© Sean Hawkey

At the end of 2011,

348 producer organizations

in 28 countries worldwide

held a Fairtrade certificate

for coffee.

© Bernhard Moser

Coffee beans being picked at

CECOCAFEN, Nicaragua

Around 80% of

Fairtrade coffee is produced

by small farmers in Latin

America.

© Didier Gentilhomme

Worker from COOPASV,

Brazil, removing leaves

from harvested coffee.

Over 75% of the world’s coffee is produced by smallholders.

Fairtrade provides a Minimum Price for Arabica and Robusta

coffee to help producers guard against volatile markets.

Coffee producers also benefit from the Fairtrade Premium paid

directly to the producer organization and used for community

improvements.

In addition, Fairtrade provides regular training for organizations

to help them manage risk and improve their businesses.

© Sean Hawkey

Joel Alfredo is in charge of health care in the

Los Pinos Cooperative (El Salvador). Health

care at Los Pinos is supported with the

Fairtrade Premium.

© Sean Hawkey

© Didier Gentilhomme

COOPFAM, Brazil:

Fairtrade Premium funds

covered the cost of a GPS

device required for the

mapping of each farm.

Engineer

Maises and

technician Lucas

in the process of

updating the

map.

© Linus Hallgren

Cidora Samaniego

(CEPICAFÉ Peru)

harvesting coffee.

© Bernhard Moser

In 2011, the prices for Arabica coffee skyrocketed enabling

Fairtrade producers to achieve a 46 % increase in total

Fairtrade sales income compared with 2009–10.

However, the volatile prices also posed

particular challenges for producer

organizations in their management of

coffee supply, price risk, and contracts.

Fairtrade delivered training to more than 200 producer organizations in

different countries to encourage proactive risk management.

Additionally, in July 2011, Fairtrade International implemented a ‘Coffee

Help Desk’, which offers producers and buyers advice on coffee contracts,

mediation and good commercial practices. The training and support has

paid off during the 2012-2013 harvests as prices for coffee have fallen more

than 50% to less than half of their 2011 highs.

© Sean Hawkey