Small Farmers. Big Change.

We’ve been talking a lot lately about the coffee market and what the current high prices mean for Equal Exchange, consumers, and our farmer partners. In this short video, courtesy of one of our Interfaith partners, Catholic Relief Services, you can hear the perspective of Pedro Ascensio, member and Marketing Coordinator of Las Colinas coffee co-operative in El Salvador. Equal Exchange has partnered with El Salvador for about fifteen years now. We have helped them pay off their agrarian reform debt (accrued in the 1980’s when a government program allowed coffee plantation workers to become owners of the land and manage the business as a co-operative), renovate their processing equipment, and convert their coffee to organic production. All of this has enabled the Las Colinas coffee co-op to protect their land, preserve an important watershed and the El Imposible National Park which they border, protect their health, gain higher prices for their coffee, and better provide for their families.

Watch this 90-second video here.

P.S. We’re drinking Organic Las Colinas here at Equal Exchange today. Try some, as well as our new supply of Cafe Salvador!