The Origin Story of Indonesian Rainforest Coffee. What is the difference between Rainforest Coffee and ordinary Coffee?

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Wu Tzu-Yu, who graduated from the law department of National Taiwan University, gave up the broad road of lawyers and magistrates to participate in post-disaster reconstruction work in his hometown Dongshi after the 921 earthquake in 1988. after the 2004 tsunami in South Asia, he visited Indonesia's worst-hit Aceh province, and then participated in the environmental sustainable development program in the village of Bakkara in northern Sumatra, where he worked as a volunteer for several years.

Wu Ziyu learned locally that Indonesia produces 350000 metric tons of coffee a year and is the fourth largest exporter of raw beans in the world, while the rainforest in Sumatra is disappearing at a rate of 2 million hectares a year. She is even more surprised to realize that at this stage, Taiwan's living consumption depends on global resources. it takes 29 Taiwan to support it. "We are all environmental 'exploiters'" coupled with the price of coffee is determined by the international futures market. The profit of a can of coffee is about 55%, which falls into large multinational food enterprises such as Nestle, while retailers get about 25%. Exporters get 10%, as much as the farmers who pay the most labor, so that the living standards of many local coffee farmers are on the poverty line defined by the United Nations.

As a developed country after economic take-off, does Taiwan bear some responsibility to the earth and to the poorer countries? Wu Ziyu decided to connect Taiwan and Indonesia through fair trade in coffee to care for rainforest conservation and farmers and students in Sumatra.

Core idea: what's the difference between rainforest coffee and fair trade in general?

Place of origin trading channel this is the process through which coffee is produced, acquired, and then exported to consumers: in coffee producing areas, the first-line purchasers are cooperatives made up of farmers, usually controlling 20-40 farmers. farmers sell beans to the same purchaser all their lives. Usually only the opinion leaders in the village and those with machinery and equipment can become front-line purchasers, while the only thing the average farmer can master is to work hard in the coffee garden.

At present, almost all the Fairtrade coffee sold in Taiwan is purchased from general large Fairtrade organizations, such as FLO (Fairtrade International). FLO carries out Fairtrade certification for front-line buyers and then sells its coffee to manufacturers in cooperation with FLO.

Wu Ziyu observed that local cooperatives set up by the International Fair Trade Organization are often misappropriated by a small number of leaders or colluded with front-line acquirers, while farmers who should be distributed with rewarded profits are excluded. Therefore, what Wu Ziyu Rainforest Coffee needs to do is to go directly to the producing areas to purchase directly from farmers. "Rainforest Coffee follows the social enterprise route, where profits are not distributed to shareholders, but to local farmers."

Fair trade is the starting point, and the follow-up "rainforest project" will devote the surplus of rainforest coffee to the care and restoration of tropical rainforest.

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