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Our mission at Kenya Fair Traders (KFT), as the creators of Asante coffees and teas, is to establish a clear and transparent path for Kenyan farmers to market their produce directly to consumers, helping them reducing the need to use exploitative middlemen and thereby increasing their own profitability. Most coffee and tea market participants do not include farmers in their decision-making processes, and do not keep the farmers aware of market trends or economic implications in the coffee and tea worlds. As a result of this, the farmers can be easily taken advantage of by these middlemen. It is our belief that the only person who can give the farmer such knowledge is a market participant such as Kenya Fair Traders, because not only are we marketers of the farmers' products, but we actually come from family farms in Kenya ourselves. Farmer Education:
It is for the reasons above that we are purposely a for-profit company. We have the task of marketing our farmers' coffees, and making sure they get a fair amount of profit for their labor. We are keenly interested in markets that have a positive interest in creating direct relationships with the producers. Our task therefore involves, but is not limited to building relationships between farmers, importers and consumers. Read more: What we aim to achieve
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Our Mission:
Apart from sourcing markets for Kenya Fairly traded coffees and Tea for profit, KFT also aims to work with farmers on a not-for profit level, educating them on how their coffee can work for them. They need to know when they are making losses, profits, or breaking even. The typical lack of knowledge on the part of farmers leaves them exposed to unscrupulous businessmen and businesswomen, especially those who engage in illegal coffee cherry and parchment buying. Many farmers end up accepting meager cash offers without considering the cost of their coffee, as they do not know how to set a profitable price for their commodities.