I’m a fan of Havana Coffee Works. I’m a recent convert and have a small fortnightly standing order that gets tacked onto a bigger order a friend (Jacob) does with them. I let Jacob pick which beans I’ll get and this week a bag of the Vanuatu Nuclear Free (organic) beans turned up. I like to find out about my coffee so I jumped online and had a quick look. I like the small connection I found.

Havana Coffee Works’ Vanuatu coffee is sourced from a supply chain on Vanuatu’s Tanna Island. Those beans come from smallholder farms on the island of Tanna where the volcanic soil is rich and good for growing coffee.

This is where it gets a little bit exciting for me. Follow this through. TEAR Fund New Zealand supports an organisation called Nasi Tuan doing local development work among some of the communities on Tanna. Nasi Tuan helped form a small cooperative called Talou. Alongside that Nasi Tuan has assisted in providing training to farmers in the small communties they are working with. They have received up-skilling and training in organic techniques to improve their yield and coffee standards from another TEAR Fund partner in the Philippines – Greenminds. This cross-pollination of skill occurred when we saw that what was trying to be achieved in the communities Nasi Tuan is working with, had been underway with Greenminds in the Philippines for some time, so we supported Greenminds personnel to spend time with the people in Vanuatu that Nasi Tuan are working with in order to pass on their learning.

And here’s where the loop closes – Farmers trained by Nasi Tuan have sold some of their coffee to those from whom I believe Havana Coffee Works gets their Vanuatu beans and so, unbeknownst to myself and Jacob, a portion of those beans in what came to my door last night will probably include some grown through the support of TEAR Fund New Zealand and our donors.

Now get this, you can be involved very directly in the whole loop. In our latest Gift for Life catalogue (great for Christmas) you can purchase coffee plants for those coffee farmers on Tanna that Nasi Tuan works with and also contribute to their ongoing training. Then, if you buy the Vanuatu beans from Havana Coffee Works there’s the possibility some of the resulting beans will be in that end product. Do that and you would have been involved in the whole loop.

That’s real development in action sparked by Real Trade. Brilliant!!!