Trade Aid, Christchurch. Feb 2009. Ajr If the Trade Aid warehouse in Christchurch is anything to go by, we won’t be running out of precious coffee beans any time soon. This is just one wall of roof-high stacks of Fair Trade coffee beans imported from nine origins – Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Columbia, Peru, Ethiopia, Sumatra, East Timor and Papua New Guinea. It was reassuring indeed to stand among them all and to know that a favourite vice will be catered to for some time yet. Trade Aid in fact, imports three-quarters of New Zealand’s Fair Trade coffee beans – more than 686 tonnes annually (that’s 40 container loads) – and they supply more than 60 roasters nationwide. It’s all part of the Trade Aid philosophy of supporting coffee farmers to improve their livelihoods - to give them access to funds that in turn bring about basic improvements to their lifestyles. Every time Trade Aid buys five sacks of coffee in Ethiopia for instance, another child gets a shot at school they would not otherwise have. www.tradeaid.org.nz www.fairtrade.net
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