This was the first time for World Vision to engage in a commercial partnership.
We took normal steps, first to receive samples, cup and assess and to find out more about the Coop. The coffee in the cup was excellent and confirmed the next steps. We worked with World Vision over the following 9 months and were able to achieve the Organic Certification and Fairtrade registration through YCFCU, the umbrella Coop, along with the Primary Hama Coop.
As a certified Fairtrade coffee, growers gain an above market price, directly assisting their families with better living conditions.
We then worked with Scott Bennet from HA Bennett to import the first shipment of well processed fully washed arabicas from this high altitude garden forest in Ethiopia.
The coffee was a great success and volumes climbed rapidly so that from the second harvest we were able to bring a full container.
We understand that because of our sales and the Fairtrade Organic (FTO) pricing and Premium, and assurance of our commitment, the producers and their families were able to plan for the future.
They invested in an old truck to help them carry the cherry to the pulp mill and wet process station.
They regained a sense of pride and commercial reason to continue to grow coffee.
As our sales grew, so the growers have used these funds to buy new pulping machinery, buy a new Processing Mill for Naturals, install new equipment for a newly built warehouse, build new toilets in schools and trained new staff in administration and coffee quality, eradicate old debts and empower themselves to make bold decisions.
We visited the Coop in 2010 and met Takele Mammo, the YCFCU Chairman who had recently taken up this role and who was already adding commercial impetus to the decision making of the Coop for its members.
We already knew how complex, clean and full of taste this coffee presented in the cup, but on the wall of the Coop is a framed, award for 1st Prize at East Africa Cupping Championships just 2 years earlier.
WOW!!! This should humble all those doubters about the amazing qualities of Fairtrade coffee.
Our personal connection with the HAMA Coop people is rewarding and inspiring. They are happy that Jasper Coffee has worked with World Vision to make a difference to their lives. We presented to them, a pack of their own coffee, which had been on the long journey from themselves, to Jasper Coffee and back to them. This is a relationship connection and personalises the partnership beyond just names of places and lot numbers. They were astonished that we cared to print their story on the pack. For us this is the important stuff of re humanising the coffee supply chain.
From this meeting, the people could understand our commitment as real identities rather than a corporate logo. This is beyond commercial partnership.
In 2012, on our return to Ethiopia, we delivered photographs from the previous journey.
In 2013, we diverted our World Vision levies and sponsored an Agronomist, Shawn Steiman, from Hawaii, to attend Yirgacheffe and report on their coffee growing practice, with recommendations for improvements. We had this report translated to Amharic so that the farmers can use it in the field. We are now working with the growers to implement these recommendations.
This is one of our exceptional coffees around the daily morning cupping bench. Get it into that Filter brewer and sip it slowly. We do.
‘Enjoying Jasper Fairtrade coffee is a truly easy way for Australians to help change lives and support a sustainable future for the environment’. - Tim Costello, CEO World Vision.
Jasper Coffee and World Vision Together, are Changing Lives.