| Our Co-op
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Products
Equal Exchange is the leading Fair Trade brand of food and beverages in the United States.
Coffee
- We offer possibly the world's largest selection of fairly traded coffee:
80 choices, including 36 single-origin coffees, 59 certified organic selections, and 5 different package sizes from 1.5 oz to 5 lbs.
Tea, chocolate & other products
- Organic fairly traded teas: 6 bagged teas & 4 loose leaf teas from India, Sri Lanka and South Africa
- Organic fairly traded hot cocoa mix (#1 hot cocoa SKU in the Natural Foods Category according to SPINS)
- Organic fairly traded baking cocoa powder
- 6 Organic fairly traded chocolate bars & chocolate "minis"
- Organic fairly traded sugar packets, the first on the U.S. market
- Organic fairly traded tamari-roasted almonds
- Organic fairly traded dried cranberries
- Fairly traded salted pecans
Commitment to Farmers and Fair Trade
- First US food or beverage company to adopt the international Fair Trade standards (1991)
- Fair Trade Certification―100% of our coffee, tea, cocoa, chocolate and sugar is Fair Trade certified™ by TransFair USA.
- Credit―In 1995 Equal Exchange became one of the first US coffee importers to actively provide pre-harvest credit to the small farmer cooperatives. In 2006 we helped provide $1,911,000 in affordable credit to our coffee farmer partners.
- Fair Trade Premiums* paid over the conventional coffee market from 2000 through 2007: $9,000,000+
- Our guaranteed "floor" prices for coffee farmers: $1.36/lb for conventional coffee & $1.56 for certified organic coffee (this compares to the world market price of $1.33 on Jan. 18th, 2008)
- Fairly traded coffee imported in 2007: 5,500,000 pounds
- Number of small coffee farmer co-op partners: 24 co-ops in 13 countries
(Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Indonesia)
- Other farmer relationships―In 2007 Equal Exchange imported fairly traded tea, cocoa and other foods made from the harvests from the 11 small farmer co-ops in 7 countries: Dominican Republic (cocoa), Peru (cocoa), Paraguay (sugar), Costa Rica (sugar), India (tea), Sri Lanka (tea), South Africa (rooibos)
Company Statistics & Financial Data
- Average annual growth, 1986-2007: 32.2%
- 2007 Sales: $29,372,000
- 2006 net income: $537,442
- Full-time employees: 100
- Members of our worker cooperative: 77 (employees must work one year before becoming eligible to join)
- Equal Exchange is one of the largest worker cooperatives in the United States, and, we believe, the world’s largest worker-owned coffee roasting facility.
Offices:
- West Bridgewater, Massachusetts (HQ)
- Madison, Wisconsin
- Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Hood River, Oregon
- Seattle, Washington (café)
Awards
- 2008 Fast Company Magazine’s “Social Capitalist” Award
- 2007 WorldBlu's World's Most Democratic Workplaces
- 2006 Oregon Tilth "Organic Handler of the Year"
- 2006 Smaller Business Association of New England (SBANE) Innovation Award
- 2000 Business Ethics Magazine award for Stakeholder Relations
- 1999 Natural Products Expo Socially Responsible Business Award
*What's the "Fair Trade Premium"? When the world market price of coffee drops below the guaranteed Fair Trade floor price of $1.31/lb, we call the difference between those low prices and our guaranteed prices the "Fair Trade Premium". At one time in 2002 the world price for coffee dropped as low as 42¢/lb. During this period the extra income we’ve provided to our small farmer partners has often made a critical difference for them, for the cooperatives, and their communities. For the sake of coffee farmers the world over we hope the world market price for coffee will rise, not only to $1.31, but higher still. If they do the Fair Trade premiums we pay will shrink, but never disappear as we will always pay at least 5¢ per pound over the market price.
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Our Co-op 
