When commodity prices fall it has dramatic flow on effect to the people and their communities.
Typically it is the worker that suffers most. It can have a catastrophic impact on the lives of millions of small scale producers, forcing many into crippling debt and thousands others to lose their land, homes and destroy their quality of lives. Many of the farmers are making actually losses on their crops as they are forced to sell at drastically low prices.
There's the quality issue to look at as well. In the medium term it can have a marked negative effect on the environment of how the beans are grown, the standard of the goods - and the care that they are produced with.
The result of this market madness? (Temporarily) lower prices but at a heavy social cost. There is also often a decline in the overall standard of coffee beans produced and a lingeringly bitter aftertaste for the world coffee community.
With this trend continuing the long term future of coffee growing, producing and consuming would be grim indeed. That's where Fair Trade Coffee is an essential part of the long term sustainance of our industry and welfare of its' people.
Fairtrade products are grown by small farmers or plantation workers, who are meticulous about their business and generally pick their crop with great care. They have often grown up knowing nothing else but coffee, with their forefathers teaching them the tricks and trades of the industry so they have become agricultural masters. They talk passionate about their beans, their way of life, and their families.
Their passion and care can be tasted in every cup of Puro