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Meet Fair Trade Coffee Farmers

Coffee growers all over the world seek the opportunity to sell their coffee through Fair Trade. Oxfam America has been working for several years with growers in El Salvador and Mexico, helping them organize as cooperatives and to qualify for Fair Trade certification. Read about the impact that this work and Fair Trade have had in El Salvador and Mexico:

Members of FESACORA, a network of agricultural cooperatives.

Farmers living in rural areas of El Salvador do not face an easy life: Over 60% of rural Salvadorans live in poverty, and do not benefit from any significant government investment in agriculture programs or community services. In just one important example of this, UNICEF estimates that 60 percent of people living in rural areas of El Salvador lack access to safe drinking water. Small-scale coffee farmers in El Salvador, faced with poverty and low coffee prices, organize cooperatives to share resources and improve their opportunities to earn a better future for their families.
Since 1992, Oxfam America has helped support the efforts of the Salvadoran Federation of Agrarian Reform Cooperatives, (known in El Salvador as FESACORA), a network of agricultural cooperatives organized following the government's Agrarian Reform Act of 1980. FESACORA currently consists of 13,598 individual members grouped in 118 democratically managed cooperatives in El Salvador. It represents the interests of these farmers and their cooperatives in fighting for legislation conducive to small-scale growers of coffee and other crops, and provides training and other assistance for cooperative staff.

Oxfam America and FESACORA first explored the prospects for Fair Trade for their coffee production in 1992 and 1993. Today, FESACORA cooperatives sell a small percentage of their coffee production (roughly 152,000 pounds per year) under Fair Trade terms to Equal Exchange, a coffee roaster and pioneer in Fair Trade coffee in the United States.

Since coffee cultivation was introduced to El Salvador over 100 years ago, its production and export has been dominated by a handful of wealthy leandowners who captured most of the profit. Much of the labor was supplied by landless workers, who suffered poor living and working conditions, lack of access to education, and few prospects for improvement. In 1980, the government of El Salvador instituted a land reform program to help these workers, who then formed cooperative organizations to share the costs and benefits of coffee production.Shared profits from coffee production go towards funding a community school and store in Las Lajas.

One of these cooperative is located in Las Lajas, located in the western region of El Salvador, in the Municipality of Coatepeque, Department of Santa Ana. The population in this section of Coatepeque is just over 3000; 245 of whom are members of the Las Lajas Cooperative (200 men and 45 women). The Las Lajas Cooperative was established in 1980 and became affiliated with FESACORA in 1984. Currently the cooperative comprises 843 hectares of land - of which 607 hectares are devoted to coffee cultivation. The Las Lajas cooperative exports its coffee through UCRAPROBEX (the Union of Agrarian Reform Cooperatives of Producers, Processors and Exporters of Coffee). This organization was formed in 1988 by Salvadoran cooperatives in order to serve as their licensed export agent. Ninety percent of the coffee grown in Las Lajas is exported to the United States - the other 10 percent is exported to Germany.

The Las Lajas Cooperative has brought to the community many basic services, and continues to make social investments to improve the lives of all the people living there thanks partly to profits realized from Fair Trade arrangements with U.S. and European customers. However, since most of the coffee the Las Lajas Cooperative sells is on the open coffee market, recent low prices are constraining profits and therefore community investments the Las Lajas Cooperative can make this year.

Coffee farmers in Las Lajas benefit from Fair Trade and a strong cooperative organization that has improved the standard of living for all members of the community. In this interview, Oscar Andrade, program officer in Oxfam America's Central America Program, discusses what Fair Trade means to coffee farmer Francisco Aviles Orellana, one of the members of the Las Lajas Cooperative.

What did you do before you joined the cooperative?
Before being a member of the cooperative I was a poor landless day-laborer who worked for the landowners, a Swedish family. With the agrarian reform of 1980, my family and I benefitted with the acquisition of land and then created the cooperative of which we are members.

What does the cooperative do for you, what are the benefits of belonging to the cooperative?
Well, the cooperative has helped us in many respects, for example I have permanent work throughout the year. Through the cooperative we have access to credit to produce 1/3 of a hectare for basic grains for family consumption. In addition there are the earnings from the sale of coffee, part of which are distributed amongst the cooperative members, and part of which serve to subsidize water and other services, such as two teachers for the school. Now, my family has access to basic services such as education, health, clean water, and electricity. Those things don't just benefit only the cooperative members, but the whole community.

Have you been able to increase your coffee sales through the cooperative?

Students attend school thanks to the Las Lajas Cooperative and its involvement in Fair Trade.

Yes, but, since the coffee is produced collectively, it is the cooperative together which benefits. We have thought about planting another 70 hectares with coffee. However, since coffee prices are currently very low, we've decided to postpone the investment. If coffee prices improve, we will plant more.

Tell me about the social services the cooperative has made possible.
As I said before, the benefits have been many, but the most important benefits are having access to education for my children, and access to health services at the community clinic that the cooperative helped to finance. Before we didn't have water in our homes, but the cooperative dug a well and now we have our own water which is paid for by the cooperative. The cooperative has helped all of the community a lot. The clinic serves everyone, the school accepts children from beyond our community and the water arrives to the houses of people that aren't members of the cooperative, so I think that the cooperative has definitely helped the whole community.

What message would you send to coffee drinkers in the United States?
To be conscious that coffee production costs for the producers remain the same (or increase), but that the prices for coffee continue declining, however the consumer always pays a higher and higher price, and this profit stays with the brokers and never is passed on to us. That the North American community look for ways to support cooperatives and small producers. That they visit us in El Salvador so that they know the process and the difficulties and what it really costs to produce coffee and so that they help us to obtain better prices.

The Oaxaca State Coffee Producers Network (CEPCO) was formed in 1989 to protect the interests of small-scale coffee farmers when the Mexican government relinquished state control of the export of coffee, the country's third highest earner of foreign currency (behind oil and tourism). When government and business elites in the coffee-producing state of Oaxaca attempted to regulate coffee production for their own benefit, grassroots organizations responded with alternative plans to help small-scale coffee producers claim their fair share of the profit. Through some shrewd organizing, CEPCO pulled together 20,000 farmers mainly from indigenous communities and sought out alternative marketing plans to cut out exploitative middlemen and export their coffee directly. CEPCO farmers are increasing the percentage of their coffee being sold to the Fair Trade market, because it guarantees the growers a fair price that will support all the member families.

CEPCO is the largest association of small coffee producers in Oaxaca, coordinating more than 40 organizations in seven indigenous regions. It is primarily concerned with increasing productivity and profit of its member coffee producers by helping them get fair prices for the coffee they grow. Antiquated equipment,lack of transportation, and fluctuating markets are just some of the reasons why Oaxacan coffee growers find it difficult to prosper. CEPCO's partnerships with organizations such as Oxfam America and Fair Trade organizations in the United States and Europe help the member coffee producers get the help they need. For example, organic coffee commands a much higher price on the market, but the process for certifying organic coffee is labor-intensive and expensive. With support from Oxfam America, CEPCO is now training certified local organic coffee inspectors to help speed up the process and reduce costs during the official certification inspection. By making a commitment to organic farming, CEPCO cooperatives also help protect the environment.

Premiums earned through Fair Trade have helped CEPCO cooperatives fund social programs in their communities, such as health clinics, and other rural development projects. Cooperatives also purchase trucks, processing machinery, and other equipment that helps farmers to gain more control over the quality and value of their coffee.

In the late '80s and early '90s, coffee prices fell so low that many coffee farmers had to seek other means to support their families. In some communities, coffee cultivation was limited and became the responsibility of women, many of whom lacked training and still had many other family responsibilities. CEPCO set up an innovative program to help women coffee farmers, providing training in coffee cultivation and processing, as well as other important livelihood activities that have helped make significant improvements in the lives of the participating women. Oxfam America has supported this visionary aspect of CEPCO's program since 1998.