Topa de coda Fairtrade espresso beans (18x500g) (topfair)

This espresso coffee has been carefully constructed using Fairtrade origin Arabica coffees from:

Co-operative dos Caficultores de Regiao de Lajinha, a small Brazillian producer / exporter located in the Lajinha Minas Gerais region of Brazil.

Co-operatives de Caficultores de Aguadas is a Colombian co-operative that exclusively organises small growers, founded in 1966 to help growers collectively market their coffee. Aguadas joined Fairtrade in 1996 to ensure Stability of volume and export price and to use the social premium for social projects, development of organic agriculture and diversification. Aguadas has a coherent development policy that now goes far beyond coffee, but remains committed to co-operative ideals. The co-op is made up of 1125 members, in 29 communities, producing 3613 tonne of coffee.

The presence of Aguadas has seen these communities benfit from:-

• Work competences for coffee production, a training program that serves 25 young people (the farmers children) for the future benefit of the community in terms of Jobs, creating bonds with educational insitutions and the quality of coffee farmer knowledge.
• Funeral insurance for coffe growers and their families
• Maintenance of roads necessary for communication
• Free health service days
• Program computer courses for those associated with the co-operative
• Farmers entitled to 50% discount on medical and orthdontic assistance
• Farmers provided a basic package of animals and seeds for them to produce food to be consumed on a daily basis and to sell the remainder
• Every year 30 adult growers get the chance to get a primary school education in literacy programs

The general manager Juan Carlso Garcia Medina encompasses the mission of the co-operative in this statement:-

Our co-operative is an interdependant organization whose aim is to improve our economical, social and cultural conditions of living.

In addition Fairtrade Robusta coffee is used in this blend from Karagwe District Co-operative Union ltd (KNCU) in North West Tanzania. This co-op has 16000 members 5000 of which are women. This is unusual as until recently women had no say in the growing of coffee but the appointment of 29 year old Alivera Kiiza as the first women manager has changed that. Alivera started work as an office assistant in the marketing department of KDCU in 2000 but quickly moved on to become the manager. One of her first achievements was to get the coffee c-operatives to allow women farmers to own coffee trees so they could become full members of the coffee co-operative, like in many countries coffee was seen as a man's crop.

KDCU uses the premium from Fairtrade to run secondary schooling and conduct workshops on strengthening the organisation and women's roles. This recent change has stregthend the communities by the education of women and made for a much more integrated society.