Equal Exchange – Anei Cooperative

In 1979 three aid volunteers returned from Africa, and had seen just how difficult it was for small-scale farmers which were often plunging themselves into debt because of unfairly low prices they received for their products and the lack of transparency from the buyers. This was happening at the same time as coffee consumption growing quickly in the UK but the people drinking it had no idea that the farmers were usually not even covering their costs and had no other choice of where to sell their produce due to the one sided nature of the market and market power the buyers exercised over them. So ti was obvious that throwing money at the problem was not going to help in the long term, the system had to be changed to a more fairer one.

The volunteers decided to launch Campaign Coffee Scotland and import coffee from Tanzania and Nicaragua. Back in 1990 it was rebranded to Equal Exchange and became a workers’ co-operative, reflecting the values that we still believe in today.

Equal Exchange now work with a variety of farming communities to make the world a fairer, more transparent place. Equal Exchange no longer just focuses on coffee; they import a range of products from honey to nuts.

Equal Exchange are one of the original Fairtrade pioneers and because of that they are always pushing for more that Fair Trade can do such as their Grown By Women project which helps recognise the value of female farmers in food chains and work to get greater gender equality and give women the same access to choices, income and training as men.

Since the start Equal Exchange has three key pillars, Fair Trade, Organic and the Co-operative. Fair Trade is essentially what Equal Exchange was created to do. They work with small farmer, democratically organised co-operatives ad trading partners though the good as well as bad times with farming being such a perilous business at the mercy of the weather, and provide stability over the though times. With the Fairtrade premium providing extra income which enables communities to spend money where it is needed the most to support and give long term stability and fair growth.
Organic farming is a whole system approach to food production, recognising the connection between the health of the world and the way we produce food. Organic farming means that you know the products you buy have been grown to strict standard to protect you, the farmer and the environment.

Equal Exchange believe that a business works better when everyone takes part. Equal Exchange is a worker-owned co-operative so everyone has a stake in the company and will all have a say in what happens. There are no external shareholders so profits can be used to improve the company and invest back into it.

Equal Exchange are active in many countries with many different projects, this is just one example:

Anei Cooperative

Location: Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (Northern Colombia)

Product: Grown By Women Coffee – Organic

The Equal Exchange Colombian single origin coffee comes from the mountainous regions of the Sierra Nevada De Santa Marta in Northern Colombia. Equal Exchange works with a group of indigenous people known as the Arhuacos, the guardians of the Sierra Nevada. With around 300 farms belonging to individual families Anei have begun their own Womens project, where the women are producing their own speciality coffee. This allows the women of Anei to control their own work and manage their own funds within the coffee farming community, something that is still rare in the coffee world, despite the great amount of work that women do.

Arhuacos have a strong relationship with the natural world, believing in a balance of giving and receiving from the earth. Completely self-sufficient, they grow a vast array of fruits and vegetables, whilst nurturing the lands around them. With a strong knowledge of how to get the best from their crops the women farmers are continually excelling with their coffee varieties.

Alba, one of the lead farmers, is one of Aneis success stories, after years of hard work and learning how to get the best from her coffee plants she is now excelling in her quality scores at harvest time. Alba is exceedingly knowledgeable about her coffee and she knows exactly how to get the best from her crop. She is keen to spread her knowledge to the rest of the women in order to help Anei become consistent with high quality coffee providing a strong future for the Arhuacos.

What do Equal Exchange sell?

Equal Exchange started off with coffee, but now the range extends to honey, peanut butter, chocolate, olive oil and more!