What is Cooperative Coffees? And How Does Desert Sun Fit In?

Cooperative Coffees is a green (pre-roasted) coffee importing cooperative, committed to building and supporting "Fair and Direct" trade relationships for the benefit of small-scale farmer families, their communities, and roaster-members.

Most importantly, Coop Coffees strives to promote transparent Fair Trade and sustainable development alternatives in both Latin and South America, as well as Africa and Southeast Asia… all while selling the freshest and highest quality organic coffee on the market.

Simply, Cooperative Coffees:

-Imports high-quality, organic green coffee from small-scale farmer organizations

-Builds long-term relationships and fosters fair and equitable trading practices

-Aims to make coffee-growing a sustainable and beneficial endeavor for farmer families and their communities

How is Desert Sun involved?

In 2006, Desert Sun Coffee Roasters joined Cooperative Coffees as the newest roaster-member. As a part of our membership, Desert Sun exclusively imports our Fair Trade, green coffee directly from Cooperative Coffees. We also participate in a voluntary “import fee,” which goes directly into the Coop’s Impact Fund, which you can learn more about here.

Plus, Desert Sun employees are on many of Cooperative Coffee’s committees, which make decisions about the Impact Fund, Communications, Sourcing & Quality, and Producer Voices.

How does Cooperative Coffees promote sustainability?

Through rigorous and transparent practices, Cooperative Coffees (and roaster-members like Desert Sun) promote sustainability through direct and open communication with farmers, mutual respect, long-lasting relationships, and productive payments above Fair Trade global pricing.

Cooperative Coffee’s website has many resources if you’d like to go even deeper into the ins-and-outs of ethically-sourced coffee. As a quick example of our continued efforts, Cooperative Coffees recently directed $54,000 from the Impact Fund towards our farmers partners in Latin America who were impacted by Hurricanes Eta and Iota.