Fair-Trade and Small-Scale Coffee Farmers Cooperatives in Ethiopia:The Case of Melka Rello Woreda,East Hararghe Zone in Oromiya Regional State
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Date
2010-07
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AAU
Abstract
Coffee one of the world most traded goods alld the majority of the production took place in developing
countries. The small-scale cojfee farmer whu depend on international market for their product highly
marginalized by the unfa ir international terms of trade and combined with imperfect local coffee lIIarket
conditions induced farmers in a vulnerable position and live in absolute poverty. These problems. among
others led to the f ormation of fair-trade certification scheme in order to help poor marg inalized coffee
farm ers through their own organization to get accesses to international market and get fa il' price for their
product.
Thus. this study is about the role of Fair-trade certified small-scale coffee farmers. Though.
modern cooperatives exist in Ethiopiafor many decades the reorganization of coffee cooperatives alld the
cooperative union ajter 1991 was partly in relation to the international coffee cris is that occurred at
various times. Thus. the main objective of this study i ' to assess the role of 'Fair-trade' certified coffee
farmers' cooperatives in addressing farmers problellis by taking Tuti Kanisa and Riga Damu primary
cooperatives as a case in Melka Bello Woreda. East Hal' It'ghe Zone.
111 order to address the research objectives. a qualitative data gathering techniques has been
employed. These are. the prill1ary data were generated by conducting fieldwork through informant
interl'iew. fo cus gruup discu 'sions and participant observations and ob. ·ervation.
The re 'ult of the stlldy shows that fa ir-trade certified cooperati ves brou ht economic alld ocial
bene/it to the fanners. Moreo ver. the existence of cooperatives in locol market brought competition [hat
ill1pl'Ol'ed the price of coffee gradually at local market. Fanners also receive a premiulII that i ' to be
in vested ill community developmentfromfair-trade coffee sale that benefits the whole community.
Thollgh. tl/ere is good demand for fair- trade coffee in the international market. due to lack of financial
capital. poor infras tructure and absence of proper coffee processing equipments. low level of f ormal
education among members and the influence of khat production and exterllal intervention in cooperative
affairs are major constraints to be mentioned.
Based on the findings of the study. it is recommended that the cooperative in order tf'.1 be
succes:-,ful. tl/ere should be udequate finan cial capital for cooperatives. proper coffee processing mach ine
should be ul'ailable at local level. there should be a II/eons to provide fO I'll/cd education for coopera tive
melllbers and negative extem al in tervention should be minimized in the affair of the cooperatives
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Fair-Trade and Small-Scale Coffee Farmers Cooperatives in Ethiopia