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How does Cafédirect operate its Fairtrade business?

The company works with and buys its product direct from 30 producer organisations in 10 developing countries in the Caribbean, Central America, Latin America, Africa and the Indian Sub-Continent.

Cafédirect operates its own unique Gold Standard trading policy which goes beyond the basic principles laid out by Fairtrade Labelling Organisation. It is the first and only Fairtrade company to run such a scheme. Like other Fairtraders it currently pays on average three times the world price to its growers (Sept 2002).

Cafédirect's Gold Standard goes beyond the basic principles of Fairtrade:

• for coffee, if market prices go above the minimum standard Fairtrade price of US$1.26 per pound for arabica coffee and US$1.06 per pound for robusta coffee, Cafédirect pays an extra 10% social premium on top of the market value, which goes directly to the co-operative, to be spent as per members' requirements.
• for tea, a premium is paid on top of the auction price and Cafédirect pays a higher premium than the standard Fairtrade premium.

Cafédirect is also the first and only Fairtrade company to pay additional premiums to producers who provide coffee for the growing organic gourmet and gourmet sectors. These premiums reflect the additional costs to farmers for producing these coffees and ensure they share in the added retail value, which is higher than other coffees.

The Gold Standard also incorporates business partnership programmes - called Producer Support and Development (PS&D) - that are tailor made to suit each organisation. For coffee it is closely managed with partner Twin-Trading through a strong network of contact with every single one of the 22 coffee co-operatives supplying Cafédirect, the programme provides advice, market information, management training and support or any other elements required to grow their businesses.

Cafédirect and other Fairtrade companies offer pre-finance of up to 60% of the value of the coffee or tea giving stability to producers, which provides them with working capital at an affordable price. In the past year the company has offered pre-finance of nearly $1.6 million per annum to coffee producers.

For more details of Cafédirect's Gold Standard Trading policy please visit www.cafedirect.co.uk

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