Catherine Reilly meets Tanzanian coffee grower Emiliana Aligaesha, who has seen her life and community change for the better thanks to a partnership with Cafédirect
Emiliana Aligaesha seems to effortlessly combine the naturally authoritative air of a school teacher with the easy laughter of a schoolgirl.
Seated in the boardroom of a Dublin public relations firm, the highly personable coffee farmer from Tanzania cuts an intriguing figure – clothed in traditional dress, and flanked by a PR executive and a manager from Cafédirect. It is quite a contrasting scene.
But the PR has worked: Emiliana has spent the day on Ireland’s airwaves, informing the public about fair trade for Tanzanian coffee farmers. And were it not for Cafédirect, she wouldn’t be in Dublin sharing her story in the first place.
Emiliana comes from the Karagwe District in north-western Tanzania, and is indeed a retired school teacher – which explains the teacherly aura.
“I taught in my home district – Kiswahili, history, mathematics, and a little bit of English,” she recalls. “After school-time I went back to my home and did my farm work.” This would be quite common among professionals in many parts of Tanzania, she explains, teachers and nurses returning home and starting their second ‘job’.
After she retired from teaching, Emiliana took up the farm work full-time. A mother-of-eight, her husband is sadly passed on, and her children have left the nest, so she works the six acres from morning till evening. As well as cultivating coffee, she keeps cows and practises organic farming methods.
Emiliana is keen to talk about the impact that Cafédirect has had on both her and her district since she first encountered the organisation in 2001. For the uninitiated, Cafédirect is one of the largest Fairtrade companies in the world.
Founded in 1991 by Oxfam, Traidcraft, Equal Exchange and Twin Trading in response to the global collapse of coffee prices, its products carry the Fairtrade certification, awarded to products that meet agreed environmental, labour and developmental standards.
Small coffee farmers in developing countries are among the world’s most exploited people, with big brands and retailers creaming it at their expense. That is why Cafédirect has been so important for Emiliana and those in her district, offering them good, consistent prices and assisting them in community development projects.
The Karagwe District Co-operative Union comprises 67 co-operatives that represent 17,500 growers – and Cafédirect accounts for 70 per cent of the co-op’s Fairtrade sales. Indeed, the co-op’s sales have risen from 36 tonnes a year in 2000 to some 432 tonnes in 2005.
Women farmers have also attained more rights during this period – and Emiliana, unsurprisingly, is one such leader. The income from the coffee sales, meanwhile, generates more money for local children’s education.
But if Emiliana has one complaint, as such, it’s that the word should be spread even further.
“We ask Cafédirect and Fairtrade to announce us more, worldwide, so as to get more consumers,” she says. “I am pleased to participate in this event in Ireland, it is a time to share ideas with our partners in Ireland, a time when you write in a newspaper or we go to radio stations and people can hear our stories.”
Cafédirect’s products are available at all major supermarkets in Ireland, and according to the organisation’s national account manager Paula Straw, prices are “really very comparable” with other brands.
“Small farmers in Tanzania are requesting more single consumers, organisations, companies to buy Fairtrade Tanzanian coffee, so that we get better premiums. When they come to us and buy more coffee, we get more premiums to promote our community development,” remarks Emiliana.
So look out for Cafédirect’s rich roast coffee, with Emiliana’s glowing picture on the packet. n
Highlighting ethical trade
Fairtrade Fortnight is running from 23 February to 8 March. Its aim will be to highlight the benefits of an ethical brand that appears to be maintaining growth, despite the recession.
Retail sales of Fairtrade products in Ireland increased by an estimated 30 per cent in 2008 to €30.5m, and while the rate of increase has slowed compared to recent years, Fairtrade’s core business remains buoyant even amid a recession.
“Given the depth of the recession and the staggering loss of jobs in Ireland, our rate of growth and increased sales can’t be taken for granted in 2009,” commented Fairtrade’s executive director Peter Gaynor.
“And while it might seem inevitable that Fairtrade sales will decline, there are sound commercial reasons to believe that any decline won’t be universal: we are confident that we will continue to grow sales and expand our product range.”
Fairtrade is continuing to forge partnerships with some of the country’s leading retailers. Topaz and Musgrave/Centra recently announced that they are converting all their ‘coffee to go’ to Fairtrade, while Starbucks is committed to changing its espresso-based coffee sales to Fairtrade-sourced produce from September
Hundreds of competitively priced Fairtrade products are now available in the main supermarkets and new products are being added all the time. Traditional Fairtrade products like coffee and tea are stocked by all the chief retailers including Tesco, Dunnes Stores, Marks & Spencer, Lidl, Superquinn, Londis, SuperValu/Centra and Spar, and these retailers are extending their ranges to include products such as wine, rice, chocolate, fruit, juices, snacks and clothing.
Discount giant Lidl, for example, is running an in-store Fairtrade promotion to coincide with Fairtrade Fortnight and is marking the event with the launch of Fairtrade roses.
“Fairer trade is still an imperative for millions of people in developing countries,” added Gaynor. “It is as much an imperative in recessionary times – when prices paid to producers are likely to fall – as in the good times.”
