Source: Idaho Statesman
It’s not certified fair trade, but coffee supplied by a small Northern Idaho company has helped transform the lives of poor farmers in Ethiopia.
Since 2002, Dominion Trading has partnered with families and growers in the country’s Yirgacheffe region not only to produce premium whole bean Arabica coffee, but to provide health care, education and other humanitarian aid to the people of Ethiopia.
“We want to build relationships in order to create solutions and change lives,” said Mike Stemm, general manager of Dominion Trading in Liberty Lake.
The business returns 60 percent of its net profits from coffee sales to Ethiopia through profit-sharing with coffee growers and also through the New Covenant Foundation, a nonprofit also established by Stemm. So in addition to paying farmers a higher price for their coffee, Dominion Trading and the New Covenant Foundation have focused on community health care, literacy, finance, church planting and other initiatives.
Many evangelical Christian families and congregations in the area are supporting this mission by drinking the company’s coffee.
Every Sunday, members of the region’s largest church, Real Life Ministries in Post Falls, consume about 3,500 cups of Dominion Trading coffee. The coffee is also served exclusively at about a dozen other congregations in Idaho, Washington, Arizona and Colorado. Members of these churches also buy the coffee to drink at home and at their offices.
Although not certified fair trade, Dominion Trading emphasizes the way it shares profits with growers and its “holistic” approach to helping the people of Ethiopia.
“That’s a broader scope of sustainability than just paying the fair-trade price,” said Stemm, who has traveled to Ethiopia 10 times in the last three years to meet with farmers.