Archive for 'fairtrade'
Celebrating the Kilimanjaro pioneers
At the end of November, celebrations were held in Tanzania and around the world to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of KNCU, the oldest co-operative in Africa. The Kilimanjaro Native Co-operative Union is made up of 65,000 smallholder coffee growers located in Moshi, 580km north west of Dar-es-Salaam. The co-op was established in [...]
Fairtrade Cocoa – thanks for your support
Cafédirect cocoa farmers in the Dominican Republic – of the Conacado co-operative – say thank you for the support of the public for the Cocodirect brand.
News in briefs
Congratulations to our friends at Pants to Poverty, who make underwear from fair trade cotton, for their world record achieved today. They gathered together the largest number of people in their pants this morning at St Pancras station. 116 warm-hearted participants were lured out with free pants and a shot of whisky to deal with [...]
Nuts and pants
Co-operative Party Conference hasn’t just been big announcements and major speeches. We have been joined by an array of organisations from the co-operative, labour and Fairtrade movements. Stalls representing Co-operatives UK, the Co-operative Group and the Co-operative News joined the Woodcraft Folk and Supporters Direct. Particularly fun stalls were those of Divine Chocolate, Liberation Nuts [...]
Our climate IS changing
The UK’s largest Fairtrade company, Cafédirect, has entered into a partnership with GTZ, the German consultancy, to develop and fund initiatives with grower communities to adapt to climate change. Here’s a nice video which explains more:
Co-operative summer hols
Several Fairtrade co-ops that provide Cafédirect among others with coffee, tea and cocoa offer the opportunity to visit their communities and see for yourself what life on a Fairtrade farm is really like. Four Cafédirect partners currently offer these programmes: PERU: The coffee and cocoa co-op COCLA will introduce you to the their co-operative in [...]
Competition time
Cafédirect have launched a competition to win one of ten ‘Gumutindo Gift Sets’ with a selection of products from the Gumutindo coffee co-operative in East Uganda. The competition marks The Observer‘s article last month by Andrew Purvis, accompanied by beautiful photography by Karen Robinson, following a visit to Gumutindo. Purvis puts the work of the [...]
Shared Interest, shared fight against poverty
At the Latin America Day last Saturday, one of the interesting presentations was on Shared Interest, the co-operative lending society. Last week, Shared Interest’s work was recognised with a prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise, presented at an official ceremony led by the Lord Lieutenant of Tyne and Wear. As it describes itself, Shared Interest “aims [...]
Clinton’s co-operative coffee
At his birthday party last night, Nelson Mandela sipped Rwandan Farmers Coffee, a new farmer-owned Fairtrade brand with all its profits returning to Rwandan communities, not just the Fairtrade premium. The brand has been launched with the support of the Hunter and Clinton Foundations, working with two existing farmer co-ops, and Bill was in London [...]
