The start
To start the solidarity trade network, we chose the sector of coffee, which is one of the most largely distributed commodities over the world and with a large number of organic, and fair trade producers and initiatives. Although the challenge of implementing a new business concept in such a competitive sector is a risk, we also believe that the small producers of this sector are the ones who get the smallest profits for their work and for the immobilization they make of their land by planting coffee. Therefore, this sector is one where the benefits of using the platform can be quickly seen.
We have identified a cleaning station located in Burundi that works with about 2,500 small producers. This washing station, which is for coffee the first level of processing (primary processing), has agreed to a partnership.
We will thus identify about 2,500 producers and obtain sufficient data from them to estimate their quality of life and get the zero state prior to the implementation of the solidarity trade system.
We also have a first group of coffee transformers that fully supports the concepts and will perform the first purchases on the platform.
One of these transformers is taking part in the crowd-funding financing campaign as a partner of the platform.
We are convinced that the crowd-funding financing campaign will enable many transformers and groups of producers or cooperatives to take an interest in the platform and to become members of it, in order to quickly make it functional and offer the opportunity for consumers to get coffee from the fair trade through a short channel and to be able to interact directly with the sector according to their interests and convictions.
