"Some thing needs to build producers confidence. When
you find you hardly have money to pay your workers,
or pay yourself - that's why so many people leave agriculture.
I see FAIRTRADE as a way to help producers. That's why
I stick with it.."
Ray Baptiste, St Vincent.
'If
we didn't have FAIRTRADE sales, most of the farmers
would be cutting down their trees. 100% of our crop
is sold to the FAIRTRADE market. The current price of
coffee in the conventional market doesn't cover the
cost of producing coffee.'
Guillermo Vargas Leiton, Coffee Farmer and Co-op
Manager, Costa Rica
'You can be helping someone all your life but nothing
changes. Tell more people that we are producers who
are capable of change. It is a worldwide movement which
aims to reduce the injustice of the imbalance between
rich and poor. The coffee is produced by capable people
and we would like consumers to recognise the value of
what we are doing.'
Pedro Antonio Haslam, CECOCAFEN R.L., Nicaragua
|