Java Justice: Christian Organizations Work Together to Ease Poverty Among Nicaragua’s Coffee Farmers

Catholic Relief Services
Thursday, 16 October 2003

Three Baltimore-based international relief and development organizations are banding together to make sure your next cup of coffee really will be good to the last drop.

Catholic Relief Services, Lutheran World Relief and World Relief tomorrow will sign a pact with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), to work together to ease the poverty faced by thousands of small coffee farmers in Nicaragua. Their method will be two-fold: by offering throughout the United States—particularly to Catholics, Lutherans and Evangelicals—coffee purchased at prices that allow farmers to earn a living wage; and by helping the farmers in Nicaragua diversify their crops and meet high coffee quality standards.

USAID is expected to underwrite the program with a more than $1 million grant designated to specifically help small coffee farmers in Nicaragua. The project reflects Bush Administration efforts to provide more funding to U.S. faith-based organizations that work in innovative and effective ways to meet the needs of the poor and marginalized.

Ultimately, the program hopes to increase U.S. demand for fair-trade coffee, which ensures that farmers receive a guaranteed minimum price for their coffee—$1.26 for conventionally grown coffee and $1.41 for organic. Together the three organizations have the potential to open the fair-trade coffee market to 65 million U.S. Catholics and 48 million people who are members of the U.S. Lutheran and Evangelical churches.

The Plight of Coffee Farmers in Nicaragua

• Nicaragua coffee farmers face the worst crisis in 30 years due to the plunge in international coffee prices.


• The price of conventionally grown coffee on the international market is about .42 cents per pound; organic coffee prices fluctuate between .65 and .85 cents per pound.


• A recent CRS analysis found it costs farmers they serve in Nicaragua more than .43 cents per pound to produce organic coffee.


• One-third of the Nicaraguan workforce is either fully or partially dependent on income linked to coffee production.


• Nicaragua has historically produced about 200 million pounds of coffee annually; over the past two years, however, the levels of production have plummeted to an estimated 70 million pounds this year.


• The result: Rural families abandon fields in desperation to find work in cities. Farmers are forced to sell lands they've held for generations. Local governments provide only limited, if any, social services because their coffers, too, have been stretched to their limits.


• One solution: Parish-based fair trade projects in the United States are already offering hope to farmers like these. Some 7,000 U.S. parishes currently participate in fair-trade coffee projects. Parishes in the Lutheran World Relief Coffee Project purchased 45 tons of fairly trade coffee last year. CRS will launch its fair-trade coffee project among U.S. Catholic parishes next month.

Background of organizations

Catholic Relief Services is marking its 60th year as the official international relief and development agency of the U.S. Catholic community. The agency provides assistance to people in more than 90 countries and territories on the basis of need, not race, creed or nationality.

Lutheran World Relief works with partner organizations in 50 countries to help people build livelihoods, grow food, improve health, strengthen communities, end conflicts and recover from disasters. The agency moved to Baltimore in 1999 from New York.

For more information, or to contact Catholic Relief Services, see their website at: www.catholicrelief.org