Equal Exchange started with an idea: what if food could be traded in a way that is honest and fair, a way that empowers both farmers and consumers? The founders asked this question as they envisioned a trade model that values each part of the supply chain. So they took a big risk and plunged full-force into changing a broken food system. In 1986, they started with fairly traded coffee from Nicaragua and didn’t look back. Three decades later, Equal Exchange continues to be a worker-owned company that seeks out the best-tasting ingredients from small farmer co-ops and imports them as directly as possible.

Equal Exchange’s mission is to build long-term trade partnerships that are economically just and environmentally sound, to foster mutually beneficial relationships between farmers and consumers and to demonstrate, through our success, the contribution of worker co-operatives and Fair Trade to a more equitable, democratic and sustainable world. Beginning in 2010, Equal Exchange partnered with the USAID Co-operative Development Program to further our mission and leverage additional resources that would allow us to collaborate with our farmer partners in new and innovative ways.

View their website for more information: Equal Exchange – Home
Project: USAID Cooperative Development Program – Equal Exchange Resource Center