has a ripple effect in their communities, their country and even the world,” said Aaron Dawson, Equal Exchange Interfaith Program representative on the trip. “Without a stable income, they can’t afford to invest in their farms, they can’t pay for their children’s education, they can’t afford medicine and they can’t plan for the future.”
Meanwhile in the U.S., the ELCA is part of a movement promoting an alternative: Fair Trade Certified coffee. The coffee is imported by Equal Exchange, a worker-owned cooperative founded to create a more equitable model of trade with small-scale farmers. The company imported its first container of coffee from Nicaragua in 1986, launching “Café Nica”. In 1991, Equal Exchange became the first coffee trader in the U.S. to adopt internationally recognized Fair Trade standards. Today, Equal Exchange is one of the few companies that follows the Fair Trade standards of TransFair USA, an independent certifier, on 100% of their coffees.
Since 1996 Equal Exchange has worked in partnership with Lutheran World Relief to promote Fair Trade to U.S. Lutherans. Lutheran World Relief has funded a number of coffee farming initiatives in the region, including training for Cecocafen women members who run an eco-tourism project that hosted the delegation in farmers’ homes. In 2005 Lutheran World Relief and Equal Exchange launched Organic Sisters’ Blend, a blend containing Nicaraguan coffee, honoring women coffee farmers and U.S. Lutheran women who promote Fair Trade in their communities. Equal Exchange’s Interfaith Program also works with other faith-based relief, development and human right organizations.
Does Fair Trade work? This is the frequent question I asked myself while I was in Nicaragua, and I’ve been asked since I’ve been back. My answer is: Yes. Reason #1- Perhaps most importantly, given low market prices, Fair Trade ensures farmers a fair price, Equal Exchange ensures a minimum of $1.41 per pound of organic coffee. For the high quality coffee which comes from their cooperative partners in Nicaragua, the company often pays considerably more. For small-scale farmers, a fair price is just the beginning of the benefits of Fair Trade. “We do not want people to buy our coffee, to pay a fair price, because we are poor. We want you to buy our coffee because of its quality,” said Blanca Rosa Morales, the President of Cecocafen, the coffee co-op visited by the group. “And this quality translates into many other qualities: not just the quality in your cup, but our quality of life, the environment, and of our children’s education – it is total quality.”
Reason #2- By trading directly with farmer co-ops, Equal Exchange cuts out layers of “middlemen,” who small scale farmers are usually forced to sell to because they are isolated from markets. This ensures that more money reaches the people who do the hard work of growing and harvesting coffee. Reason #3- Another important Fair Trade standard is to provide the cooperatives with loans so that the cooperatives can pay their members for the coffee well before the coffee is shipped to the U.S. This provides the farmers with funds between harvests – money for farm improvements, seedlings, and training programs, as well as family expenses such as medicines, clothing and school supplies – helping them to stay out of debt. In 2005, Equal Exchange arranged for pre-shipment financing of $1.7 million to its cooperative partners. This was one of the most frequent benefits of Fair Trade that we heard in the cooperatives we visited. Especially since the Central American Coffee Crisis hit Nicaragua about six years ago, where sales went down significantly, the instability of the coffee market haunted our hosts. One story that is still burning inside me is a testimony about a nearby community that suffered the deaths of 25 children because of the Coffee Crisis. Therefore, Fair Trade in some instances even means the difference between life and death.
During our time we also experienced a huge day in the history of Nicaragua, as Daniel Ortega was inaugurated president. He was the president elected by the revolutionary Sandanista party after the revolution in the 1980’s, until the CIA sponsored Contras took him out. We watched the ceremony and speech on TV, since it was in Managua and we were in Matagalpa, but the city was sounding with fireworks. In his speech he spoke about how his presidency is for the campesinos, the small scale farmers. He signed the ALBA agreement with Venezuela and other countries, which counters the disadvantages of CAFTA. Most of the areas we visited were of Ortega´s Sandanista party and have hope in the new government. It was quite an exciting time to be in Nicaragua.
After this trip, when I drink coffee I can remember the nine year old boy Julito picking each coffee cherry off of the tree, and all the subsequent labor that was invested in it. This is the type of solidarity that Fair Trade offers. I will close with a reflection on the sermon we heard from the Lutheran bishop of Nicaragua who talked about the star that the Magi followed, and the ways that God’s revelation encounters us. I saw Christ’s presence revealed in countless ways in the hope and resilience in the people we met in Nicaragua, which had a profound impact on my faith, and will certainly have an impact on my future ministry.
Please take a look at my trip pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/JoshEbener/Nicaragua
To get a day by day synopsis of our trip, visit our online study diary at: http://www.lwr.org/studydiary/itinerary.asp?VisitID=13
For more information about Equal Exchange, Fair Trade and Equal Exchange’s Interfaith Program visit http://www.equalexchange.com/, or call (774) 776-7366. For more information about the Lutheran World Relief Coffee Project, visit http://www.lwr.org/coffee/index.asp, or call (410) 230-2800.
My J-Term Visit with Coffee Farmers in Nicaragua
For my January term course this year I made a week-long visit to Nicaragua with the to learn more about Fair Trade and the lives of small-scale coffee farmers. My trip was made possible by a scholarship for seminarians to go on Lutheran World Relief study visits. I traveled with a delegation of 20 people sponsored by Lutheran World Relief and the Center for Global Education of Augsburg College. Representatives from Equal Exchange, a Fair Trade organization that imports coffee, tea and cocoa, were also with the group. We heard from several people working with farming cooperatives, and the positive impact Fair Trade has had on their lives. We spent two nights with a gracious family from a coffee farming cooperative. I joined the nine year old son Julito (see picture) in picking coffee from the trees. We were able to observe all the steps involved in producing the coffee, which I will attempt to summarize. After picking the coffee, it is brought in burlap bags down to a Wet Mill, where it is de-pulped. Later it is brought to a Dry Mill where it is preserved and then cupped and tested for quality.
Coffee is a vital source of income for hundreds of thousands of small-scale farmers and their families in some of the poorest countries in the world. In Nicaragua, coffee has been a leading export and one of the pillars of the national economy. Consequently, coffee growing communities have been devastated as the world market for coffee collapsed from $1.40 per pound in 1999 to just 45¢ in the summer of 2001. Prices have gained some ground in the past two years, but years of low prices have caused massive disruption in farming communities. As a consequence, rural incomes have plummeted, thousands of jobs have been lost and many people are migrating into the cities or out of the country. It is estimated that approximately 300,000 Nicaraguans, many of them coffee farmers, have migrated to Costa Rica to look for work.
“When small-scale farmers can’t get a fair price for their coffee, it has a ripple effect in their communities, their country and even the world,” said Aaron Dawson, Equal Exchange Interfaith Program representative on the trip. “Without a stable income, they can’t afford to invest in their farms, they can’t pay for their children’s education, they can’t afford medicine and they can’t plan for the future.”
Meanwhile in the U.S., the ELCA is part of a movement promoting an alternative: Fair Trade Certified coffee. The coffee is imported by Equal Exchange, a worker-owned cooperative founded to create a more equitable model of trade with small-scale farmers. The company imported its first container of coffee from Nicaragua in 1986, launching “Café Nica”. In 1991, Equal Exchange became the first coffee trader in the U.S. to adopt internationally recognized Fair Trade standards. Today, Equal Exchange is one of the few companies that follows the Fair Trade standards of TransFair USA, an independent certifier, on 100% of their coffees.
Since 1996 Equal Exchange has worked in partnership with Lutheran World Relief to promote Fair Trade to U.S. Lutherans. Lutheran World Relief has funded a number of coffee farming initiatives in the region, including training for Cecocafen women members who run an eco-tourism project that hosted the delegation in farmers’ homes. In 2005 Lutheran World Relief and Equal Exchange launched Organic Sisters’ Blend, a blend containing Nicaraguan coffee, honoring women coffee farmers and U.S. Lutheran women who promote Fair Trade in their communities. Equal Exchange’s Interfaith Program also works with other faith-based relief, development and human right organizations.
Does Fair Trade work? This is the frequent question I asked myself while I was in Nicaragua, and I’ve been asked since I’ve been back. My answer is: Yes. Reason #1- Perhaps most importantly, given low market prices, Fair Trade ensures farmers a fair price, Equal Exchange ensures a minimum of $1.41 per pound of organic coffee. For the high quality coffee which comes from their cooperative partners in Nicaragua, the company often pays considerably more. For small-scale farmers, a fair price is just the beginning of the benefits of Fair Trade. “We do not want people to buy our coffee, to pay a fair price, because we are poor. We want you to buy our coffee because of its quality,” said Blanca Rosa Morales, the President of Cecocafen, the coffee co-op visited by the group. “And this quality translates into many other qualities: not just the quality in your cup, but our quality of life, the environment, and of our children’s education – it is total quality.”
Reason #2- By trading directly with farmer co-ops, Equal Exchange cuts out layers of “middlemen,” who small scale farmers are usually forced to sell to because they are isolated from markets. This ensures that more money reaches the people who do the hard work of growing and harvesting coffee. Reason #3- Another important Fair Trade standard is to provide the cooperatives with loans so that the cooperatives can pay their members for the coffee well before the coffee is shipped to the U.S. This provides the farmers with funds between harvests – money for farm improvements, seedlings, and training programs, as well as family expenses such as medicines, clothing and school supplies – helping them to stay out of debt. In 2005, Equal Exchange arranged for pre-shipment financing of $1.7 million to its cooperative partners. This was one of the most frequent benefits of Fair Trade that we heard in the cooperatives we visited. Especially since the Central American Coffee Crisis hit Nicaragua about six years ago, where sales went down significantly, the instability of the coffee market haunted our hosts. One story that is still burning inside me is a testimony about a nearby community that suffered the deaths of 25 children because of the Coffee Crisis. Therefore, Fair Trade in some instances even means the difference between life and death.
During our time we also experienced a huge day in the history of Nicaragua, as Daniel Ortega was inaugurated president. He was the president elected by the revolutionary Sandanista party after the revolution in the 1980’s, until the CIA sponsored Contras took him out. We watched the ceremony and speech on TV, since it was in Managua and we were in Matagalpa, but the city was sounding with fireworks. In his speech he spoke about how his presidency is for the campesinos, the small scale farmers. He signed the ALBA agreement with Venezuela and other countries, which counters the disadvantages of CAFTA. Most of the areas we visited were of Ortega´s Sandanista party and have hope in the new government. It was quite an exciting time to be in Nicaragua.
After this trip, when I drink coffee I can remember the nine year old boy Julito picking each coffee cherry off of the tree, and all the subsequent labor that was invested in it. This is the type of solidarity that Fair Trade offers. I will close with a reflection on the sermon we heard from the Lutheran bishop of Nicaragua who talked about the star that the Magi followed, and the ways that God’s revelation encounters us. I saw Christ’s presence revealed in countless ways in the hope and resilience in the people we met in Nicaragua, which had a profound impact on my faith, and will certainly have an impact on my future ministry.
Please take a look at my trip pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/JoshEbener/Nicaragua
To get a day by day synopsis of our trip, visit our online study diary at: http://www.lwr.org/studydiary/itinerary.asp?VisitID=13
For more information about Equal Exchange, Fair Trade and Equal Exchange’s Interfaith Program visit http://www.equalexchange.com/, or call (774) 776-7366. For more information about the Lutheran World Relief Coffee Project, visit http://www.lwr.org/coffee/index.asp, or call (410) 230-2800.
