As a certified fair trade licensee, Bueno Bean Roasterie offers consumers a sustainable choice by offering premium coffee beans from small farms and farmer-run cooperatives located in the world’s finest coffee-producing regions. The Fair Trade ‘trademark’ displayed on our coffee bags is an important step towards a fairer deal for coffee farmers. It is an independent guarantee that the people who actually produce the goods really have benefitted from the exchange.

This has not always been the case…Traditionally, small farmers were caught in an impoverishing cycle with local middleman – referred to as “coyotes.” The coyotes often controlled most of the economic resources in the local community: They act as bankers, provide local transportation system, and often own the general store. as a result, the farmers depended on the coyotes to purchase their coffee – at less than the cost of production. This started the cycle of poverty because it meant that the farmers would also have to turn to the coyotes for loans to produce the next year’s crop and put food on the table.

Fair Trade organizations break the cycle of poverty by working directly with small farmers and assisting them in developing small cooperatives. The cooperative works with the Fair Trade organization and receives fairer terms of trade and a price that covers production costs, allows for investment in the community and provides for a living wage.

Bueno Bean Roasterie is certified by Transfair canada – the only independent Fair Trade certification organization in Canada.