Forgot your password?
November - December 2011
A Cooperative Coffees e-Newsletter for and about Fair Trade
November-December 2011
In this issue...
|
Corporino, President of Coop Polo, |
|
Reach out!Outreach and Communications Roaster News Producer News Travel: Where in the World is Coop Coffees? The Latest in the Fair Trade movement |
Reach out!
The holidays are just around the corner – a New Year isn’t far off! And we fully expect that 2012 can be even more exciting, productive, and busy than 2011. For now, we'll catch you up on the latest news at Coop Coffees and in our part of the Fair Trade world! The Coop Coffees offices have been busy, bringing in new staff, moving staff around, and saying goodbye to old staff and friends. The Fair Trade world has been rocking too, with more voices chiming in every day on the ever changing landscape: with producer voices calling for new direction; the decision by FTUSA to create new criteria and sever its ties to Fairtrade International (FLO). Check out our newsletter for more information!
And before we close out the year, we'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of our members, partners, allies, and readers for your support throughout 2011! We look forward to reconnecting with you all in 2012!
Happy Holidays to all... and enjoy your read!
Let us know what changes you'd like to see in this newsletter by emailing us at bignews@coopcoffees.com.
Outreach and Communications
Au Revoir! or more like, A Bientôt!
|
 |
|
 |
This year's CoopSol AGM will take place in Chiapas, Mexico from January 8th to January 13th, 2012. We will be hosted by our friends at Maya Vinic in the beautiful town of San Cristobal de Las Casas and their highland community headquarters - Acteal, Chiapas. We've been buying coffee from Maya Vinic since their founding as a coop more than 10 years ago. We're delighted to know that we will soon be guests under their roof! Stay tuned for more information on the upcoming AGM! Click here to learn more about Maya Vinic. |
Roaster Exchange at the Labo Equitable
 |
On
March 1st and 2nd, 2012, the Cooperative Coffees Labo Equitable in Montreal will host
our first Roaster Exchange of 2012!
Join us for a two day workshop on roasting, cupping, sourcing, and all the the ins and outs of the coffee industry! The workshop, led by EJ and Ellen, will focus on coffee quality and roasting while providing generous insight into the specialty coffee industry from bean to the cup. |
SCAA Cupping Judge Course, April 2012!
 |
The first SCAA Cupping Judge course of 2012 will take place from April 2nd to 6th, 2012! As always, it will be led by specialty coffee quality controller and certified trainer Mane Alves of Coffee Lab International. The course offers training for and administers some 20+ examinations in order to become a certified SCAA Cupping Judge and/or Q-grader. Don't miss this wonderful opportunity! |
Roaster News
Cooperative Coffees welcomes a new member, Santropol!
|
|
|
We are excited to announce that Cooperative Coffees has a new roaster member – Santropol! Santropol is based in Montreal, QC, not too far from our CoopSol office. Santropol has been roasting coffee for 12 years and has always been an important member of the Montreal Fair Trade community; we’re proud to welcome them as our newest Canadian member!
Check out our member profile of Santropol here. Click here to check out Santropol's beautiful website! |
Peace Coffee launches new website!
 |
|
|
|
Just in time for the Holiday Season, Peace Coffee is launching their new website with an upgraded webstore. Peace Coffee is located in Minneapolis, Minnesota and is one of our founding members! The website looks fantastic, has a ton of beautiful pictures and great information. Be sure to stop by and take a look! Check out the new site! |
 |
|
Peace Coffee aren't our only members with a revamped website - Bean North has ramped up their web presence too. Their new site looks great and they'll be posting lots of new content, photos, and videos in the future - keep up to date! Have a look at Bean North's new website! |
Producer News
First International Gathering of the Small Producers Symbol
 |
On October 7th and 8th, 2011, in San Salvador, El Salvador, members of Cooperative Coffees joined representatives from Latin American producer organizations and Fair Trade buyers and roasters from Canada, USA, Germany and Italy during the First International Gathering to discuss strategies and challenges to launching the Small Producers symbol backed by the CLAC. We shared our experiences, our concerns, and had some great discussion about how to move forward with the Small Producers Symbol! |
Travel: Where in the world is Coop Coffees?
|
|
From September 30 to October 8, 2011, Cooperative Coffees travelled to El Salvador to meet with APICAFE and Las Marias 93. Glenn Lathrop from Desert Sun, Monika Firl from Cooperative Coffees Rebecca Hurlen-Patano from DOMA Coffee and Julia Baumgartner from Just Coffee all visited San Salvador and were able to share their knowledge. Click here to learn more about the trip and to let them share their knowledge with you! Check out Julia's blog to read more and to see some great pictures! |
|
|
In mid-October, Coop Coffees visited Dominican Republic as part of the USAID F2F project. We visited Coop Polo and Coop Nieba, members of FEDECARES - an umbrella organization consisting of 134 associations in 13 different provinces, serving more than 6500 members, created out of the necessity to rebuild the coffee regions after the devastating Cyclone David hit the Dominican Republic in 1979. |
|
|
This past October, Coop Coffees visited coops in Sumatra to facilitate a “Fair Trade market training session” to help new cooperatives not only acquire Fair Trade certification, but also to maintain the certification and successfully place contracts in this more lucrative market.
We also had a chance to witness first hand the election of a new Chairman for the APKO Coop and to catch up with a local football team we sponsor! During our last travel to Sumatra the Permata Gayo Coop approached Florent, Bill and Jim with a request to sponsor the local boy's soccer team. We were more than happy to oblige! Now team CoopCoffees is tearing up the field in Bener Meriah, Indonesia! Stay tuned for more... |
The latest in the Fair Trade movement
Coop Coffee's position on Fair Trade
|
|
Cooperative Coffees has added our voice to the growing chorus of opinions regarding Fair Trade USA's decision to leave Fairtrade Labelling Organizations (FLO). This decision will change the face of Fair Trade as we know it and we at Coop Coffee feel it will have severe and negative repercussions for the fair trade world. Within this report, we discuss the effects this decision will have, we reiterate our vision and our values, we denounce Fair Trade USA’s Fair Trade for All campaign, and we present a variety of other resources to learn more about the split and its implications.
To read our position paper and to learn more, click here!. |
FTUSA split gets mainstream coverage
|
|
FTUSA's decision to split from FLO certification is getting attention from unusual places. The split has caused such controversy that even the mainstream media is beginning to pay attention. In late November, New York Times writer William Neuman published a article on the topic and NPR aired a story, bringing the issue to the attention of a whole new audience. |
Coop Coffees joins others in reaffirming commitment to a values driven model
|
|
From October 17 to 21, leaders of the value-based fair trade movement from across the world met in Wuppertal, Germany. We took advantage of this opportunity to discuss the current moment in the broader Fair Trade marketplace, to evaluate our current tools and expectations, and to explore best strategies for the future. This meeting was made possible by Catholic Relief Service's Fair Trade Grant; we greatly appreciate their generous support! Stay tuned for more developments! |
