FROM COMMUNISM TO FAIR TRADE …

The collapse of the U.R.S.S. in 1989 had severe consequences for Cuba, as Cuba exported citrus fruit to the socialist countries of Europe in a barter arrangement, which allowed Cuba to import many necessities including fertiliser, chemicals, machinery and petroleum. In the early 1990s, imports of each of these dropped to less than 50% of what they had been. “We lost control of everything – prices, production,” says José Cabrera Nuez, a farmer with the CPA cooperative. “ We did not know what would happen”. “We wanted to work, we started working very hard to move forward and keep production up, but we couldn’t. The tractors weren’t working and we did not have petrol, tools or spare parts.”

Since Cuban orange farmers joined the Fairtrade system, and the farmers started investing the Fairtrade premium in new irrigation systems – the productivity has increased to 18 tons of oranges per hectare, compared with 8 tons when they formed the cooperative in 1979. The farmers have chosen to use the Fairtrade premium to build a new garage, rebuild and refurbish their machinery workshop and to construct a recreational centre, which they will use for everything from cooperative meetings to communal canteen to dances. They also plan to establish a tree nursery so they can replace some of the older trees and experiment with new varieties. Fairtrade allows them to overcome the collapse of communism and achieve sustainable development in a capitalist environment.

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