Fair Trade: News & Updates

When Equal Exchange started in 1986, we purposely set out to build both a new and more equitable model of international trade and a rare-in-the-U.S. democratic business. We broke many of the conventional rules of the market with the goal to trade fairly with farmers and build democratic supply chains. The concepts of fair trade and alternative trade were barely known at that time. Today, while we are a much larger organization with more than 100 worker-owners and a significant national and international scale, we are still living our original wild-eyed dream and breaking conventions with every purchase we make from our trade partners in coffee, bananas, cocoa, and tea.

Come to the annual Fair Trade Festival and plan to make a simple purchase to change lives! This year's Fair Trade Vendors include: Revy Fair Trade, Esperanza Threads, Canaan Fair Trade, Land of Peace, Santa Rosa Stitches, Shema Store, Global Gifts Short North, JCU Fair Trade/SERRV, Mira Fair Trade, Joyce's Boutique, InterReligious TaskForce on Central America.

Join Equal Exchange in their upcoming Events on April 7, April 12, May 3, and May 24! Click here for more information and registration links

Join Equal Exchange and for a conversation with Santiago Paz Lopez, Export Manager of Coop Norandino in Peru. Santiago will be in Boston to attend the annual (but first since 2019) gathering of the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA). He will join us via Zoom to share more about the current reality for coffee farmers who have endured the pandemic as well as ongoing challenges with the climate crisis. After this unique and timely presentation we will open the virtual session to questions from participants.

We will be connecting the supply chain and hope you will join us! In this webinar we will hear from some of the important people whose work brings bananas to your stores and countertops. We'll hear about their day-to-day growing, harvesting, managing, and ripening, and about how they pivoted their businesses amidst pandemic challenges. 

Continuing in the annual tradition of celebrating our favorite fruit, the one that launched it all, we're kicking off Banana Month next week. This year we're providing more opportunities to connect with the unique Equal Exchange Banana supply chain and learn more about Fairtrade, small-scale farmer cooperatives.