Camano Island Coffee Roasters Proves Coffee with a Conscious Sells

Online, March 12, 2012 (Newswire.com) - After retirement from the printing business 13 years ago, entrepreneur, Jeff Ericson came to realize that he wanted to operate a social business that was his passion, "Coffee that would change the world." Years later, Camano Island Coffee Roasters is a mission-based business that enables coffee drinkers to act as missionaries by using their purchasing dollar to help coffee growers in Third World countries achieve economic sustainability.

"Now, my life is devoted to helping coffee farmers to sell their coffee sustainably. By connecting the consumer who drinks the coffee with the farmers that work so hard to make it, and enabling the consumer, or prosumer as I call them, to make a difference in coffee farmer's lives around the world," said Ericson.

The average coffee farmer in Central American countries like Nicaragua and Honduras makes typically 20 to 40 cents per pound of coffee. Coffee growers in the Equatorial region also live in dire poverty and have little or no control over their working conditions. The reason: the coffee farmers don't own their own land. This causes generational poverty, as coffee farmers must sell their coffee beans for whatever price coffee companies and importers dictate.

Growers who make coffee for Camano Island Coffee Roasters are always paid a fair price for their coffee beans.

To address this generational poverty in the coffee growers' villages, Camano Island Coffee Roasters (CICR) teamed up with Agros International-a Seattle-based non-profit organization. Agros enables coffee farmers in Central America and Mexico to escape the cycle of poverty by purchasing their own land. Agros turns coffee farmers into landowners through training and microloans.

Shade-Grown coffee ensures that the coffee is grown naturally on a small farm. Shade grown coffee saves trees and protects birds.

Also, CICR and Agros have partnered in 32 villages across Central America, bringing health care services, agricultural training, and making land ownership achievable to more than 24,000 coffee farmers. Ericson's social business model has helped make it possible for coffee growers' families to start, develop and eventually own an economically sustainable village.

"Agros teaches coffee growers what they need to be a land owner, and they start working for the good of the village they are part of," Ericson explained. "It's like a co-op and they all have a job to do and the reward is to each according to their ability. This is the premise of what is now called a social business."

CICR creates generational change in coffee farmers lives, while still making a profit, by enabling CICR's customers-also known as "prosumers." CICR donates one dollar from every prosumer shipment of coffee to Agros International.

Ericson describes his prosumer's approach to coffee purchases, as "Drinking to the wealth, the health, and the success of the coffee farmer. They can think of themselves as their own missionary," Ericson said.

In addition to enabling CICR "prosumers" to help coffee farmers with donations from each shipment of coffee, CICR commits to coffee grown in a sustainable way to create generational change. All of CICR coffees are Certified Organic, Shade-Grown, and Fairly Traded. By committing to this high coffee standard, the coffee farmers can grow their coffee safely, and at a fair wage.

"It's all about empowering the people on the other side of the equation," he added. "Instead of writing a charity check, you, the CICR prosumer, are living out your belief system in a more holistic way. To me, that's the beauty and the theory of social business."