Life as a coffee producer and the benefits for the coffee producers
- What is your role within the Macefcoop Co-operative?
- Are working conditions in Cameroon improving? Are people happy with the conditions?
- How much difference has Fairtrade made...how much more money do you get etc?
- What was life like before Fairtrade came along?
- How do your conditions compare to those trading conventionally?
- Are you better off financially than these other farmers then?
- People from Cameroon are very musical - do you have any songs or poems about Fairtrade?
- Wonderful - we should get you on 'Pop Idol' (don't ask). Are you doing anything exciting whilst you are in the UK?
- How many others get a share of the added value once it has left your farm and before it eventually arrives on my breakfast table?
- How do you get around in Cameroon - and what is the weather like?
- What does your work involve exactly?
- So you are involved with selling the produce to Cafédirect themselves?
- Do the growers ever get to eat any chocolate?
- What has the extra money from Fairtrade enabled you do that you wouldn't have been able to do without it?
- Do the children have the chance to gain more than a basic education?
- How has Fairtrade affected your life?
- What can people here do to help?
- Have you been to the UK before?
- What do you think of the whole Fairtrade Scheme?
Life as a coffee producer and the benefits for the coffee producers
Question: What is your role within the Macefcoop Co-operative?
Roseline: I am the society development officer. The link between the farmers and the co-operative. I travel on a motor bike for distances of about 80km to visit groups of farmers. I talk to women on development activities. Give some empowerment and development strategies for women to gain their womanhood. I also train farmers to produce quality. Presently we have a programme on organic farming.
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Question: Are working conditions in Cameroon improving? Are people happy with the conditions?
Roseline: People are happy, they tell me the results they are getting from Fairtrade. With Fairtrade it is better, we can reduce infant mortality with good medical help and drugs.
Examiner: Roseline, I work in development education and what you say is so important. Few of us realise the interconnections between a fair price and life-enhancing facilities.
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Question: How much difference has Fairtrade made...how much more money do you get etc?
Roseline: At the moment we are getting 197.7% more for our coffee than the world price, that is because of Cafédirect.
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Question: What was life like before Fairtrade came along?
Roseline: The message I want to tell the people of the UK is "teach a child how to catch fish, and not how to eat fish." What I mean is that with Fairtrade the farmer will be able to work hard and earn a living, rather than having foreign aid that is not sustainable.
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Question: How do your conditions compare to those trading conventionally?
Roseline: The conventional market is cheating the farmers. It gives low prices to farmers as they know farmers can't change the product into coffee to drink. The Fairtrade market gives a good price, so we can afford to provide for our family needs. We can also invest in our farms to give the best quality coffee to you in the UK.
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Question: Are you better off financially than these other farmers then?
Roseline: All my co-op benefit from Fairtrade, but farmers who are not members of the co-op are not benefiting.
All those in the area benefit. Our co-op does community work, we have just given school benches to some schools for local children, so others who are not selling Fairtrade coffee also benefit in my community.
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Question: People from Cameroon are very musical - do you have any songs or poems about Fairtrade?
Roseline: Yes I sing a Fairtrade song when I ride my motor bike to visit the farmers in my region.
Roseline: Coffee Lover: do you want to hear the words?
Coffee Lover: Yes, please.
Roseline:
"Come and join Macefcoop farmers (I sing this 3 times)
Oh come and join, Oh come and join.
There is quality in Fairtrade products, quality in Fairtrade products, quality in Fairtrade products, consume the Fairtrade products.
There is education in coffee farming, education in food crop farming, education in cocoa farming Oh come and join us!"
This song I sing a lot, and the children sometimes join in as well.
This is my co-op's song!
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Question: Wonderful - we should get you on 'Pop Idol' (don't ask). Are you doing anything exciting whilst you are in the UK?
Roseline: I am doing a lot in the UK. Today I have taken part in many radio chats across the UK, I have been able to reach many people with the Fairtrade message. I will also speak to lots of press to tell the story of my farmers, to encourage more in the UK to buy Fairtrade.
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Question: How many others get a share of the added value once it has left your farm and before it eventually arrives on my breakfast table?
Roseline: My family benefit, the community, the co-op, and the environment. So lots of others around, not just the farmers.
Examiner: Yes, I accept that others in the community benefit from a local multiplier effect, but who keeps the difference between your 108 per bag and what I pay for a jar of coffee? I think that if more people were aware of the profits made, they would change to Fairtrade products.
Roseline: The other money is spent on transporting the coffee, processing the coffee, and packing it. Then it is sold in shops. It also goes in the marketing of the coffee, so shoppers know about it. Cafédirect does make some profit, but they either give it back to the growers or they invest it in their company, so they can grow more and help more farmers with Fairtrade.
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Question: How do you get around in Cameroon - and what is the weather like?
Roseline: The weather is hot, and dusty and the roads are bumpy. I travel 80km on the roads on my motor bike - I am 40 years old! I am the only one in the area to have a motor bike. I need this to visit all the coffee growers and help to train them. There are not many women in my area who do this work. I am the only woman who does this work and rides my bike. It is very hard to get around. This makes it hard for the coffee growers to bring the coffee to the co-operative. The roads are very poor.
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Question: What does your work involve exactly?
Roseline: Meeting the farmers, education, carrying out need-assessment of the farmers, prioritising the needs of the farmers and implementing systems, education. I am a link between administration and producers. The common channel between the growers and the co-op, who then work with Cafédirect to sell our beans in the UK.
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Question: So you are involved with selling the produce to Cafédirect themselves?
Roseline: Yes, I speak to Cafédirect to arrange how much they need to buy and when they want it delivered. I also speak to them about how we will use the extra money in the community.
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Question: Do the growers ever get to eat any chocolate?
Roseline: Sometimes we can get chocolate in the shop if we can afford it, it's not Fairtrade chocolate. It's very sticky and melts in the heat. We have never tasted our own cocoa beans. But now I have tasted Cocodirect which my cocoa beans are in, it is wonderful.
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Question: What has the extra money from Fairtrade enabled you do that you wouldn't have been able to do without it?
Roseline: We can now send our children to school and get medicines for when we are sick. Some of the farmers now have tin roofs. The extra money enables us to survive. The farmers are even proud to be coffee farmers as they can make a better living.
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Question: Do the children have the chance to gain more than a basic education?
Roseline: Yes, they have a chance if the family can afford it. The children may have to travel long distances. In Cameroon the government does not pay for education, we must pay for our children. This is why many children do not get the chance to go.
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Question: How has Fairtrade affected your life?
Roseline: With the price of coffee being so low, farmers are having to put the money into food to survive short term and not education for their children's long term future.
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Question: What can people here do to help?
Roseline: It has given me the opportunity to go out of Cameroon to visit London and Cafédirect, something I never dreamt I could do. It gives me a fair price for my products, this makes a big difference to my standard of living. The more people who take a cup of Cafédirect, the more Cafédirect will buy from us, so more growers will benefit. Shoppers in the UK can support us this way.
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Question: Have you been to the UK before?
Roseline: No, this is my first time. I am enjoying it here. Enjoy being in a bus to see the beautiful city of London by bus. I had opportunity of going to see the Palace, taking photos of the Queen's guards. Mixing up with all the other people. Living in a nice hotel, eating foreign dishes, seeing myself in an aeroplane.
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Question: What do you think of the whole Fairtrade Scheme?
Roseline: I am happy about Fairtrade. We can send our children to school, buy medication and feed our families. We can also build better houses now.
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