Fast Facts

Products

Equal Exchange is the leading Fair Trade brand of food and beverages in the United States.

Coffee

We offer one of the world's largest selections of fairly traded coffee: 80 choices, including 36 single-origin coffees, 59 certified organic selections, and 5 different package sizes from 1.5 oz to 5 lbs.

Tea, chocolate, bananas & other products
  • 12 Organic fairly traded bagged teas - 95% sourced from small farmer co-operatives
  • Organic fairly traded hot cocoa mix & spicy hot cocoa mix
  • Organic fairly traded baking cocoa powder
  • 9 Organic fairly traded 3.5 oz chocolate bars & chocolate "minis"
  • Organic fairly traded sugar packets, the first on the U.S. mark
  • Organic fairly traded almonds (raw, roasted & tamari-roasted)
  • Organic fairly traded bananas
  • Organic fairly traded extra virgin olive oil
  • Fair Trade Geobars - 3 flavors, 50% Fair Trade content

Commitment to Farmers and Fair Trade

  • First U.S. food or beverage company to adopt the international Fair Trade standards (1991)
  • Fair Trade Certification ― 100% of our coffee, cocoa, chocolate, sugar and bananas are certified Fair Trade.
  • Credit―In 1995 Equal Exchange became one of the first U.S. coffee importers to actively provide pre-harvest credit to the small farmer co-operatives. In 2011 we helped provide over $1,000,000 in affordable credit to our coffee farmer partners.
  • Fair Trade Premiums paid over the conventional coffee market from 2000 through 2012: $10,000,000+
  • Fairly traded coffee imported in 2012: 6,975,000 pounds
  • Number of small coffee farmer co-op partners: 26 co-ops in 12 countries
    • (Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Uganda, Ethiopia, Indonesia)
  • Other farmer relationships ― Equal Exchange purchases fairly traded tea, cocoa, bananas and other foods and ingredients from approximately 20 small farmer co-ops in 17 countries:
    Latin America: Dominican Republic (cocoa), Panama (cocoa), Peru (cocoa & bananas), Ecuador (cocoa & bananas), Chile (honey, blueberries), Paraguay (sugar)
    Africa: Zambia (sugar), South Africa (rooibos), Madagascar (vanilla)
    Middle East: Egypt (chamomile & peppermint), Palestinian occupied territories (olive oil)
    Asia: Pakistan (apricots), India (tea), Sri Lanka (tea), Thailand (rice),
    Global North: France (sea salt), U.S./ California (almonds)

Commitment To Organics

  • 95% of the 7 million pounds of coffee we import annually is certified organic, making Equal Exchange one of the nation's largest purveyors of organic coffee.
  • 100% of our tea, cocoa, chocolate, sugar, bananas, olive oil and almonds are certified organic.
  • In 2007 Equal Exchange worked with others to successfully overturn a USDA ruling and protect U.S. market access for hundreds of thousands of small-scale organic farmers around the world.

Company Statistics & Financial Data

Average annual growth, 1986-2011: 29%
2011 Sales: $46,819,000
Full-time employees: 120
Members* of our worker cooperative: 103
(*Employees must work one year before becoming eligible to join)

Equal Exchange is one of the largest worker cooperatives in the United States, and, we believe, the world’s largest worker-owned coffee roasting facility.

Offices

  • West Bridgewater, Massachusetts (HQ)
  • Boston, Massachusetts (café)
  • St. Paul, Minnesota
  • Portland, Oregon
  • Seattle, Washington (café)