• Campaigns & Initiatives
• Climate Change
• Aid Reform
• Coffee
• News & Publications
• Resources
• Background
• What Oxfam is Doing
• Fair Trade Resource Center
• Access to Medicines
• Right to Know, Right to Decide
• Free Trade Agreements
• Fast for a World Harvest
• Campaigns & Initiatives

• Our Approach

• Where We Work

• Emergencies

• Issues We Work on

Advanced Search

• Contact Us

What Oxfam is Doing

• Fair Trade Coffee in the US
• Coffee Farmer Testimonials

WHAT OXFAM IS DOING

Oxfam America works with a broad range of groups—coffee farmers, US consumers, policy makers, retailers, and the coffee industry—to create sustainable solutions to poverty in coffee communities.

Oxfam America helps cooperative marketing organizations that give small-scale farmers direct access to the market and the benefits of fair trade.

By connecting our work with coffee producers in Central America and East Africa with consumer education, political advocacy, and corporate engagement, Oxfam America is able to develop creative strategies that address the complex challenges facing small-scale coffee farmers around the world.

We work closely with:

• Producers: By supporting small-scale farmer cooperatives in six countries, Oxfam works to overcome the impacts of the crisis by supporting the development of cooperative business infrastructure and farmers’ ability to access the most profitable markets for their coffee. Oxfam funds training in business skills, marketing strategies, and technical assistance to improve the quality of the coffee grown by cooperatives. In some areas, Oxfam supports projects that help cooperatives diversify, so they can become less reliant on coffee.
• Consumers: Students on over 350 college campuses have been active on issues of fair trade and the coffee crisis. They work with faith organizations, environmental justice groups, community based organizations, immigration organizations and many others to support local campaigns from our national advocacy office. Oxfam America supporters have been a key component in the success of the coffee program.
• Governments: In order for coffee farmers to receive a truly fair deal, Oxfam works to reform trade policies that have historically left small-scale farmers with the cards stacked against them. To level the playing field, Oxfam works to ensure a voice for small-holder farmers in the global institutions that set the rules for coffee trade. Through advocacy and work with political allies, Oxfam encourages government institutions to include programs that support quality improvement programs, direct market access, rural financing, and diversification initiatives - all of which help increase the incomes of coffee farming families.
• Corporations: A comprehensive solution to the coffee crisis must include participation of coffee industry. Through informed dialogue with coffee companies and retailers, Oxfam seeks to promote business practices that include prices which guarantee a sustainable livelihood for farmers and a sustainable supply of quality coffee for the industry.

Fair Trade Coffee

Oxfam seeks to create an environment where coffee farmers and farm workers are fairly rewarded for their hard work. Fair trade certification, which guarantees that small-scale coffee farmers are paid a basic price, is one piece of that strategy.

To help expand the demand for Fair Trade coffee and spread the system's benefits to more coffee farmers, Oxfam works with allies in the Fair Trade movement to educate the public about Fair Trade and encourage coffee companies to buy more Fair Trade coffee. Oxfam is calling for wider trade policies that will help the growers of coffee and other commodities protect their livelihoods.

In 2002 Oxfam launched a worldwide campaign, What’s That in Your Coffee?, to create international concern about the plight of coffee farmers and provide them with humanitarian relief, while seeking concrete solutions to the coffee crisis.

Oxfam also supported Equal Exchange, a worker-owned cooperative founded in 1986, which pioneered the Fair Trade coffee movement in the US and continues to be a leader in educating the public about Fair Trade. Equal Exchange now offers more than 40 varieties of Fair Trade coffee.

Today, Oxfam urges consumers everywhere to purchase Fair Trade Certified™ coffee, which provides farmers with more income, and to pressure the industry to pay decent prices for coffee crops. Long-term solutions must involve small-scale coffee producers having greater access to the international coffee markets, access to farm credit, and greater representation in the international debate on coffee.