Coffee International Visits Fair Trade Supplier in Vietnam

Coffee International Managers helping the team load some coffee plants on the trip!

Last week some of our staff from our Los Angeles office visited one of our suppliers in Vietnam to get some insights about what they are doing to ensure their beans are being grown in an environmentally friendly fashion, and to of course taste some of their delicious coffee directly from the source. The workers took our staff into the fields to show them the coffee crops and explained the best conditions for the beans to grow, and how they are keeping the soil and land protected in the growing process. This is something that is very important to us.

Our team spent several hours getting to know many of the workers and learning about their intricate growing process and about their commitment to fair trade coffee. The best part according to our team, was a toast with some fresh grown coffee straight from the fields! We wanted to thank our friends and supplier for the informative visit and for being so welcoming! We can’t wait to go back. Check our blog next month as we hope to catch up with more of our international suppliers.

Cheers to a delicious Cup of  Joe!

As you may have read on our website recently, we our now proud partners with the Rainforest Alliance and have received its coveted sustainability certification. Our partnership is very important to us so that we continue to prove our commitment to using fair trade beans and only work with ethical farmers who take care of our earth. We changed course with some of our suppliers recently who did not meet our standards, and we want to continue to ensure they all do. This is why we are very happy to work with the Rainforest Alliance, and why we are now taking the time to visit our suppliers. These visits are to ensure our suppliers meet our fair trade standards, and to follow through on our commitment to you, our valued customer. For more information on this you visit our website at www.coffeeinternational.com, and be sure to follow our Facebook and Twitter pages!

Coffee International Going Green with New Sustainability Certification

LOS ANGELES-- The coffee beans will remain brown, but Coffee International is taking a major step to ensure its green environmentally friendly practices continue. Coffee International has partnered with Rainforest Alliance, and has received the coffee industry’s coveted sustainability certification, ensuring a commitment and belief in fair trade and environmentally friendly practices.

For the Rainforest Alliance, the goals of the certification process are conservation of biodiversity and more prosperous lives for the coffee farmers. Among the environmental indicators of sustainability used by the certification process are protection of aquatic ecosystems, use of an integrated pest management program based on ecological principles, and reduced use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The social indicators include compliance with labor laws and international agreements, wages higher than or equal to the regional average and respect of workers’ right to organize unions and negotiate with employers.

Coffee International has met all criteria to receive the sustainability certification, and is committed to annual reviews and renewals of the sustainability certification to ensure its mission of providing premium coffee that is fair trade and being grown responsibly with sustainable agriculture growing practices continues. With coffee farms being the livelihood for more than 25 million people internationally (Goldschein, 2011), Coffee International knows the importance of being a fair trade and environmentally friendly company that hopes to set an important example for others.

For more information on the sustainability certification and Coffee International, please visit www.CoffeeInternational.com.

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For more information contact Ryan Foran, Coffee International Communications Director:

rforan@icoffee.net, work (626) 821-7764, cell (626) 803-7603

Goldschein, E. 2011. 11 Incredible facts about the coffee industry. Business Insider. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/facts-about-the-coffee-industry-2011-11