Fair Trade Alliance Kerala / Elements

Fair Trade Alliance Kerala

Fair Trade Alliance Kerala (FTAK) came in to being at a time when farming as an activity and the peasantry as a social segment were being relegated to the margins of society. Agrarian Kerala was then reeling under the double impact of the steep fall in commodity prices and crop failures. Agrarian debt mounted and farmers were resorting to desperate measures, unable to cope.

A motley group of farmers, most of them representing mass peasant organisations that were fighting agrarian indebtedness and the devastating impact of the neo liberal policies on the peasantry came together on December 17, 2005 at the Elements Organic store in Kozhikode and formed themselves in to Fair Trade Alliance Kerala.

The organisation promotes the adoption of various organic and environment friendly farming standards and other relevant social, environmental or sustainability standards that can enhance the intrinsic quality of its product offering to the market, while improving the environmental sustainability of the homestead farming ecosystem and household economy. The 3 pillars of its interventions in the farming sector are bio diversity, food security and gender justice.

FTAK offer triple certified Robusta Coffee grown in the misty Wayanad hills.They are Organic, Fair Trade and Rainforest Alliance certified.The coffee farms are located in the Western Ghats, a World Heritage Site and is part of the Nilgiri biosphere, a bio diversity hotspot. The Organic certification is accorded by third party inspections and by a robust Participatory Guarantee System (PGS). The coffee is also Fair Trade certified both under SPP and Fairtrade International certification regimes. Ours is the first Fairtrade certified coffee from the Indian subcontinent and is patronised by discerning roasters in Italy, the U.K, the U.S, Switzerland and Canada.