How Farmer Direct Trade Works

My name's Randy Coleman and I'm the owner of Baya Rica Café in Calgary, Alberta and I'm here today in beautiful Costa Rica to talk to a farmer about potentially buying some coffee from him farmer direct trade is when you're working directly with the farmer communicating and negotiating on price as well as the terms and conditions for delivery directly with the farmer and these are all volcanic soils today i'm going to be toured around the farm by the owner, his name is Don Enrico and I'll be looking for the types of varieties that he's growing, I'll be looking to find out what he's doing in terms of water conservation and protection of watersheds as well as the type of shade trees he's choosing to see how they support wildlife habitat and the reestablishment of that in the area, fair trade is a certification process that guarantees that a farmer is getting a fair price for his product, my issue with Fair Trade is that there's also a middle man it's between the buyer and seller and that incurs additional cost for administration and marketing, so not all the money actually goes to the farmer Fair Trade works really well for some people that are unable to travel to the destinations where they purchase coffee sweet and peppery in my case however I travel to Costa Rica quite often and so it's quite easy for me to come down and meet the farmers directly and so the direct trade model works better for me Randy this is a gift from my farm, La Compina, to you please cup it and let me know what you think of it muchas gracias Enrico and my samples in hand just finished a great tour from Don Enrico really impressed with what i saw on the farm great working conditions shade management, water management practices, really, really good approach to eco and sustainable farming gonna take these back, roast them at the roastery with the team, do some cuppings and if we like what we taste we'll be doing some direct trade with Don Enrico