It’s more than just a cup of coffee!

Here’s the impact of your Justice Coffee purchase for every 100 pounds of coffee

And for every 100 pounds of coffee your congregation purchases, you’re actually purchasing more from the farmer because during the roasting process 20-25% of the total weight is lost. So the following benefits are actually a little greater than they seem!

More money goes to the farmer

For 100 lbs of coffee (let’s say organic with a fair trade premium of $1.41), the cooperative is going to receive $141 dollars as oppose to the market price at 65 cents/lb, which would only give them $65.

UMCOR receives funds

If congregations are buying through the UMCOR Coffee Project with Equal Exchange, Equal Exchange will give an additional 15 cents per lb sold. So for 100 lbs that’s $15 going to UMCOR for their relief and development programs in developing countries.

Pre-harvest financing

Another impact is that Equal Exchange offers pre-harvest financing. In 2003, Equal Exchange paid a million dollars to the cooperatives for pre-harvest financing. This is extremely important as the farmers in the traditional market have to take out loans with high interest rates or are unable to receive any loans due to low credit or no investment opportunities in their community. By offering pre-harvesting finance, Equal Exchange ensures that farmers can obtain the necessary tools, machines, seeds, and other infrastructure to plant, harvest, and mill their coffee. They don’t have to go into unpayable debt, which could force them off their land.

Impact on the land

A typical small-scale farmer might have 2 to 5 acres of land. Each family farm will produce around 2-5 bags of coffee, each bag weighing about 132 pounds. Each coffee tree produces about 2,000 cherries (coffee beans are covered by a cherry pulp). Each tree will produce about 1.25 lbs of coffee beans (after being roasted) so one 132 lb bag of coffee represents 106 trees. For 100 lbs of coffee, this takes about 80 trees. This means that each family farm could own anywhere between 212 to 530 trees!

Investing in their community

The money paid in fair trade premiums is paid directly to the producer cooperatives. Part of that money goes back to the individual farmers, and, since they own the cooperative, the farmers decide how they should invest the rest of the money. Producer cooperatives will use the money to invest in schools, children’s’ uniforms, women’s groups, machinery, mill, or sometimes choose to take the rest of the money back to their families for immediate need. By having this opportunity to decide where their funds should go and being able to combine their money, farmers can purchase expensive equipment, work on roads, or fund social services that otherwise would not have ever been purchased had the farmers been paid individually.

Organic farming

Organic certification is at minimum a three-year process and costs the cooperative a lot of money. Some of the farmers who currently produce non-organic coffee are moving towards organic certification but are unable to be registered organic as of yet either because they haven’t used organic methods long enough or they haven’t had enough money to pay for the certification.