"Working with local farmers at the source
of production has always been a central tenet of the Frontera
tradition. Fair Trade Certified Coffee is about building
a better way of life for a community, and producing the
highest quality coffee for all of us.”
--Rick Bayless, Chef and Owner, Frontera Grill and Topolobampo
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New partners in
Fair Trade
as
of 9/03
Mike's Coffee and Tea - Arroyo Grande, CA • Central
Coast Coffee (SLO Roasted Coffee) - Los Osos, CA •
Coffee Klatch Roasting — San Dimas, CA •
Columbia
Street Roastery - Champaign, IL • Goshen Coffee
Co. - Edwards, IL • Armeno Coffee Roasters, Ltd.
- Northborough, MA • The Sustainable Cup - Boston,
MA •
Aroma Coffee of Santa Fe - Santa Fe, NM • Great
Plains Coffee - Sioux Falls, SD • Katz Coffee
— Houston, TX
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TransFair
Highlighted on Google!
TransFair recently received support from Google!, the
web search engine that processes 200 million search requests
per day. The grant provides us with several months of
free advertising banner space through Google's Adwords
program and will bring folks directly to our site and
to our ‘Where
to Buy Fair Trade Certified Products’
page. Help us drive consumers to your accounts that offer
FTC products by sending us their addresses. Email deborah@transfairusa.org
for more information.
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Students are great supporters of Fair Trade. Is there
a university in your community? Market to your local campus
and see the power of word-of-mouth at work. |
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Millstone
launches Fair Trade
Certified™
Mountain Moonlight blend
This month Millstone Coffee announced the launch
of Mountain Moonlight blend, the company's first
Fair Trade Certified offering, as part of its new
Signature Collection. Tonia Hyatt, a spokeswoman
for Millstone parent company Proctor & Gamble,
said the decision to offer a Fair Trade Certified
coffee took into account discussions with shareholder
and consumer groups, as well as market research
that indicated Millstone customers wanted to see
a fair trade offering, according to the just-food.com
news service. |
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"P&G's action is an excellent example of
what can be accomplished through the collaboration
of shareholder activists and nonprofit organizations.
It's a win-win for the world's small-scale coffee
farmers, for the environment, and for P&G itself,"
said Sister Ruth Rosenbaum, Executive Director of
the Center for Reflection, Education and Action
(CREA). USA Today, in its article on the launch,
reported that, "while the Mountain Moonlight
blend will be introduced online and sold via a toll-free
number, the company expects it to be sold in supermarkets
nationwide within a year." |
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Consumers
are Looking for You!
Our website's Where
to Buy section is your consumer's resource.
You can help promote your customers that carry Fair
Trade Certified products by entering them in our
online Suggest
a Retailer Form. If you have a long list of
entries, please contact our Business
Affairs team to get you set up.
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Baking
Cocoa from Equal Exchange
If you were lucky enough to be offered a delicious
fudge brownie at the Expo East or NASCORE shows,
you might have noticed they included a special ingredient--Fair
Trade Certified cocoa, which is increasingly finding
its way into the tastiest baked goods around. Equal
Exchange, Dagoba Organic Chocolates, La Siembra
and Tradin Organics all offer Fair Trade Certified
baking cocoa and other bulk chocolate ingredients.
For chocolate info, please contact cocoa@transfairusa.org. |
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Event
Updates
The TransFair team has been on the road this
month to educate retailers and consumers about Fair
Trade Certified products. Two exciting consumer events
focusing on sustainable products - the Rocky Mountain
Sustainable Living Fair in Ft. Collins, Colorado, and
Northern California’s SolFest - offered us booth
space and speaking opportunities. At the NASCORE show
in Portland, Oregon, we had the chance to connect with
café owners and specialty beverage retailers
from around the West.
Our biggest event this month was the Natural Products
Expo East in Washington, D.C., which attracts more than
20,000 natural and specialty food retailers. The show
demonstrated retailers’ growing awareness of Fair
Trade, and highlighted their enthusiasm for a broad
Fair Trade Certified product category including tea,
chocolate, and fruits, to go with their established
Fair Trade Certified coffees. In the educational sessions,
TransFair's New Product Manager, Charlotte Opal, participated
in an informative panel on the natural overlaps of organics
and Fair Trade.
As always, at each of these shows we displayed product
samples from local companies offering Fair Trade Certified
products. If you'd like to showcase your products
at an upcoming event, let us know!
Please send samples to:
TransFair USA
Attn: Kristan Almgren
1611 Telegraph Ave, Suite 900
Oakland, CA 94612 |
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Co-op
Profile: Poco Fundo, Brazil
TransFair's Producer Relations Manager, Yamile Slebi,
visited the Brazilian co-op Poço Fundo this
past August. The Associação dos Pequenos
Produtores de Poço Fundo is located in the
state of Minas Gerais in the southeastern region
of Brazil, and boasts 76 members and an annual production
of six containers of top quality coffee. |
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| Eager
to begin their Fair Trade business venture, the
Poço Fundo co-op was certified by FLO in
1998 and began exporting to the US this past year.
Fair Trade premiums are invested in education, technical
training on organic agriculture, and infrastructure
of the co-op’s facilities such as drying patios,
computer equipment and warehouse construction. One
co-op member, Luis Carlos de Paiva, shared his thoughts
that “Fair Trade has made dreams come true.
We made it happen through honest back-breaking work,
sweat, and persistence.” |
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| How
do you like the TransFair Buzz? Please email
us your comments and/or suggestions. We'd love to
hear from you! |
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