+6 Feel Good, Trade Fair
Mondo Solidale is an organization that promotes fair trade. It has 16 stores throughout the Marche region, including this one on Via Giuseppe Mazzini in Urbino, mostly run by volunteers. Here, volunteer Michela Pescetto climbs a ladder to retrieve a woven dream catcher for a customer in the shop.
Feel Good, Trade Fair
Feel Good, Trade Fair
Feel Good, Trade Fair
Feel Good, Trade Fair
Feel Good, Trade Fair
Feel Good, Trade Fair
Feel Good, Trade Fair
Feel Good, Trade Fair
The rich aroma of freshly brewed coffee brushes against your nostrils as you enter the coffee shop. While you wait, your mind begins to wander, thinking about what you have planned for the day, what you will cook for dinner, or what you will bring to your office party next week. Then the barista calls, you grab your drink, and continue about your day.
But have you once stopped to think about the hands that prepared these coffee beans that you enjoy?
Massimo Mogiatti has, for more than twenty years. In 1993, Mogiatti co-founded Mondo Solidale—“world of solidarity”—a fair trade cooperative in the Marche region focused on creating equitable income for products from developing countries. In 2003, Mondo Solidale started a project with coffee growers in Guatemala, aimed at getting them paid a living wage for their labor. In September 2012, Mogiatti decided to focus solely on fair trade coffee and created Shadhilly, which now also has cooperatives in India, Haiti, and Uganda. And, for 25 years, he and the people behind Mondo Solidale have tried to educate others so that they will stop to think about the hands that produce the beans for the coffee they drink.
In Fano, at Shadhilly’s headquarters, Mogiatti slides open the green warehouse doors, revealing a huge white room. To the right is a custom coffee machine and burlap bags filled with coffee ready to be distributed in the Marche region and other parts of the world. The stores that participate in the fair trade world are ensuring that their products are sold at an ethical rate and producers are guaranteed proper payment for their labor. Typically, businesses like Shadhilly compete with larger corporations like the European chain stores Conad and Coop to grow and profit in the coffee industry. Carlo Mogiatti, export manager and son of the mastermind behind Shadhilly, ties his apron and prepares to serve a fresh batch of coffee. Mogiatti and Carlo then prop themselves against the burlap sacks to explain how Shadhilly came about.
In 2002, a Guatemalan working in Italy came to Mondo Solidale in Fano ready to tell his story. He explained that the price of coffee had dropped below $100 a sack and was continuing to fall. Many farmers were not being offered even half that amount for their coffee sacks, and while prices plummeted for coffee growers, large corporations increased their earnings. Guatemalan coffee growers had lost over $300 million since the end of 2000. Many farmers and their families had resorted to producing a lower-grade coffee or made the decision to immigrate to a new land.
That same year Mogiatti and others from Mondo Solidale traveled to El Bosque, Guatemala, to witness the problems first-hand. They saw children roaming the streets because there were no schools, abandoned crops, and people needing work. Mogiatti remembers seeing young boys waiting until they were old enough to leave their country because they saw how bad it was for their fathers and grandfathers. “These people do not want to leave their homes, so our goal was to help them,” says Mogiatti.
Mondo Solidale partnered with El Bosque to set up the cooperative La Nueva Esperanza, and registered Anacafé and Inacoop as cooperatives. The partnership allowed for the Guatemalan farmers to produce 100 percent Arabica coffee, which is known for its sweet taste, while also receiving adequate income and building relationships with other businesses. Mogiatti and members of Mondo Solidale sat with coffee farmers in Guatemala and created a price for the importation of coffee bags. “The people in Guatemala were planning to leave the plantation because it wasn’t useful working,” says Mogiatti, so Mondo Solidale gave the farmers roughly $50,000 to purchase updated machinery, a new warehouse, and an export license. Producers were now receiving income to continue producing uncontaminated, quality coffee.
In 2012 Mogiatti founded Shadhilly, solely to focus on coffee and to ensure farmers in developing countries were prospering in the economy. Mogiatti now has partnerships with La Nueva Esperanza, Anacafé, and Inacoop. Mogiatti says Shadhilly and fair trade rely on building trust with every partnership, so they give 50 percent of the agreed revenue to their farmers in the month of November in order for them to get proper materials and appliances to produce quality coffee. Roughly six months later, after the coffee has sprouted, been packaged, and shipped to Shadhilly, the farmers receive the remainder of their revenue.
Mogiatti regularly returns to El Bosque for updates and has seen the economic growth in the coffee community. Mogiatti says, “I see the young boys that were eager to leave their country now grown and married because they have seen the benefits of the coffee industry that once tore their people apart. Fifteen years ago in Guatemala there were no schools or healthcare, but now there are three primary schools, two secondary schools, a doctor that comes once a month and a nurse.”
The three projects now employ roughly 1,200 coffee farmers. In addition to their projects in Guatemala, Shadhilly now has projects in India, Haiti, and Uganda. Currently, the Uganda project includes approximately 20,000 farmers, India about 5,000, and Haiti about 200.
Carlo explains that his father started Shadhilly because coffee is the most consumed beverage around the world—in America alone, more than 100 million people drink it daily. Along with roasted Arabica coffee, Shadhilly now imports roasted Robusta coffee, which is stronger in taste and easier to grow than Arabica, as well as green coffee, which is linked to weight loss and other health benefits. And still, says Carlo, “Mondo Solidale and Shadhilly are close friends, currently working together to help the coffee business.”
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Displayed in the windows and glass doors of the small shop at the bottom of Urbino’s Via Mazzini are handcrafted decorative glass bowls, hats, and wind chimes dangling from fixtures. Inside, a rainbow canopy drapes from the ceiling and the smell of incense sticks, tea, spices, soaps, and coffee send the mind on a trip to Tunisia, Kenya, Uganda, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, and many other countries. Displayed in a glass case are toy cars made from recycled tins from Madagascar, and the tables and shelves are filled with colorful jewelry, stationary crafted from elephant dung in Sri Lanka, pasta, wine, and honey from the Marche region, and coffee from Shadhilly cooperatives.
This is one of 16 shops throughout the Marche region operated by Mondo Solidale. The organization has few paid employees but some 250 volunteers who are passionate about educating the world about fair trade. These shops import products from developing regions in Africa, South America, and Southern Asia, providing consistent income for the businesses and changing the lives of the families involved. Mondo Solidale is well known in the fair trade world around Italy because they have many paying subscribers supporting the movement. Those volunteers around the Marche region as well as customers pay a one-time membership fee and own their own part of the cooperative. They believe everyone plays an important role in the economy and must act responsibly so everyone benefits, from producers, to consumers, to the environment.
Sandra Abderhalden, vice president of Mondo Solidale, says it is difficult for the shop in Urbino to grow because it is strictly volunteer-based, and volunteers are hard to come by. In addition, the idea of fair trade is becoming popular among people with larger businesses. Ironically, some fear that the Mondo Solidale shops will close because of competition from businesses offering similar fair trade items.
Abderhalden says, “Coming from a farmer family, I always knew about fair trade.” Now her goal is to get the people of Urbino, all of Italy, and around the world to know what Mondo Solidale does and what they can do to make a difference. “What we do is inform, our main goal is to educate,” says Abderhalden. There are people in Urbino that stumble across the shop and believe it is new, so volunteers take the opportunity to discuss the importance of their products because they want people to be aware of the craft and dignity of the producers. Products like wine, chocolate, coffee, and the occasional bananas continue to draw many customers back into the shop. Once they learn about the mission and products they realize the difference between Mondo Solidale and large chain stores.
Francesca Guidarelli, coordinator of Mondo Solidale in Urbino, began volunteering after being a frequent customer. In the beginning she was not convinced about the idea, but she decided to learn more about the industry. Today, Guidarelli and other volunteers go out to the local middle schools to educate students about fair trade, water conservation, immigration and other sustainability issues. The goal is to teach kids at a young age, because they will be the new voices in society fighting for humanity. “We are very lucky to be born on this side of the world, but a lot of people don’t understand this fact,” says Guidarelli.
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The Conferenza Regionale del commerico equo e solidale, the “Regional Conference of Fair Trade,” is held annually in the Marche region. This year, the 10th conference is held at Abbadia di Fiastra, a nature reserve in the province of Macerata. Outside, tents and signs for Mondo Solidale, Shadhilly, and other cooperatives welcome attendees to Aula Verde, the “green room.”
As attendees file into the room and fill the chairs, Leonardo Becchetti, economics professor at the University of Rome, and Roberto Mancini, theoretical philosophy professor at the University of Macerata, are found sitting in the front of the room prepared for a panel discussion about fair trade in a changing world equipped with new ways of creating businesses. A slide on a screen behind the men reads, “We are not super heroes, but we have superpowers.”
The discussion focuses on the main principles of fair trade, which are creating economic value and growth in a sustainable environment and establishing groups that trust each other. Becchetti says, “Fair trade is not just about the products, but through the products you can understand the culture.” Following the panel discussion, attendees gather outside while Mogiatti speaks about the challenges in the coffee industry. He explains that farmers are struggling to produce coffee due to various diseases, some are placing rocks in their packing to meet weight requirements, and it all ties back into creating an ethical way of doing business with these individuals, so their farms are in good shape.
Afterwards, speakers, volunteers, and families line up to sample fair trade wine, juice, cheese, and bananas. As all the attendees socialize, Jabel Kanuteh, a Gambian musician, plays the kora, ending the day with musical selections from old traditions of his ancestors. These individuals know to appreciate the hands that crafted the products sold at Mondo Solidale.
A photo that accompanies this story (see the second photo in the slide show above) won a Raffie Award for Best Magazine Photo. Translation of interviews and other language assistance by University of Urbino students Liliana Cogliandro and Luca Cocozza. This article also appears in Urbino Now magazine’s La Gente section. You can read all the magazine articles in print by ordering a copy from MagCloud.
