Café Britt Peru Exports Gourmet Coffee Beans and Chocolates

(LIP-ir) -- Café Britt Peru plans to export this year roasted and packed gourmet coffee beans and chocolates to Uruguay, Argentina and Spain due to the great demand for these products in such countries, reported today the company's general manager, José Vásquez de Velasco.

He stated that Café Britt Peru currently exports to Chile, Curacao, United States and Costa Rica. In 2007, sales registered an 80 percent increase compared with 2006.

This number includes online sales of roasted and packed gourmet coffee beans, chocolates and handicrafts.

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Peruvians outline benefits of fair-trade coffee

By Rebecca Lerner
Special to The Ithaca Journal

ITHACA — In the Peruvian valley of San Fernando, at the historic site of Machu Picchu, fair-trade coffee is making life better for farmers.

That was the message from coffee grower Beltran Leguia Masias, who came to visit Ithaca on a trip sponsored by Equal Exchange, the company that roasts, packages and distributes coffee beans for the San Fernando Cooperative. Its product is sold at Ithaca Bakery and Collegetown Bagels.

“Before we were organized as a cooperative, we were exploited by the middlemen. They would offer whatever price they wanted. During this period, there were a lot of problems. Our children had poor nutrition, and the majority of our kids were illiterate. Now it's changed, and it's still changing,” Masias said, speaking through a translator.

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