Fair Trade Coffee

At Volcanica Coffee we believe in Fair Trade Coffee which means paying our coffee suppliers a fair wage. To source and find the finest coffees around the world takes a lot of digging, tasting and building relationships with gourmet coffee farmers. This is not your typical company buying good grade and cheap grade coffee on world markets then blending them together and calling it gourmet coffee.

Recent conditions of coffee workers are a personal concern for us at Volcanica Coffee. What has happened over the last few years is that a flood of low quality beans hit the market driving the average price paid to farmers for their coffee crop to an all-time low. For many farmers this meant that the cost is more for them to produce coffee than what they are paid. Because of this thousands of farmers abandoned their family farms, some of which had been in their family for generations, and seek other means of employment.

This flood of low quality beans is supported by the major coffee manufacturers seeking to bring a low cost product to your grocer's shelves and local coffee shops. What they discovered is that if you mix in higher grade beans and if you dark roast the lower quality beans it removes some of the nasty taste and brings it to an acceptable level for your average consumer.

You can be assured that Volcanica Coffee pays premium price for the coffee that we bring to you. A recent comparison noted that our average coffee price that we are paying is 5 to 10 times acceptable fair trade prices. We go far and above what is expected. Great coffee is not cheap. At the same time you can be sure that that farmers and their families are earning a respectable living from their coffee operations.

All of our Volcanica gourmet coffees are purchased at above fair prices paid to farmers that exceeds their cost of production. Both of our coffees from Costa Rica are Fair Trade Alliance Certified coffees.