March is Equal Exchange Bananas Month! We are proud to be able to share our successes and challenges with you during March. Here are a few accomplishments.
Categories: Farmer Partners
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Phyllis_RobinsonFebruary 21, 2013aúl del Águila Hidalgo, General Manager of Equal Exchange’s trading partner COCLA and a leader in the international fair trade movement, died suddenly on February 13. EE’s Tom Hanlon-Wilde shares this memory.
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Beth Ann CaspersenDecember 6, 2012I was nervous about my trip to the D.R. Congo. A war has raged there on and off for decades, and heightened violence and political unrest in 2012 has left more than 500,000 people internally displaced. There was a brief lull in the violence during the month of October, so I took the opportunity to go visit our producer partners at SOPACDI and then make the journey across Lake Kivu to visit the Panzi Hospital.
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Mike MowryApril 3, 2012In February I spent a week traveling around Ethiopia with representatives from other coffee companies as part of a Cupping Caravan. In two 15 passenger vans, top loaded with gas ranges, propane, and 5 gallon bottles of water, we spent the first few days cupping—the industry term for analyzing coffee—at various ECX field labs. ECX stands for the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange, which is the government agency responsible for grading all commodities produced in Ethiopia.
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Mike MowryFebruary 12, 2012
Mike Mowry, Coffee Quality Coordinator, and Beth Ann Caspersen, Quality Control Manager, are in Ethiopia for two weeks. Here Mike talks week one and gives us an overview of what's still to come for the two travelers.
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Beth Ann CaspersenOctober 13, 2011
I often think about how we are changing the world through trade - with relationships and the belief that everyone has rights, no matter where they are from. It's easy to get overwhelmed by the complex issues spanning the globe, from myriad protests to governmental conflicts to human right abuses. Look at a place like the Democratic Republic of Congo - a war-torn country in Central Africa with a devastated economy and massive sexual violence against women and girls of all ages. Did you know that the D.R. Congo has been called one of the worst places on earth to be a woman?
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Beth Ann CaspersenMarch 30, 2011Over the last few years I have written about shifting gender roles in the coffee industry; how women are moving into different positions of power and influence within their own communities and co-operatives. The change is slow, but I believe this systemic change begins with individual women and the opportunities that are available to them.
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Beth Ann CaspersenFebruary 1, 2011For many years, the specialty coffee industry has drawn parallels to the wine industry. The most widely used comparison is in the way we describe the flavors we taste. Consumers are familiar with wine labels that boast specialty flavors like mango or plum, bright acidity, and a host of other flavors.
