Sexto Sol Center - Fair Trade Coffee - Motozintla, Chiapas, Mexico

The Sexto Sol Center assists grower-managed cooperatives to enter into Fair Trade and to become "export ready". Inquiries about the availability of coffee are welcome: tamara@sextosol.org with cc to tierralinda@ecomail.org or
call Mexico 52-962-707-47-44.

To create fairness in commerce, we all can particpate in the chain where each link is forged from the commitment to equity. The growers act in accordance with fair trade principles, the buyer pays fairly, but for it all to work, coffee drinkers need to add their part by buying and enjoying coffee that has come to them via this mindful process.

We encourage you to support coffee brokers and roasters who have made a commitment to trading fairly. These businesses actually pay more for coffee in order to provide a fair price to growers. Some of them are Stumptown Coffee, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Dean's Beans, Equal Exchange, Sustainable Harvest, Café Campesino, Thanksgiving Coffee, and Arbuckle Coffee Roasters. (Let us know who else should be mentioned). Give them your business. Let other roasters know that you support fair trade in coffee. Buy organic whenever you have a chance.

We thank Paul Katseff, CEO of Thanksgiving Coffee for his "Cupper's Manifesto". His book empowers grower organizations to produce quality coffee so that they will be successful in exporting directly. The members of Nuevo Billaj cooperative in Guatemala whom Sexto Sol serves are studying this book.

Thanks to the work of Global Exchange, TransFair U.S.A. and others, there is now more demand for Fair Trade coffee than supply. TransFair U.S.A. has over 170 companies registered as Fair Trade buyers and roasters. This is great news for small-scale coffee grower cooperatives. Other companies are doing direct business with growers for a fair price calling their coffee "fairly traded". You can ask them for more information on their buying practices.

We commend the Specialty Coffee Association of America for giving importance to the issues facing growers in their work to create a system for trade in Specialty Coffee.

Definition of Sustainable Trade from the Institute for Environment and Development

Sustainable trade takes place when the international exchange of goods and services yields positive social, economic and environmental benefits, reflecting the four core criteria of sustainable development:

it generates economic value...
it reduces poverty and inequality...
it regenerates the environmental resource base, and…
it is carried out within an open and accountable system of governance

There is always room for improvement

The practice of sustainable development by NGOs carries with it great responsibility especially when they control access to markets as in the case with the fair trade movement. Development work is ultimately the process of helping people to develop their own capabilities and to take charge of their own destinies.

Our work is to assist small, grower-managed organizations to beome "certified" to sell under fair trade contracts. We provide the guidance to help farmers grow in their ability to administer their own enterprise. See Coffee Solutions for more information on the work of the Sexto Sol Center with coffee cooperatives.

Ideally, the Fair Trade registry should be open to all who qualify. Competion for sales should be based on the quality of the cup since it is only "fair" that Fair Trade buyers be offered the opportunity to purchase quality coffee. They should be able to choose among many cooperatives to find one that suits their needs.

Fair Trade is not charity, it is business, but business in which all players win.

For more information contact:tamara@sextosol.org (English y español) - francisco@sextosol.org(español)

The Sexto Sol Center - 3514 E. Contessa, Mesa, AZ, 85213-7036 U.S.A. Phone: (480) 854-7583
Field Office - Apartado Postal 64, Motozintla, Chiapas, CP 30900, Mexico, Cell: 52-962-109-4824