A Fair Trade for Haitian Coffee

This article is a profile of a non-profit business in Madison for the support of Haiti, written at a time when stories continue to flow in about the sadness that has been the earthquake relief efforts.

The outpouring of generosity and support for Haiti has been an inspiring story since the tragic earthquakes struck the impoverished Caribbean nation last month. All over the world, people are recognizing that the nation’s real problem has been the plague of poverty, something that will not be eliminated when the walls are rebuilt.

For Molly Nicaise of Madison, co-owner of the coffee company Singing Rooster with her husband Christophe, they have been paying attention to Haiti for quite some time. Molly is a marketing professional, Christophe has visited charitably several times, and the Rooster is their new product.

Singing Rooster Inc. is a non-profit company for selling Haitian grown coffee beans. Molly and her husband began their business in August of last year, starting with a $35,000 investment to buy 10,000 pounds of unroasted green coffee beans from Haiti. With the sales proceeds from the coffee, they will reinvest in another shipment of beans, and all profits earned will go to benefit HaitiProject.org.

In establishing a business to direct their charitable activities to the people of Haiti, they have generated a potentially sustainable model that could assure steady revenue for donations. Maintaining control over the business’s financial flow is important to Singing Rooster, even down to the choice in purchasing unroasted beans over the typically pre-roasted varieties.

“We wanted to buy green beans because you’ve got more control over roasting it,” said Molly. “You can package it, you can sell it, you can raise more money if you do it yourself.”

Fair trade models for distributing coffee have been influential to the design of Singing Rooster. Nicaise developed the idea when she noticed there was a lack of Haitian coffees being traded through these means.

“Coffee farmers from all over the world have been profiting from fair trade practices and people doing things like this. It’s something we certainly didn’t invent, we’re just picking up what they were doing for Haiti.”

Haitian coffee has a long history of international trade, as they once were one of the top producers of coffee in the world. This is one reason that the country was so attractive to the French colonialists, who continued to have a tight economic grip over the nation long after Haiti earned their hard-fought liberation in 1804. Exploitation of their coffee production is one reason the nation became so economically impoverished, in that Haiti never realized full autonomy over the terms of their trade.

This can also be said to be true about Haiti’s food production as well. According to the World Food Program, national agricultural production accounts for only 47 percent of the national food needs. Their ability to import sufficiently is limited by their extreme poverty, where 76 percent of Haitians live on less than $2 per day, and 56 percent on less than $1 per day.

US-led trade policies of the 1990s caused a drastic price reduction in US exported rice, which indirectly caused the price to rise for locally grown rice until it was no longer affordable on the market. Currently, 75 percent of rice consumed in Haiti has been imported from the United States. The little amount of capital they have for food consumption ends up back into the global economy, versus being reinvested in local farmers.

For Singing Rooster, creating a market for a product of Haitian agriculture is one inroad to healing a nation devastated by long-term poverty. Among the other issues the farmers face is environmental degradation, where for so long Haitians have been cutting down trees, including coffee trees to make and sell charcoal, a staple item in the local market.

“When you hear about the deforestation, you hear about the Haitians doing it to themselves, and they certainly have done themselves no favors,” said Nicaise. “But they’re feeding their families, they using (trees) to cook their food, primarily as charcoal. These are such destitute people, there is no tomorrow, it’s what are we going to eat today.”

Breaking this cycle of ecological damage is a key goal of the movement to help develop sustainable agriculture in Haiti. As part of this movement, proceeds from the Singing Rooster’s donation to the HaitiProject.org will go towards efforts to develop community gardens, as well as in support for schools, health facilities and clean water initiatives.

“They don’t want our pity, they don’t want to be looked at as desperate,” says Nicaise. “But they do know they need help, they are very grateful for the help that they’re getting right now.”

In March, Singing Rooster will host a fundraiser to support long-term economic development in Haiti. The event will be held at Just Coffee Coop, 1128 E. Wilson Street in Madison, with further details to be announced soon at www.justcoffee.coop.

Read more about Haitian coffee