Fairtrade coffee is big business. In the UK people drank 2 billion cups of Fairtrade coffee in 2012 and over a quarter of all roast and ground coffee sold was Fairtrade-certified.

In addition to assuring coffee aficionados of a high quality and ethically sourced brew, Fairtrade for coffee has a development agenda: Coffee buyers, cooperatives, and smallholder producers work together with NGOs and development agencies; this partnership tries to ensure that coffee farmers earn a just livelihood from their work of producing the world’s most widely traded agricultural commodity. Attention to higher quality by buyers has led to a robust spread and growth of Fairtrade since the early 1990s.

Fairtrade business relations seek win-win outcomes: access to high quality coffee beans for buyers in major coffee markets in the US and Europe, and better markets for small farmers in coffee-producing countries of the Global South.Read more. . .