Fair Trade is a poverty-eradication programme that guarantees farmers in developing countries a fair price for their products.

Despite its increasing popularity in Europe and the United States, few in Japan have consumed coffee grown by hilltribes in northern Thailand.

"By introducing this little-known type of coffee to Japanese consumers, I hope to help improve the livelihood of the tribes," said Hirokuni Usami, 49, of Hitachiota in Ibaraki prefecture.

Usami served as a university lecturer in Chiang Mai from 2001-06. His five-year stint allowed him to learn about the coffee cultivated in the mountains near Doi Chang, 150 kilometres north of Chiang Mai municipality. Doi Chang villagers harvest more than 2,000 tonnes of coffee beans annually.

Usami, who opened a shop called Usami Doi Chang Coffee in Japan on March 3, roasts and grinds the beans himself. When purchasing the beans, he never haggles with dealers, insisting on buying the produce at a fair, undiscounted price, in an effort to help improve the lot of the hilltribes.

In the 1970s, the tribes were encouraged by a UN campaign to switch from opium cultivation to growing coffee beans. But opium is still produced in the area, and many women work in the sex industry and are at risk of contracting HIV, reports say.

This motivated him to buy beans from the tribes. His shop sells three types of Doi Chang Coffee, which can be bought over the Internet priced at 1,575 yen (Bt467) for 250 grams.

Usami plans to launch a special coffee club - tentatively named the Doi Chang Coffee Club - that will coordinate the cultivation and harvest of a special coffee brand exclusively for club members, who will pay ¥5,000 yen annually to have the coffee delivered to their homes.

"Harvest yields are still too low to provide enough to live on, but profits can be used to plant more coffee seedlings and raise output," Usami said.

Asia News Network

Tokyo