Boom having products developed in favorable environmental conditions that do not damage the topsoil in world trade, as well as the guarantee of the social and family conditions of the peasants, are the subject of sustainable coffee production in synthesis.
Awareness of the responsibility of humanity with the environment, makes ever more European consumers ask how are things that buy produced? and that in this way trade is obliged to offer products that have certifications and seals in the matter.
But obtaining sustainable coffee beans, also requires producers and marketers a positive series of international obligations, which are backed by social and economic conditions, the first line of the coffee production: the peasant.
The idea is that these small coffee producing not continue borrowing and losing their plots, or keeping a low quality of life due to low revenues arising from outsourcing in the sale of your coffee.
Classification of the sustainable coffee
Based on the above premise, sustainable coffee emerges as an alternative so that there is a fair and ethical trade with the environment and with the coffee growers.
Given these parameters, the National Federation of coffee growers of Colombia promotes this type of specialty coffee and classifies it in:
Environmentally friendly cafes: are recognized by their respect for the environment and biodiversity, the balance between the human and his environment through friendly farming practices.
Organic coffees: are those that are grown without the use of fertilizers, fungicides and insecticides, process which must be verified by a global specialized entity that certifies it.
The coffee farm which marketed its coffee under the heading of “organic”, is must undergo a process of certification by a certifying body, own a historical form, plan production and a map as well as keep a record of purchases of inputs, hand work, volume of dry parchment coffee and coffee sales invoices.
Fair trade coffee: tends because small producers associated in cooperatives, receive a minimum price equivalent to work purchase, never below the market price. This compensation must be supported by various social programs, that improve the basic living conditions of farmers.
Among the commitments that the producer of coffee with the seal of “fair trade”, are you receive a reward that will cover the costs of production, the basic agreements of the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Universal Declaration of human rights of the United Nations and the Declaration of the rights of the child, and ordinances that will guarantee long-term and agreements the possibility of receiving prepayments , among others.