What is on the mind of Fair Trade coffee producders

Upon analyzing my data on my post doc research of Bolivia's Fair Trade coffee growers some preliminary findings emerge.  The study was done on three of the 30 member groups of FECAFEB (Federation of the Coffee Exporters of Bolivia).  FECAFEB holds the Fair Trade and organic certifications for the producer groups.  Of the FECAFEB members, 94% have at least some of their coffee certified organic and 83% are certified Fair Trade.  There are two newer groups which are working on both their Fair Trade and organic certifications.  Once they have these certifications, all of FECAFEB will be certified organic. 

The member organizations studied included Cafe Tropic, Union Pro-Ago, and Antafogasta.  Union Pro-Ago and Antafogasta were two of the largest groups in FECAFEB and located in the coffee capitol, Carnavi.   Cafe Tropic, the newest member of FECAFEB, was from the Chapare region. Cafe Pachamama, a direct trade project that followed the guidelines of Fair Trade but was not yet certified was studied in Corioco.

In all, 33 producers participated in this study, 79% of them were women.  The producers were invited to talk freely about their experience working in Fair Trade.  The following is a graph of the themes that emerged and how often they were mentioned.

(Stenn, 2012)

In all, the concept of Fair Trade was fully understood (it was in the new Bolivian Constitution too).  It was looked at as something that certainly led to significant improvements, mostly in the area of better management, cultivation and processing techniques - which resulted in higher quality and better prices.  Many participants mentioned that though yields were lower than before (Fair Trade and organic production) the quality and prices were  much better.

An embracing of organic agriculture was also a part of the Bolivian constituion and the entire region of Caranavi was in the process of making all agriculture production organic including the oranges, bananas, coca, and other market products.

The Bolivian constitution also stressed the importance of women's representation in schools, politics, and all levels of community life.  Fair Trade's promotion of "equal opportunity" was understood as women needing to have equal representation in the historically male run Fair Trade coffee groups.  New women's leadership training programs and Gender Departments were developed by FECAFEB members to quickly place women in leadership and directorate positions.

Though both men and women were supportive and welcoming to the woman's leadership presence and ideas, the idea or equal representation was still very new and not yet fully realized.  Women struggled to manage their home and child care chores along with their directorate positions and also to find their voices after decades of not being given a place to speak.