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Visit: Cafédirect

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An estimated 25 million farmers and their families produce coffee. Over two thirds of them work on small-scale farms of less than five hectares. Many of these farmers live in poverty, a situation that worsens daily due to the forces of globalisation, with the market dominated by only a handful of multinationals and powerful commodity traders. The insatiable need to make healthy profits goes hand in hand with increased third world poverty - and it is this dynamic that Cafédirect seeks to challenge. 99% of the world's coffee is not fairly traded and as a result millions of growers receive less than 1% of the average retail price of coffee sold in coffee bars.

Cafédirect is a proven and successful model which aims to balance the business of making money with the business of making lives better. At the heart of its operations are the 1m small scale tea and coffee growers and their families, with whom the company works closely to ensure that it delivers the best quality product to hot beverage drinkers in the UK - while at the same time offering producer communities the finances and support they need to evolve from poverty.

Today it is the leading Fairtrade hot beverage business in the UK and has blazed the trail for ethical trading since its inception as the first British Fairtrade coffee company in 1991.

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