CANTON, MA—September. 21, 2000—In an unusual turn of events, a small, Boston area company, Equal Exchange, congratulates a number of much larger companies for having announced that they are entering the field of fairly traded coffees - the niche market that Equal Exchange has had mostly to themselves since they created the category in 1991. In keeping with the companies unconventional approach to business, Equal Exchange is glad to have direct competition for the first time, even specialty coffee powerhouses like Starbucks and Green Mountain.

"Believe it or not we want more, not less competition. That's because we know these farmers and their struggles. They urgently need more importers to pay a just price. So we encourage our fellow roasters to expand on the modest fair trade programs they've announced so far," says Equal Exchange co-founder, co-executive director Rink Dickinson.

Until recently Equal Exchange was the only major purchaser and supplier of fairly traded coffees. Importing 100% of its coffee on fair trade terms - over 1,100,000 pounds in 2000 - Equal Exchange remains the largest such U.S. buyer.

Fair trade is an internationally recognized set of trading policies that are designed to address the poverty and exploitation endemic in coffee producing regions. The fair trade requirements are: 1) The coffee has been purchased directly from democratically organized small-scale farmers; 2) The farmers' cooperatives have been paid a guaranteed minimum of $1.26 per pound regardless of how low the coffee market drops.† 3) The farmers have been offered a pre-shipment advance payment of up to 60% of the value of the purchase. 4) There is a long-term relationship established between the buyers and farming organizations.

Recently, thanks in part to the encouragement of TransFair USA*, the independent non-profit that monitors and certifies fair trade coffee, various small and large companies have agreed to follow Equal Exchange's example and adhere to these rules for at least a portion of their product line. This marks a major shift towards reform in the $3 billion US specialty coffee industry, which could become a model for other sectors, such as textiles and sneakers, that are still looking for viable solutions to sweatshop conditions. This new period in the industry is being celebrated this Sunday, from noon to 3 p.m. on Boston Common at the "Fair Trade Festival" organized by Transfair USA and Oxfam America**. Oxfam, an international development non-profit organization, based in Boston, is now helping to raise awareness of the availability of fair trade coffee in New England, the most developed fair trade market in the country.

Equal Exchange knows from its decade of working with 17 different farmer co-ops in 10 countries that fair trade can make a huge difference in these communities. Fair trade has consistently raised and stabilized incomes, broken an impoverishing cycle of debt for many farmers, and allowed communities to gain more control over their livelihoods. However, there are over 300 fair trade registered co-ops around the world with 550,000 farmer members. With little or no participation by other US coffee companies these farmers can only sell a fraction of their crop on fair trade terms. For example, one Equal Exchange partner in Peru, COCLA, produces over 18,000,000 pounds of coffee annually, but can export just 15 percent of its harvest on fair trade terms. They must sell the rest at much lower prices and on worse terms. Hence, the need for more fair trade.

Equal Exchange, a unique worker owned business founded in Boston in 1986, has been quietly demonstrating the commercial viability of fair trade through its own continued success. Since 1990 the company has grown by an average of 26 percent a year and has been profitable for nine of those ten years. In 1999 Equal Exchange sold more than 1,000,000 pounds of 42 different fair trade coffees in over 1,000 supermarkets, food co-ops and cafés in North America. Seventy percent of these coffees are also certified organic, as is their new line of tea.

Equal Exchange has also been recognized repeatedly for the example it has set in challenging entrenched norms in commerce, and for advancing workplace democracy, organic agriculture, and the interests of small-scale farmers.

** TransFair USA, 52 Ninth Street, Oakland CA, 94607, (510) 663-5260, www.transfairusa.org

*** Oxfam America, Liam Brody, 26 West St., Boston MA, 02111, (617) 728-2437

www.oxfamamerica.org/fairtrade/index.html

Winner of the 1999 Natural Products Expo Socially Responsible Business Award

Winner of the 2000 Business Ethics Magazine Award for Stakeholder Relations