Working together to end poverty and injustice

Meet Tadesse Meskela

Tadesse Meskela has overcome many obstacles to bring Ethiopian coffee farmers a fair price for their produce.

“Our hope is one day the consumer will understand what they are drinking and how the producers are highly affected."

In May 2011 Oxfam welcomed a visit from Tadesse Meskela, the General Manager of the Oromia Coffee Farmers Co-operative Union in Ethiopia. Tadesse, an icon of the Fairtrade movement, was in New Zealand on a trip hosted by Trade Aid.

Oromia co-operatives produce some of the finest Fairtrade coffee on sale in New Zealand. The responsibility he shoulders can’t be underestimated. He represents 101 co-operatives and the livelihoods of over 74,000 coffee farmers, which including their families, is over half a million people.

A route out of poverty

Tadesse grew up in the countryside outside Addis Ababa in a poor family. For many years, they couldn’t afford to buy him a pair of shoes or give him a packed lunch for school. Tadesse had to walk in bare feet for two hours to school and two hours home again.

Determined to find a way out of poverty, Tadesse worked hard and won a place at university. By the early 1990s he was working as a senior expert in the state Agricultural Bureau and after a training placement in Japan, Tadesse was inspired to develop a co-operative union system as a way for coffee farmers to retain the huge sums of money being paid out for the services of middlemen and exporters.

Improving incomes for farmers

In 1999, the Oromia Coffee Farmers Co-operative Union was established with an aim to improve farmers’ income, improve the quality and sustainability of coffee production and to regulate the local market. It is now the largest Fairtrade certified coffee union in Ethiopia.
Sales of the co-operative’s Fairtrade coffee have experienced strong growth here in New Zealand since it went on sale in 2005.

The Total Fairtrade Premium paid to the co-operative between 2004/8 from purchases in Australian and New Zealand was over $275,000. The Fairtrade Premium can be used to support development projects democratically chosen by the members of the co-operative.

Real benefits

Thanks to Fairtrade, Coffee farmers in Ethiopia have access to new schools, health centres, clean water and more.

The benefits from selling to the Fairtrade market have reached more than 187,000 people, with projects ranging from bridges and boreholes to flour mills and a new high school. The Fairtrade premium has helped the co-operative build four primary schools, seventeen classrooms, four health centres and two clean water supply systems. They’ve also purchased two washing stations to wash the coffee beans, which increases the value of their product on the market, and installed a cereal grinding machine to reduce the cost of milling grain, leaving the famers with money to spend on other essentials and increasing food security in the area.

There are still 40 projects on the way to completion next year. If this wasn’t impressive enough, the co-operative has been responsible for training nearly 19,000 people, with necessary skills such as accounting, promotions and coffee processing. Nearly 25,000 jobs have been created.

Ray of hope

“With Fairtrade, coffee farmers in Ethiopia are getting their deserved reward. To put it simply, the picture of unequal dynamics is being reversed day by day, week after week, month after month. And over the past few years, I can see a ray of hope,” says Tadesse.

Asked if he had any advice for farmers considering going into Fairtrade, Tadesse replied: “Firstly, know the rules of Fairtrade, and fulfil them. Know the structures and requirements, and ensure that organisationally, you are ready. Once you’ve met these requirements, ensure that you are selling a good quality product. People pay more for the Fairtrade premium, so you have to deeply care about the produce you are delivering. Thirdly, you’ll need honesty and transparency in the way you run your business. Fourthly, get more women involved in decision making and make sure they are included at Board level. And finally, care for your environment – it’s there for us to use and protect.”

• Tadesse is renowned for appearing in the documentary Black Gold, which explores the links between the multinational companies that control the coffee trade and the grinding poverty that pervades Ethiopia’s rural communities.
• Read more on the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative, Ethiopia (PDF 200KB)
• Find out more about Fairtrade coffee
• Oxfam's Biggest Coffee Break 2011