ZENSHO ACTION

Zensho 's initiatives through food

New collaboration with producers' cooperative begins [East Timor]

2024.10.31

In July 2024, members of the Fair Trade Department visited East Timor.

Zensho Fairtrade began its efforts in East Timor in 2007 and has continued its activities there for 17 years in collaboration with Japanese NGOs. During that time, it has worked to improve the production environment, such as purchasing coffee collection trucks and constructing coffee storage warehouses, to support producers in obtaining organic JAS certification, which leads to increased income and environmental conservation, and to improve living conditions through the construction of water supply facilities.

The Fair Trade Department is currently visiting producers around the world to meet the increasing demand for coffee served to customers at Zensho Group stores. This time, we made our first visit to the office of a producers' cooperative that is newly starting a fair trade initiative. We introduced our company and explained Zensho 's fair trade efforts. By meeting and talking directly with the producers, we built a cooperative relationship for the initiatives that will begin soon.

This producers' cooperative is guided by the principles of "the struggle for land reform to build a just and sovereign agricultural society, collectivism, solidarity, social equality, and living in a spirit of sustainability for future generations."

The representative of the producers' cooperative said, "Up until now, we have been fighting for our land rights since the land reform. With coffee, various middlemen have been involved, and the buyers have been the ones who have benefited economically, while the economic situation of the producers has not improved. This is the first time since East Timor gained independence that we have been able to access the fair trade market, and we are truly grateful for the possibility that we can now pave the way to self-reliance through coffee by delivering high-quality coffee."

Finally, everyone exchanged heartfelt words of encouragement, saying, "Let's build a long-term cooperative relationship together from now on," and the meeting concluded.