The Dominion - fair trade

Guatemalan Coffee a Complex Blend

Moira Peters — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 05:16:47 +0000

Threats, exile a bitter part of coffee farmers' work

HALIFAX—They call him “the Hurricane.”

Guatemalan coffee farmer Leocadio Juracan (his family name is close to the Spanish word for hurricane) has had a special relationship with many Nova Scotians—though most don’t even know it.

His coffee-farming co-operative—part of the Comite Campesino Del Altiplano (CCDA), or Highland Peasant Farmers’ Committee—has been delighting Nova Scotian palates with its fair trade, shade-grown organic coffee for close to nine years, through a partnership with Just Us! Coffee roasters in Wolfville, Nova Scotia.

Juracan is touring Nova Scotia this weekend, speaking to audiences in Wolfville, Halifax, Tatamagouche and Antigonish. The agenda focuses on more than just light versus dark roasts.

According to Kathryn Anderson, Maritimes Co-ordinator of the Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence (BTS) Solidarity Network—a long-time partner of the CCDA—the organization currently faces “perhaps the greatest threat to its existence since its founding” in 1982.

In May 2008, Juracan explained, after signing an agreement with Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom on a framework for rural development, the CCDA’s car was shot at six times while driving down a rural road. The car’s passengers thankfully escaped injury.

"CCDA coffee is about more than fair trade prices for local producers," said Jackie McVicar, Co-ordinator of BTS Guatemala and former BTS intern with the CCDA. McVicar believes the CCDA’s vehicle was targeted. "CCDA coffee implies political advocacy and ongoing work in the struggle for labour justice and access to land for thousands of Guatemalan peasants. This work is happening at both the grassroots and national level," she said.

Authorities chalked up the shooting to "common crime," an assessment that may seem reasonable in a country with one of the highest violent crime rates in Latin America. But since then, the organization has suffered through two robberies in which a total of $40,000 worth of coffee was stolen. Its leaders have received threats of murder and violence by letter and by phone. A “climate of terror” surrounds the CCDA, said Juracan.

“The robbery and threats the CCDA received reflect an attempt to destabilize the organization and delegitimize the work they are doing,” said McVicar. “CCDA coffee isn't just about better wages. It's about changing structures of oppression."

In February, the threats started to target Juracan’s children. He decided to leave Guatemala, at least until the danger subsided. With the help of Canadian allies, he discreetly left the country with his family, and they found their way to Vancouver.

“If [the threats] had been just toward me,” Juracan said, “I would have kept on.”

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The coffee grown by the CCDA—known as “Café Justicia” and sold to roasters around the world—provides capital for development projects and a fair wage for the farmers, said Juracan.

He listed home construction, a rural hospital, health promotion, training for midwives, teacher pay supplements and educational scholarships as the CCDA’s ongoing projects.

But these “alternative” economic models are threatening to some, explained Juracan.

“Guatemala is not a poor country,” he said. “There is a sector of society that is extremely rich, that has appropriated the wealth of the country and excluded the majority of the population.”

This oligarchy has a vested interest in business as usual, said Juracan. He dismissed the theory that threats and attacks against the CCDA are the work of common criminals, noting they always take place immediately after the group takes a public political position: criticizing the government for lack of action on land reform, for example, an issue for which resolution is decades overdue; or condemning the murder of unionists. “We connect [the attacks against us] to political acts,” he said.

Residual violence from Guatemala’s 36-year civil war may exacerbate the current violence. The conflict, which divided communities and in which more than 250,000 were killed—most of them by military and government-backed paramilitary groups—left a legacy of violence that has been hard for the country to shake. It is perfectly plausible, according to Juracan, that his attackers would have connections to wartime paramilitary groups.

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Juracan and his family planned to return to Guatemala after two or three months, hoping the security situation would improve. Unfortunately, in the few weeks since they arrived in Canada, there is no encouraging news.

"There is more news of harassment and intimidation, hooded men roaming the community, gunshots at night,” said the campesino.

During his time in Canada, Juracan said he would like to generate conditions for a return to his home country. Many CCDA members continue to work hard in Guatemala for political change, and Juracan plans to strengthen solidarity between the CCDA and concerned Canadians.

Still, said Juracan, he would rather his stay be as short as possible. Being forced out of his country for doing his work is a difficult pill to swallow.

Tomorrow, March 22 at 7pm, Jurican will speak at Immaculata Hall 202, Saint Francis Xavier University in Antigonish. CCDA coffee is available in Nova Scotia as Just Us! Coffee’s "Breaking the Silence Blend."

Ben Sichel is a writer and teacher in Halifax. He recently took a group of students on an educational trip to Guatemala. An original version of this article was published by the Halifax Media Co-op.

Leocadio Juracan

Fair's Fair

Fri, 25 Jun 2004 03:35:42 +0000

Marketing and reality in the coffee trade

Eugenio Laguna of the El Porvenir coffee coop in Posoltega, Nicaragua. Rob Gentry

MANAGUA, NICARAGUA ---- Entering the grounds of one of Nicaragua's oldest coffee plantations, the delicate scent of coffee plants and the beauty of ancient trees lead me to believe that I have finally discovered paradise. But not far down the road I spot a few dilapidated shacks. Scruffy, barefoot children run out to greet us. These are the children of coffee workers, and the shacks are their homes. I ask my guide about the wages and working conditions for the coffee workers. He points to the shacks and asks, "What does it look like to you?" This is a paradise of sorts, but not for the workers.

With their seemingly irresistible white cups filled with bitter--sweet froth, Starbucks, assures us that it is a socially--conscious corporation. Once a month in each of the company's 7,834 shops, a Fair Trade 'coffee of the day' is brewed. Fair Trade is an international certification program that ensures coffee farmers a better life. Starbucks openly acknowledges that only a small percentage of the coffee purchased annually is Fair Trade certified, but as Sue Mecklenburg, vice president of business practices for Starbucks proudly states, "100 per cent of the coffee we buy is under conditions that are fair to farmers."

This is the characteristic response of the global coffee chain to the increasing criticism they are facing: they claim to be paying a fair price. True, Starbucks buys coffee at an average price of $1.20 per pound, as opposed to the current global commodity price which currently stands at about $0.50. But a fair price is not Fair Trade. If it were, Starbucks would simply seek Fair Trade certification for their coffee and end the debate.

Fair Trade is a market-based solution to the crisis caused by the collapse of coffee prices, which, according to the Wall Street Journal, "is contributing to social meltdowns affecting an estimated 125 million people--from Central America to Africa." Through the creation of a floor price of $1.26 per pound of coffee and the elimination of middlemen, Fair Trade ensures that more profits go into the hands of small-scale coffee producers. But it is about more than just money.

By allowing small farmers to compete in the global marketplace without being exploited by powerful middlemen, Fair Trade locks in agrarian reforms friendly to small farmers and peasants in the same way that free trade locks in trade policies friendly to large corporations. To be certified as Fair Trade, coffee must be bought from either a cooperative or a democratically run farmers' association. Within such structures, each producer participates in the important decisions concerning distribution. If the producer is part of a cooperative, then he or she actually owns part of the distribution company. Outside the confines of Fair Trade, distribution companies hold the majority of bargaining power and reap the bulk of financial benefits from the trade of commodities such as coffee. Being part of a cooperative or association can be the difference between a farmer being forced to sell his or her small plot of land or being able to keep it and continue making a living. In Nicaragua, the three large coffee cooperatives that presently export from the country were actually formed with the express purpose of maintaining the viability of land reforms introduced by the Sandinista government in the 1980s. In growing the market for cooperatively produced coffee, Fair Trade has thus been instrumental in maintaining agrarian reform in Nicaragua.

Through its emphasis on cooperation, Fair Trade helps to promote organization and development at the community level. While the cooperative or association decides how profits are divided among members, Fair Trade requires that a certain percentage is re--invested into the community. The cooperative focused on Nicaragua's Northern region, Prodecoop, has an education committee that gives kids school supplies and assists farmers and their families in pursuing university degrees and continuing technical education. More importantly, however, a cooperative or association creates an organizational framework within a community and teaches people to work together to solve problems. Where the cooperative provides shelter from market forces, it also opens the lines of communication within a community so that individuals are no longer isolated and forced to wait on government assistance that may never come through. In a country where public investments are minimal and where government policies rarely reflect the needs of the majority, a community's ability to work together can be crucial.

Despite the benefits, life for the Fair Trade coffee farmer remains a struggle. Environmental pressures--such as limited access to water and an increasingly short rainy season--can make cultivation problematic. Furthermore, while the market for Fair Trade coffee has grown steadily, advocates believe that in order for Fair Trade coffee to become mainstream, the large corporations controlling the coffee market such as Starbucks and Proctor & Gamble must get serious about Fair Trade and stop using it simply as a marketing ploy. So while Starbucks' friendly price--which is still six cents short of Fair--is better than nothing, it is certainly short of any true commitment to social justice. Whether the extra pennies fall into the hands of needy farmers is questionable, as is the ability of pennies alone to make the world a better place.

Meribeth Deen visits Fair Trade coffee farms in Nicaragua.