One of my favourite co-ops is Revolver based in Wolverhampton. Paul Birch the inspiration behind it has
had a long career in the music business and came to fair trade sourcing fair
trade cotton for bands T-shirts.
Paul felt that the new found desire for provenance in coffee
played to the fair trade agenda in a new way. The need to identify the region
or even estate the coffee had come from meant you could ensure higher quality
and have a real relationship with the producers.
His second idea was that fair trade was not fair enough. If
Nestle or Wal-Mart could get the fair trade logo on their products it was far
too easy!
So what was to be done? Well if you formed a co-op with
membership available to both producers and consumers you could make the
connection that the original idea of fair trade was meant to be all about.
So far so good. The business was growing steadily in a very
competitive market place when the chance arose to include Cuban coffee to the
range.
It was crystal mountain coffee grown by some two hundred
farmers around the Sopapo-Mayare plateau in the Cuatro Vientos region, nestled
in the valleys of the Sierra del Escambray Mountains frequent rain produces a perfect
mico-climate. The soil rich in mica and quartz crystal deposits gives the
coffee its name.
The coffee cherries are handpicked and naturally sundried
before being bought to Cumanayagua for processing it has a highly intense aroma
with an elegant and delicate sweetness.
Following meetings with the Cubans and a visit to Cuban this
soon became their best seller. Unsurprisingly when you taste its rich, strong
and rounded flavour with very low acidity - perfect for after dinner by ensuring
that the coffee was lightly roasted as much of this magnificent flavour as
possible was preserved.
Demand for this magnificent coffee had been growing steadily.
Like many small businesses internet trading has been a real boon. Then a customer
trying to pay for some Cuban Coffee online through paypal received an email it began,
“Paypal’s Compliance Department has
reviewed your account and identified activity that is in violation of United States
regulations administered by the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign
Assets Control (OFAC).”
It went on: “It has
come to our attention that you initiated a payment for the purchase of an item
of Cuban origin. To ensure that future activity and transactions comply with
current regulations, PayPal is requesting that you complete the following appeal
step: Agree to no longer undertake activities in violation of laws, regulations
and rules as outlined in PayPal's User Agreement . Any further violations will result in the
closure of your account. As a result of the violation, details of your account
and the transaction have been reported to OFAC.”
Anyone who doesn’t know, as they didn’t at the time the,
Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Department of the Treasury enforces
economic sanctions based on US foreign policy and national security goals
against targeted foreign countries and regimes, terrorists, international
narcotics traffickers, those engaged in activities related to the proliferation
of weapons of mass destruction, and other threats to the national security,
foreign policy or economy of the United States.”
A British company being paid by a firm based in Luxembourg selling
Cuban coffee is perfectly legal. But often bigger firms often give up at this
point because they want to do other business in the US. These extraterritorial
sanctions are holding Cuba
back. Then came their second set back. One
of the companies which had been distributing their coffee to retailers in the
midlands particularly to retail co-ops went bust owing them money and breaking
the supply chain.
A less resilient group of people could given up. Finance
frozen supply chain bust. This was a very serious setback. However they are
made of sterner stuff.
They arranged to sell the coffee through the Cuba Solidarity
website (where you can get the ground and beans). They spent months getting
their pay pal account unfrozen and they are rebuilding their web site.
Now working with the Cubans they are looking at importing
and marketing other commodities, including rum, honey and beer. There is no
doubt that these issues have damaged the business but it is still standing and
being a threat to the United
States is a real honour. To grow and take
support for Cuba to a new level they really need more member investors. Their
experience has made them more determined to succeed than ever!
If you want to help break the embargo and get a great cup of
coffee go to: www.Revolverworld.com and note members get free delivery!
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