Coffee 6: What´s a small farmer?

So who’s better off with Fairtrade? There are many different levels of quality of life for small farmers and they don´t seem to correlate with certification...

So, for example, you might have a small farm, but you also buy coffee from other farmers and sell it on to the middle men. Then, you are still a small coffee farmer but you´re making money off the others, so you´re doing okay. And if someone in your family has been to the US and come back with a bit of money all the better. You get a poorer family to work on your farm, and you have another job and live in the town. And how well you’re doing will probably depend on other things you’re growing too… beans, corn etc.

I went to visit someone in a smaller community outside Yali a couple of weeks ago, whilst still mulling over this whole business of small farms. The family who are doing alright for themselves: basic conditions, still have outside pit latrine toilets, we´re not talking fitted kitchens or bathrooms but they are making money. For example, they are one of the few families with a gas oven and hob in their community, as well as the usual wood fire set-up. He puts this down to being prudent: he started with a small bit of land 20 years ago, and now he has 2 families living on a fairly large bit of land and managing it for him. When coffee season comes round, he buses in temporary workers from other parts of Nicaragua for the picking. And he sells to Starbucks, who buy the majority of their coffee without certification.

Now it strikes me that someone like him is probably no better off with Fairtrade; as he’s already a middle man of sorts. I didn’t see the living conditions his temporary workers have and I did find out the wage they get paid but it´s so hard to guage: it’s such a seasonal thing that the money needs to last all year round… and I also didn’t see the families that live on his land, so it´s all speculation but I have seen enough others to know that this is mostly very basic: a wooden hut with a couple of rooms, maybe no electricity, maybe no running water and very little inside space.

Of course a beautiful setting, plenty of outside space and most of the time damn good avocados and bananas… but pretty much bound to their boss. Who also isn’t rolling in money either, and is pretty much stuck in his rural life too.

But in terms of personal wealth, for the medium guys, maybe it doesn’t pay. As long as you’ve found someone poorer than you to be on your farm day in day out. But whoever you are, you still have to transport your produce on godawful roads and send your kid to a school lacking resources. Personal wealth in the campo doesn’t sort those issues, Fairtrade premiums do…

There a are a lot of people here, and a lot of opinions. And these are just the small farmers in this country, the size of England. Other people have said that even Fairtrade systems are different again in other countries.