Aiding Growers: Link African Coffee Growers to The Consumers

"They [the coffee farmers] were told that the price of coffee had dropped, even when it hadn't. The daily closing price of coffee was broadcast on national radio, but only 2 percent of 700,000 farmers had access to one.

"Kettler hit upon the idea of bringing wind-up radios to farmers as a way to alleviate isolation of coffee co-ops, which often are made up of hundreds or thousands of farmers."

I think this idea of providing Ethiopian coffee farmers with access to the radio waves should be a part of the implementation of the coffee trademark project. Unless the farmers are able to follow the price movement in the coffee market, they will continue to live at the mercy of the middlemen and exporters.

Mr. Kettler's efforts need to be supported. What do you think? Send your ideas to me at poorfarmer@gmail.com
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Aiding Growers: One Madison man sets out to link African coffee growers to the consumers

DEBORAH ZIFF
608-252-6120
dziff@madison.com
Madison.Com – Wisconsin State Journal

June 17, 2007

In a small warehouse on Madison's Southeast Side, Peter Kettler stands among stacks of 150-pound jute fabric bags of green coffee beans from Nicaragua, Kenya, Brazil and other coffee-growing countries.

He's been to many of the farms in tropical locales where the coffee is grown, choosing the best beans and moving hundreds of bags through his warehouse to local coffee roasters.

He is the liaison between the coffee bean growers and the cup of steaming hot coffee passed over the counter at specialty coffee shops.

But forget the image of an importer trying to skim dollars at every turn; Kettler is making an effort to make sure subsistence farmers are treated fairly.

"I don't like the term middleman," he said. "Middlemen get a bad rap. They're seen as vultures on the process."

After observing inequities in the coffee supply chain, Kettler founded the Coffee Lifeline Project, which brings radios and informational programming to coffee farmers in the African nation of Rwanda. He hopes to expand the project globally.

"You have people at the very beginning of the supply chain who couldn't put food on the table," Kettler said, "and people were paying $3 for a mocha at Starbucks."

Bringing radio waves to the growers

A few years ago, Kettler was wading through literature from the coffee industry when, near the bottom of the pile, he noticed a human-interest story about the hardships facing Ethiopian coffee farmers. The article said growers were being taken advantage of by collectors. They were told that the price of coffee had dropped, even when it hadn't. The daily closing price of coffee was broadcast on national radio, but only 2 percent of 700,000 farmers had access to one.

Kettler hit upon the idea of bringing wind-up radios to farmers as a way to alleviate isolation of coffee co-ops, which often are made up of hundreds or thousands of farmers.

He found a partner in the Freeplay Foundation, a registered charity in South Africa and the United Kingdom. He was drawn to the organization because of its past work in linking communities. The colorful, rugged Freeplay Lifeline radios rely on a crank and solar-panels for power, rather than batteries. It can receive AM, FM and shortwave stations.

Kettler approached industry leaders looking for donors to help pay for radios, and soon had enough for about 60 units, at a cost of $50 each. (Since then, the price has gone up to about $65.) But he had estimated he would need 10,000 radios to cover all of Ethiopia.

So he turned his sights to Rwanda, because it is small, the size of Maryland, and about 90 percent of the people are subsistence farmers. The country has been trying to rebuild its coffee infrastructure since the 1994 genocide decimated its economy.

In 2005, he distributed 60 or 70 radios to listening groups in Rwanda, each made up of about 20 farmers and their families. But he realized that the project could be even more effective if radio programming included more than just coffee prices.

"Radio is still the No. 1 vehicle for communicating," Kettler said. "Usually everyone would listen to the radio between eight and nine hours per day, even when out in the fields. That's all they've got."

So he started working with a community radio station associated with the National University of Rwanda to create a radio show specifically for coffee farmers. It includes market and farming tips and information for getting certified as organic and Fair Trade. It also features information on AIDS and women's health, and a children's segment.

The radio show, which translates roughly into "bright future," started broadcasting May 5. He has also collaborated with the Population Media Center, which received a grant to broadcast a serial radio drama about a Rwandan coffee farmer.

Providing a connection

Kettler is part of a movement that strives to bring social responsibility to coffee, an industry that has seen the rise of the Fair Trade Certification system, the organic movement and many aid projects stemming from the purchase of certain types of coffee.

Madison's Ancora Coffee Roasters has agreed to donate $1 from every pound sold of its Rwanda A1 Gikongoro Bufcafe coffee to the Coffee Lifeline Project. To date, the company, based at 3701 Orin Road, has donated about $3,000. It also sells a "give-back gift pack," with blends that support Porchlight (a Madison agency that operates homeless shelters and provides low-cost housing), the AIDS Network and Rwanda.

"We've promoted this because of the opportunity to be socially conscious," said Ancora owner George Krug. "It's an opportunity for a consumer to think, When I buy this coffee, I'm helping to make a difference in someone's life in Rwanda.' For a lot of people, that's a really important connection for them to make. That makes people feel good."

Kettler, who heads the Midwest office of Holland Coffee Group at 3010 Progress Road, said people in the coffee industry don't want to be part of something that exploits others.
"The specialty coffee industry as a whole is the first global industry to really raise their collective hands and say we really care about sustainability," he said.

The man behind the coffee

Kettler returned a few weeks ago from his most recent trip to Rwanda, where he distributed 300 radios. The total number in use is now at 500, with 700 more on the way.

Kettler spends up to half the year traveling to the places where coffee is grown (typically in countries 9 degrees on each side of the equator), but he's careful to keep his business separate from the philanthropic project so there's no appearance of impropriety. For this reason, he doesn't import Rwandan coffee.

"He's pretty self-effacing," said Christy Gibbs, sales and marketing coordinator for Ancora. "He's not willing to put himself in the spotlight. I think that's part of his success at humanitarian efforts."

For someone whose life is so seeped in coffee, Kettler drinks surprisingly small amounts of it, about two cups a day, he said.

"I appreciate a good cup of coffee as much or sometimes more than anyone," he said. "But the thing that really holds my interest are the people that are involved in it. When you go to countries and you see what an impact coffee has on economies, culture and social structure, that's really an interesting thing to me."