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Rosemary Clarke is the Co-ordinator of GEMK (Global Education Milton Keynes). Not content with encouraging students and teachers to grapple with global issues in term time, she decided to spend 3 weeks of her summer holiday finding out first hand about fair trade, joining a trip organised by the Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign. THERE'S nothing like planting coffee bushes to help you appreciate a cup of coffee! Seedlings had been planted by a co-operative of 16 families, nurtured in a nursery 3km off the tarmac road. Each one was planted in a degradable black plastic bag and must have weighed about a kilo. Some 200 were loaded onto a cart hitched to two oxen and hauled up the hillside. Sometimes they needed a hand and several of us put our shoulders to the vehicle or pulled on a rope to encourage them up the slippery, steep slope. And then they had to be taken by hand. Whilst the locals managed 20 with apparent ease, I struggled with six, sliding on the muddy path and glad to arrive at the place were holes had been dug for us to lower the plants into. Water bottles, insect repellent and sun cream proved vital. While working at my own pace, I was challenged by our hosts who achieved so much more. La Pita is part of Nicaragua’s Fair Trade production. The farmers get a much higher price and it is guaranteed. At a time when coffee prices are very low, this makes a huge difference to their lives. And yet debt is still a problem. This small community owes $100,000. But their life style is simple: most homes have wooden walls, tin roofs and earth floors. Hose pipes bring water from the stream to communal washing areas. Pit latrines are situated away from the houses. Children play barefoot. The diet is usually rice and beans – for breakfast, lunch and tea. Co-operatives like La Pita work together within a second level co-operative. These help with loan facilities, advice, bulk purchase of agricultural inputs, collection and marketing of the coffee. I was very impressed by one in Jinotega. A previous co-operative had failed with debts of $720,000US. In 1997 Soppexcca was formed and it decided to honour the previous debt, budgeting to pay it back over 60 years. Through the skill and dedication of its workers it now hopes to settle the debt by 2006. And the smaller co-operatives are benefiting too. There’s a sense of direction and well-being. Additional payments are available to help with the construction of schools and water supplies. The quality of the coffee is improving and an annual coffee tasting competition has been instituted, using international standards. These blind testings enable small farmers to compete on an equal basis with the larger plantations – and win: last year an older lady took the award! Coffee farmers in Nicaragua are far from rich. Some have no land, and potential employers have no money to pay for their labour. Some have even lost their homes which were tied to work. But they are not looking for aid or hand outs. They want a fair price for their work. As a newly qualified teacher in 1975 my salary was around £1,700. Today’s equivalent starting salary is almost ten times as much. But the price of coffee on the world market is less now than it was 30 years ago, and Nicaragua is not exempt from inflation and increasing costs of living. Could you live on £33 a week – my 1975 wage? Is it fair to expect Nicaraguans, and other agricultural producers, to do so? On our flight from Nicaragua to Texas at the end of our stay we discovered the Nicaraguan President was on board. Quaking in our boots we decided to talk to him about the plight of the coffee farmers and our concerns about the proposed CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Area). He listened courteously. You may not have such an opportunity, but you could not only buy fairly traded goods whenever possible, but also encourage your friends, relatives, colleagues and neighbours to do so. |
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