CANTON, MA -- Equal Exchange, the nation's leading fair trade coffee company, reports that the company's 2002 sales revenue grew 34% over 2001, reaching a record $10,400,000. Almost half of the growth for the 17 year old company resulted from their rapidly expanding Interfaith Program - partnerships with congregations and faith-based organizations such as Lutheran World Relief, United Methodist Committee on Relief, and the Presbyterian Church USA. Equal Exchange's Interfaith Program sales alone were $1,700,000 in 2002, an increase of 100% over 2001. Company sales across all sectors were also boosted by a new 12 oz. packaged product line, new coffees such as Love Buzz, Espresso Euphoria, Kafe Haiti and especially by their new fair trade certified, organic hot cocoa mix, whose sales exceeded projections.

Equal Exchange's Interfaith Program is a unique system of collaborations with national faith-based organizations that is built upon their shared interest in addressing the underlying causes of rural poverty in developing nations. Both Equal Exchange and the partnering organizations believe a key to enabling small-scale farmers to break the cycle of poverty is to address basic inequities in international trading relations. Equal Exchange works with its partners to develop educational materials for use in the congregations that address the social and environmental concerns around the coffee and cocoa trades. The company also makes available a customer service system created from the ground up exclusively for handling the orders, and educational needs, of faith-based communities.

To date, 5,600 places of worship have participated in Equal Exchange's Interfaith Program and formal partnerships with 6 groups have been established: Lutheran World Relief, United Methodist Committee on Relief, the Presbyterian Church USA, the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, the American Friends Service Committee and the Church of the Brethren.

Another area of growth for Equal Exchange was its expanded sales to mainstream supermarkets. Some of these sales were due to the company's expanded line of 21 different 12 oz. packaged coffees. During 2002 the company initiated new sales to Stop and Shop supermarkets in Connecticut and Massachusetts, Albertsons in Oregon and Washington, and expanded its sales to Shaw's supermarkets throughout New England.

Thanks to the substantial increase in sales Equal Exchange was able to support - via fair trade purchasing - more small farmer co-ops (29), in more sectors (5), in more countries (14), than ever before. Equal Exchange estimates its purchases generated $1,200,000 in extra income above what farmers would have received under normal market conditions. The extra income comes at a critical time as the world market price for coffee has been at or near record lows since 2001, and has created wide-spread destitution, hunger and migration out of rural areas.

Equal Exchange, the pioneer and U.S. market leader in fair trade coffee since 1986, is a full service provider of high quality, organic coffee, tea and hot cocoa to supermarkets, cafés, and places of worship across North America. 100% of Equal Exchange products are fairly traded, benefiting 29 small farmer cooperatives in 14 countries around the world. In keeping with its business philosophy Equal Exchange is a worker cooperative, owned and controlled by its employees. More information is available at
www.equalexchange.com/PR

Equal Exchange

Equal Exchange

Equal Exchange, founded in 1986, is the worker-owned and governed co-operative who pioneered the Fair Trade concept in the U.S. coffee industry. They have since successfully expanded their Fair Trade program into the tea, cocoa, chocolate, sugar and healthy snack categories. Equal Exchange products are sold and served in thousands of locations nationwide, including supermarkets, natural food stores, cafés, and places of worship. Overall they now trade with 40 small-farmer co-operatives around the world, including 2 in the United States. With $25 million in annual sales, and 100+ employees, Equal Exchange has grown to be the nation's sixth largest worker co-op. It is their mission to continue to grow the Fair Trade market, and to demonstrate the contributions and viability of democratic worker co-operatives.

More from Equal Exchange