Coffee Circle Foundation e.V.

We source our coffee directly from producers. We pay high prices for the world’s best coffees. We treat people as we would like to be treated, with respect for everyone. We maintain open, honest, and transparent communication with our partners. Through higher wages, transparency, and partnerships, we create a better starting point for coffee farmers. Standard labels such as Fairtrade do not meet our requirements.

We invest a fixed amount of € 1 per kilogram of coffee sold in projects in the growing regions. We focus our projects and initiatives in the areas of health (foremost WaSH:Water, Sanitation, Hygiene), education, sustainable coffee cultivation, fair supply chains and climate resilience for a more sustainable coffee industry. Our goal is to secure the lives of coffee farmers and their families for generations to come.

Around 30% of the population in Ethiopia live below the absolute poverty line (Oxfam 2023). The illiteracy rate is over 54% (DVV International 2023). Our measures to promote education aim to improve the teaching conditions of children in rural coffee regions and to support them on their way to a basic education and their first school-leaving certificate. This opens up the opportunity for them to attend secondary school and develop prospects for vocational qualification.

The Ethiopian health system shows drastic deficiencies. Our health projects aim to improve drinking water, sanitation and medical (primary) care in the coffee cooperatives. The lack of awareness of health and hygiene issues is responsible for many serious diseases and high child mortality rates. In Ethiopia, we have been implementing WaSH (Water, Sanitation, Hygiene) projects since 2015 to counteract this.

We support farmers and cooperative structures in achieving higher income in the long term and in investing in sustainable forms of cultivation. Traditional forms of cultivation are to be promoted, deforestation avoided and ecological principles anchored in the production process. In addition to the ecological component, we are also involved in the area of knowledge and technology transfer and support cooperatives through training and improved equipment to produce higher quality coffee, enabling them to achieve higher yields for their coffee – independently of us.