Fair Trade Stores
Fair Trade Stores are stores that enable a fair, moral and just economy, through marketing fair trade products from the third world, and spreading information regarding the indecency of the current economical method. Over one hundred thousand European volunteers serve costumers at World Stores and offer their clients a wide range of products: coffee, tea, cocoa, wine, fruit juice, chocolate, snacks, rice, sugar, bannannas and other food products, as well as clothing, jewelry, arts, cosmetics, toys, musical instruments and home equipment-all made and traded up to fair standards.

Coffee First
An estimated 80% of Israelis drink coffee at least once a day. About half of the coffee drinkers in the country have one or more cups a day. This adds up to more than three billion cups of coffee a year. For this purpose, approximately 24 million kilograms of coffee beans are imported annually to Israel. The annual production of coffee in the world is estimated at 60 billion kilograms. These are manufactured in the worlds markets at a cycle of over 70 billion dollars. Coffee is the second largest market, after oil. Over 25 people work in this buisness. The defining majority of them work in small farms in the third world and often receive payments smaller than his growing costs. Many of these farming families have trouble feeding their children, not to mention sanitation, education, economical and environmental planning or sustainable agriculture. Fair Trade Coffee began in Holland in the late 80s and spread to Europe and North America. It is about a direct, long-term association between a factory at which the coffee is roasted, and a small cooperative of coffee growers. The association guarantees fair, regular fees to the farmers, which are usually higher than the market price. They receive comfortable credit, which enables them to plan long-term. They can acquire an education and invest in their communities. The growers, on their part, ensure a steady supply of quality coffee and high standards for growing, as well as responsibility for their and their families lives.

Fair Trade in the Palestinian Territories
The concept of fair trade is not foreign to the Palestinian people, and a fair trade organization has already been established in 2003 by the Palestinian authority in order to assist olive growers to find new markets for their olive oil. This came as a response to the closing local markets near them. The organization is still in its early stages, but it has already had some success: matching fair trade standards to the local olive branch, informing local growers and producers on fair trade, and establishing commercial links with fair marketers in North America.

A Small Step for the Israeli Consummer…
Opening a fair trade store which will market a range of fair trade local and global goods, and serve as an information and distribution center, will light a torch of consummer awareness and may create a momentum of economical, social and ecological change in the Middle East and worldwide. The store will operate by the European World Store model, with a regular management and a team of volunteers working in shifts, with a sense of welcoming and an open, warm Middle Eastern attitude. The fair goods will arrive from worldwide fair trade organizations, from the Palestinian territories, and from local producers working up to the fair trade criteria. The next step for us can be founding an Israeli and Middle Eastern fair trade organization, linking local farmers and producers to marketers and consummers worldwide.

…A giant step for mankind

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