It has been a great honor for CECOVASA to be there and join our efforts with Max Havelaar, France, to make a better world through the creation of more equitable trade relations between buyers and producers, and we have done it by speaking honestly about our experiences and the progress we are achieving thanks to fair trade. The other fellow producers of coffee, cacao, sugar cane, cotton, bananas, tea and fruit juice also did the same. We would like for fair trade to grow and become a bigger movement, and for this to happen it’s not enough to have one good quality product, there also has to be promotion at the level of consumers, and for this: Who can tell better about our experience than ourselves?

Beltrán Apaza representing CECOVASA at 5th Quizaine du Commerce Equitable in France

Each producer has properly planned his work, I was in charge of areas in the east and the north like Dijon, Autun, Brest, Le Havre, I’Eveque, Evreux, I had worked with students, radio, television and newspapers, with municipalities and supermarkets. I liked the meetings with students, but every part of the work is important. I have explained about the producer life at the farm, what to do to take the product to the cooperative and, then, until exportation, besides the activities of the life at the cooperative, and how fair trade gives us dignity, giving meaning to our work, making possible to improve our life level, and giving us access to education and health. The reward of fair trade is reaching the producers and strengthening the cooperatives, we want the consumer to have good quality products, ecologically sustainable and economically profitable.