Fair Trade News

Published Jan 09, 2006

Gourmet coffee, high ideals
By Jean Porrazzo, ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER

WEST BRIDGEWATER — A gourmet coffee company's novel business approach is paying off. Equal Exchange, a worker-owned, fair trade company, has doubled its sales in just three years.

"You might expect this for a start-up company, but we will be celebrating our 20th anniversary in May," said Rodney North, information coordinator. "We've averaged over 33 percent growth annually over the 20 years."

Fair trade, North said, means an equitable and fair partnership between marketers in North America and producers in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and other parts of the world. A fair trade partnership works to provide low-income artisans and farmers with a living wage for their work.

Equal Exchange buys organic coffee, tea, cocoa, chocolate and sugar directly from democratic small-farmer cooperatives and pays a higher-than-market price, which gives farmers greater control over their livelihood.

These organic fair trade products not only ensure small farmers get a fair deal but protect the environment as well, North said.

When the specialty coffee company introduced its business philosophy to the industry 20 years ago, experts said it wouldn't work, he said.

But the coffee company that lives up to its name proved them wrong — sales increased from $10.1 million in 2002 to $20.5 million in 2005, according to the company's 2005 annual report.

Today, coffee giant Dunkin' Donuts uses fair trade coffee beans for its specialty coffee drinks, including espressos, lattes and cappuccinos since April 2003, and McDonald's has been serving Newman's organic fair trade coffee since November.

"You never thought you'd see that 20 years ago," North said.

The gourmet coffee company, which has 75 workers, outgrew its Canton location and moved to more spacious headquarters at 50 United Drive in August 2004.

"We debated for a month on where to move before deciding that it couldn't be more than 15 minutes from the previous location," he said.

The new location has plenty of room for future growth and can also accommodate the new coffee roaster that will help keep up with the growing demand for the company's specialty coffees.

The $1.7 million fire-engine red, traditional German drum roaster is a large cast-iron drum that rotates over a burner that is adjusted during the roasting process.

The process begins with the green coffee beans stored in 100-pound burlap sacks on wooden pallets. The beans are poured into a hopper, where they are sorted and cleaned before traveling through chutes and tubes into the roaster, where temperatures reach 400 degrees.

"Ten seconds too long, and the batch can be ruined," North said.

The beans turn dark brown in the roasting and then move on to the cooling process. After they're cooled, the beans travel through more chutes and tubes on their way to the packaging machinery where the roasted beans end up in the company's colorful packages.

Equal Exchange offers 40 varieties of specialty, arabica coffees from cooperatives in Latin America, Africa and Asia; three gourmet organic chocolate bars that combine cocoa from three cooperatives in the Dominican Republic and Peru; single-serving packages of sugar from cooperatives in Paraguay and Costa Rica, and three teas from India.

Equal Exchange's line of coffee is available at Shaw's supermarkets and many Stop & Shop locations, and many of its other products are available at natural and organic specialty markets.

Coffee prices range from $9 per pound to $11.50 for decaffeinated, chocolate bars are $34.95 for a box of 12 3.5-ounce bars, and 25 tea bags cost $4.

The Rockin' K Cafe in Bridgewater serves Equal Exchange coffee.

The environmental movement spurred the demand for "environmentally friendly" products and now consumers want "people-friendly products," North said.

The gourmet coffee company operates like "a small-town government," he said.

"All those people are worker-owners," North said, pointing to a graphic of the company model. "Each owner has one vote, can run for the board and make proposals."

Equal Exchange is the sixth largest worker-owned cooperative in the country, and North hopes the company's success will entice others to adopt its philosophy.

"If society can be organized democratically, why can't we apply that to the workplace?" he said.