WORDS Domenica Settle PHOTO Raku Pitt

Fair trade groups show us that combatting global poverty doesn't have to be about charity – it can be good business too.

Dylan Tromp emerges at the entrance of the Jasper Coffee warehouse in Collingwood, Melbourne wearing a coat, tie, and giant skater pants. Before I have a chance to find my notebook, he bounces inside and starts pointing enthusiastically at sacks of coffee.

'This is Café Femenino. It's from the foothills of the Andes', he says with pride. 'This is Mexican coffee... This is Costa Rican...What have we got here?'

He pauses in the light-filled warehouse, where he works as Fair Trade Manager for the first Victorian company to roast fair trade coffee. 'Ah! This is our newest coffee. This is fantastic...This is just off the boat from Ethiopia, it's our first African fair trade coffee...We are so happy!'

He adds as an afterthought: 'It tastes kind of like a sweet malty cannonball, basically knocking you over with a great kind of caffeine pleasure.'

Brigid Corcoron is the coordinator of the Good Shepherd Trading Circle and in love with the handicrafts she sells. She pulls out cards with mini African dolls sewed onto them, and gushes about hand-made toys.

'In South America, Peru's my favourite', she says, 'because they've got the most amazing colours in their stuff.'

The Trading Circle sells products made by people who are paid a fair price for their work. It sounds simple, but when Sister Suzette Clark of the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council explains most trading relations she quotes Ghana's Dr Robert Aboagye-Mensah: 'International trade between my country and the west is like an antelope and a giraffe competing for food which is at the top of the tree.'

The result of an unequal world is unfair deals and unfair prices, and the spread of free trade is squeezing the producers of the majority, or developing, world tighter and tighter.

In 1986, Mexican farmers decided to do something about this, and started work on the world's first fair trade label. In 2006 Dylan, Brigid, and Sister Suzette, in conjunction with people throughout the first and third worlds, are using fair trade to change things.

Fair trade products pay majority world farmers a fair and reliable price and cut out the 'middle men' in the export chain, arriving at consumers at not much more than the regular commercial price. The process is backed up by rigorous certification through the Fair Trade Labelling Organisation – because while organisations like Good Shepherd might be trustworthy, many companies are quick to claim high labour standards, with no independent monitoring to verify their claims.

'I think the important thing is that it's not a charity', says Brigid, surrounded by the beautiful objects in the Good Shepherd's Abbotsford shop. 'It's where you have a respectful relationship with the producers, who often produce just really, really great stuff. And they're respected for their craftsmanship and paid a fair and just wage. It just makes sense, really.'

Where Dylan and Brigid are enthusiastic, Sister Suzette Clark has a passion for trade justice which—like her speech—is slow, measured and deeply tied to her faith. Her fight against poverty has taken her to England, Switzerland and India. She has written a book about it and has attended more meetings and workshops than she can remember.

'The scriptures and Catholic social teaching give a clear priority to the poor, calling for an attitude of compassion, a readiness for us to use and share our power and resources to alleviate and eradicate poverty', she explains. 'The wealthy—and that means wealthy countries as well as individuals—I think they're invited to respond to God's call, to use their position and their power to ensure a fair distribution of the world's resources. I think that's what Christianity is about.'

'You know what I would love?' says Dylan. 'I would love when most people are drinking fair trade coffee or buying a fair trade product, that most of them are barely even aware that they're doing it...And they don't have to go and hunt for the products any more, they're just the products that are available, fair trade certified.'

For Suzette, however, awareness is important and fair trade is part of a bigger picture. She talks about 'trade justice'—changing the trade rules that create poverty, instead of merely buying products from people who have managed to side-step this system. Buying fair trade is part of her vision for a better world, but 'I think it's fair to say that it's not just one thing that's going to be of use, but rather trade, aid and debt relief are necessary for this fight against poverty.'

'Community Aid Abroad [Oxfam], Jubilee Australia, these are all organisations which have campaigns going', she points out. 'Make Poverty History is a huge campaign. I think a lot of schools have picked it up, but there needs to be a lot more awareness of the message and engagement in activities...Make Poverty History is an opportunity for all Australians to unite to do something about alleviating poverty.'

Back in the Jasper Coffee warehouse, Dylan is getting excited by the flavour of coffee from Ethiopia's largest fair trade cooperative, which is not only 'cannonbally', but also chocolatey and earthy. The hard work of the Ethiopian cooperative members, plus the hard work of people like Brigid, Suzette and Dylan in consuming countries, might one day change the story for producers and make the world a fairer place.

Ethiopian coffee farmer Mohammed Ali Indris' story echoes those of producers throughout the majority world.

'Five to seven years ago, I was producing seven sacks of red cherry (unprocessed coffee) and this was enough to buy clothes, medicines, services and to solve so many problems', he told Oxfam. 'But now even if I sell four times as much, it is impossible to cover all my expenses...We have stopped buying teff (a staple starch) and edible oil. We are eating mainly corn. The children's skin is getting dry and they are showing signs of malnutrition.'

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