Coffee farmers net 49 cents of the fair-trade-plus sales dollar
May 11, 2011

Forty-nine cents of every dollar that people spent on Kafe Lespwa coffee last year went to subsistence farmers in Baradères, Haiti, according to an analysis of Kafe Lespwa sales and expense figures.

This 49 cents is four and one-half times higher than the 11 cents that the average coffee grower nets from the U.S. retail coffee dollar.

The contrast shows how consumers who purchase "fair-trade-plus" Kafe Lespwa can greatly benefit subsistence farmers, their democratically organized business association, and their community—while enjoying a delicious, shade-grown, chemical-free Arabica coffee.

The contrast also clarifies why Kafe Lespwa truly is the "Coffee of Hope," as the name means in Haitian Creole. And it explains why KDB has grown from two dozen families in 2007 to more than 100 today.

"Fair-trade-plus" means Kafe Lespwa farmers receive up-front payments for their beans; plus, their farmers' association—the KDB or Kafe Devlopman Baradè—receives ALL the profit from export sales.

KDB redistributes most of the profit to its individual farmer-members. In addition, KDB invests portions for strengthening the business, helping KDB families to cover emergency expenses such as health and funerals, and providing charitable aid to the Baradères community.

You can buy Kafe Lespwa online here.

To gauge effectiveness of our fair-trade-plus model, Just Haiti examined U.S. sales of Kafe Lespwa from the 2009-10 coffee-harvest season (August 2009 to January 2010).

The sales total was $58,955. We found that, for every dollar of sales, KDB farmers received 18 cents in up-front payment for their raw beans, and the association received 31 cents in after-sales profits. The rest of the sales dollar—51 cents—covered the cost of importing, roasting, packaging, marketing and related costs. Here is how we made the calculations:

1. Just Haiti paid individual KDB farmers $10,618 for the 3 tons of raw Kafe Lespwa beans that were exported to the U.S. from the 2009-10 harvest season. This amount equals 18% of the sales revenues.
    
2. We spent $30,042 (51% of sales) to import, roast, package, market and ship Kafe Lespwa to U.S. consumers.
    
3. We subtracted these expenses and the up-front payments from the sales receipts to determine the remaining sales profit due to the KDB: $18,295. We wired this amount to the KDB in 2010.
    
4. The sum of the up-front payments ($10,618, 18% of sales) and post-sale profit ($18,295, 31% of sales) establishes $28,913 (49% of sales) as the total fair-trade-plus net to the KDB farmers.

These results are the latest available. The proportions may well change in the future, because global coffee prices are not static. For example, prices of raw coffee beans are higher now than a year ago, so we may expect the up-front payment to account for a higher proportion of the total fair-trade-plus benefit.

Still, by continuing to purchase Kafe Lespwa, you guarantee that all the profit goes to the producing farm community.

Just Haiti works to alleviate poverty, hunger, violence, illiteracy and disease in Haiti by fostering small-business development, education programs, employment opportunity, infrastructure improvement and environmental quality. Just Haiti is a Section 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization.

Home   |   News   |   About Just Haiti   |   Project   |   Coffee   |   Community   |   Partners

Donate   |   Buy coffee   |   Contact us   |   Email list

Copyright 2007-2011 Just Haiti, Inc.