Akara Café's Fairtrade Coffee Break: What's It All About?
Updated: Nov 3, 2018
Image credit: Nestlé
The Global Goals Australia Campaign is joining Akara Café in hosting an event for the World’s Largest Coffee Break, run by Fairtrade Australia and New Zealand. Come on down to Akara Café, known for its awesome vibe and friendly atmosphere, to meet international hip-hop artist, Crisis Mr. Swagger, to get your coffee fix and to learn more about fairtrade coffee!
But what is there to know about fairtrade coffee?
The answer: LOTS
Let’s start with some basics. Coffee beans are the seeds of the berries from the Coffea plant, which is native to tropical Africa and the surrounding islands. It is believed that the art of roasting and brewing these beans into a beverage began in the 15th Century in Yemen.
Coffee is now grown in many countries around the world. Australia’s primary source of coffee comes from South-East Asia and South America as well as imports still coming from Africa.
Around the world, there are 25 million small-scale coffee farmers who depend on farming coffee beans to feed their family. Due to the nature of coffee being a highly volatile commodity, prices fluctuate wildly from year to year. According to Fairtrade Australian and New Zealand, coffee production is “highly dependent on weather conditions, susceptible to disease and influenced by a range of other factors“. Climate change (Goal 13) is already seen to be affecting coffee production in many countries.
Image credit: CIAT
On top of the affects of the natural environment, farmers also do not have adequate access to reliable market information. This leads to unequal power relations in which many farmers lack bargaining power during negotiations. This then leads to the exploitation of the farmers who are then not paid a fair price for their product. See Goal 8 for more about Decent Work and Economic Growth with the Global Goals.
Why we love Fairtrade Australia and New Zealand:
Image credit: CIAT
Fairtrade helps to bring farmers together to strengthen their position and to learn from one another. Globally Fairtrade works with 445 coffee producer organisations, representing 810,000 farmers in 30 countries to make sure they are paid fairly for their produce and work. In 2013-2014, Fairtrade coffee farmers received more than $72 million AUD in Fairtrade Premium to invest to benefit their farms, communities and families.
We look forward to seeing you there!
This article was originally published on the Global Goals Australia Campaign website.
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