Join us this Fairtrade Fortnight
Fairtrade Fortnight kicks off today!
As Insomnia celebrates 18 years of having 100% Fairtrade Coffee!
Being Fairtrade certified means that the coffee was produced according to international Fairtrade standards and it’s socially and economically fair, including the payment of a minimum price to the coffee farmers. In addition, workers and farmers receive an additional sum of money called the Fairtrade premium. This money goes to a communal fund to be used as they see fit to improve their social, economic and environmental conditions.
Every year during Fairtrade Fortnight we support a nominated Insomnia Community project and donate 5 cents from every Fairtrade coffee sold during that period. To date we have raised over €210,000.
This year, all funds raised between March 4th and 17th, will go directly to the Union of Agricultural Cooperatives, UCA San Juan de Rio Coco, Nicaragua.
The amount raised will contribute to:
- The development of La Gloria Agritourism Centre
- Providing educational, recreational, and hospitality services.
- Facilitate catering services to public, private institutions and NGOs.
The Union of Agricultural Cooperatives, UCA San Juan de Rio Coco, was founded in 1992 by members of 11 village co-operatives. UCA was Fairtrade certified in 2004. Today it has a membership of eight co-operatives and 430 individual farmers of which a quarter (106) are women. Members grow high quality coffee – on small farms of 5.6 hectares on average. UCA processes, markets and exports their coffee along with smaller amounts purchased from other local growers.
The proposed “La Gloria” Agrotourism Centre is a sustainable rural agritourism enterprise, whose objective is to improve the livelihoods of its members and to strengthen their capacities and opportunities.
The La Gloria Agrotourism Centre would fill the void that currently exists in the municipality of San Juan de Rio Coco and the department of Madriz, through the development of an old farm owned by the cooperative with different spaces such as a dining room, a multipurpose room for different events, accommodation, tourist trails offering tours of coffee plantations, with viewing points to rest, for bird watching, etc.
The project complements the agricultural production activity, mainly coffee, which is the main activity, and encourages agrotourism as an opportunity to diversify the sources of income of the members of the UCA San Juan de Rio Coco cooperative through the implementation of agritourism activities that generate jobs and income mainly in times when there is no coffee production.
The funds raised during this Fairtrade Fortnight will help the Union of Agricultural Cooperatives coffee farmers to diversify their sources of income, which ultimately will improve business capacity and empower the community.
None of this will be possible without your support, so please join us this year!