Coffee farmer's Fairtrade message

from This Is Wiltshire

A COFFEE farmer from Central America visited Trowbridge on Thursday to talk about getting a better deal for farmers across the world.

Marta Danelia González Espino is a 45-year-old coffee farmer from Nicaragua.

Together with her interpreter Maria Magdalena Gonzalez de Cunningham, 24, she held a coffee tasting session at St Andrew's Book Shop in Church Street, Trowbridge, as well as visiting pupils at St Augustine's School in Wingfield Road, Trowbridge.

Ms Espino is travelling throughout the south west promoting the Fairtrade organisation.

Fairtrade makes sure more of the money we pay for certain goods in the high street reaches the farmers direct rather than being swallowed up by big companies, middle-men and other traders.

When more of the money goes direct to the producer they get a fairer price for their goods and can use the extra money to send their children to school, escape poverty and invest in their local community.

Ms Espino has just become a Fairtrade farmer and is seeing the benefits. She said: "Fairtrade helps our community. With their help we can send some of our children to school whereas very few would go before. The more it spreads the more children we can send to school.

"Also we can look after our beautiful environment better because we have more money. It enables us to stop using chemicals to treat the plants and the quality of the coffee improves. There are so many positive knock on effects."

Ms Espino runs a farm with her brother in Nicaragua, where the coffee beans mature on the plant for up to four years. She roasts the beans from her farm herself and cooks them in water over an open fire. She prefers her coffee neat and black.

Miss Gonzalez de Cunningham, the interpreter, is more of a cappuccino fan. She also hand roasts the beans in her home country of Guatemala but prefers the French style caffitiere method of making coffee.

Liz Bateman runs St Andrew's Bookshop and hosted the coffee tasting session to promote Fairtrade.

She said: "We have lots of Fairtrade produce available including coffee, chocolate, tea, dried nuts, honey, sugar, pasta, clothes and plenty of gifts ideas.

"If people pay fair prices to people then their communities will have the opportunity to develop and move forward."

*Other events have been organised this weekend to mark Fairtrade Fortnight, including a coffee morning and craft sale organised by Bradford on Avon Oxfam group at the Quaker Meeting House in Whiteheads Lane from 10am to 12.30pm.