Enjoy
your
Coffee & Chocolate
Experience
All our Coffees are sustainably & ethically sourced
& roasted at origin
& roasted at origin
We are an Irish/Colombian family who relocated to Ireland a few years ago, Co-Founders of Ethical Origin. We lived in the Colombian Coffee Region for years. Our kids Oisín and Aoibhinn were born there.
Marina, originally from Kildare/West Wicklow, lived in Galway for many years. She is a language teacher (French and Spanish) and Alejandro (Anthropologist and MA, International Peacebuilding, Security and Development Practice, Maynooth University) has been working for 20 years in human rights, sustainable development, peacebuilding, arts and education. You can find some of his recent work and projects in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Colombia, and South America, links below.
It often happens that we are unfamiliar with the origin, history, and stories behind our daily cup of coffee. Alejandro discovered some of these stories in his childhood, and when working with local communities around the country and then getting to know some small producers in the Coffee Region of Colombia where we lived.
Traveling around the country on human rights projects, and also during our time in the Coffee Region, we were concerned by the most common ethical and human rights issues in the coffee sector including the devalorised work of small farmers, child labour, deforestation, but especially, lack of good market opportunities for them, and no communication with buyers and consumers. Once relocated to Ireland, the unbalance was much more visible between producers and consumers. IN
As one of the world’s most traded commodities, a coffee bean could change hands as many as 150 times along the chain between the producer and the consumer
Small-scale farmers are negatively impacted and are the weakest link in the coffee chain. Coffee growers receive just 7-10 percent of the retail price of coffee. It is well known that around 70% of the coffee produced worldwide is sold by thousands of very small farms (with less than five hectares) to a few international traders and coffee roasters.
Therefore, traders and roasters have the power to increase their profits as a result of the weak influence small farmers have on the industry. As a result, small growers rarely receive a dignified price, and that is the main reason to work together in a collaborative process, fill that gap and build on it to find the connections between inclusive businesses, human rights, peace, regenerative and nature-based tourism, and sustainable development.
We always wanted to start a social enterprise with local impact as part of Alejandro’s experience in human rights with communities in Colombia and Ireland and find the best moment to put sustainable development into practice through trade. However, we knew it would not be easy due to the consumer model focus on volume and low prices, without any connection to the people and the environment behind the product.
We contacted some of our friends from local communities with whom Alejandro worked in Colombia in conflict-affected areas that he knows well from the past participating in many social and human rights projects.
They have been working on ethical origin products such as coffee, cacao, cashew, fruits, and other products or services for years such as local tourism, making a positive impact in relation to the environment, communities and workers.
The production of coffee and other local products generates social cohesion, social inclusion and supports the reconstruction of the social fabric in conflict-affected areas and the integration of local economies into global markets.
Every cup of coffee & chocolate counts!
Alejandro’s recent Projects:
Member of the Arts Dialogue Collective in Northern Ireland:
https://www.beyondskin.net/arts-dialogue
https://www.beyondskin.net/sowing-of-life
https://www.beyondskin.net/why-we-should-not-celebrate-a-multicultural-society
Cucusonic Project: Translating post-Conflict Tropical Forest biodiversity in Colombia into New Music: (Music, conservation, biodiversity, and local communities)
https://mediasite.qub.ac.uk/Mediasite/Play/79c6c1ce91eb40e293485ffc7eb946881d
ww.inplaceofwar.net/current-projects-blog/sounds-of-the-colombia-rainforest
Art and Culture as processes of healing and memory in Colombia: http://www.icip-perlapau.cat/numero38/articles_centrals/article_central_6/