Sailing coffee: A sustainable trade model? – DW – 06/14/2025
In 2014, German journalist Jens Klein founded the cooperative Café Chavalo after visiting coffee farms in Nicaragua. These farms, organized into local cooperatives, soon became part of his vision for more equitable trade. Today, around 250 families are part of the initiative. Instead of relying on the volatile global market, they now receive a fixed price per pound - offering them a more stable and fair income. Every spring, Café Chavalo's coffee beans are shipped across the Atlantic on the Avontuur, a wind-powered cargo vessel. The journey from Nicaragua to Hamburg takes about four months. While the project doesn't aim to transform the global coffee trade, its founders hope it sends a clear message: calling for fairer trade and greater sustainability amid the climate crisis.
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VW in Brazil: A dark history – DW – 06/15/2025
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"Volkswagen do Brasil has completed 70 years of technological innovation and pioneering spirit," said VW Brazil boss Ciro Possobom at the 2023 celebration. "VW has modernized its Brazilian factories, developed new technologies and is a brand that is much closer to the people today." A year later, VW announced that it would expand its presence in Brazil by enlarging its four locations in the South American country. At the time, automobile analysts reported that VW planned to spend 7 million Brazilian reals (€1.1 billion, or $1.26 billion) in Brazil by 2026. Now that plan has been revised to 16 billion reals by 2028. VW: Making money with cars and cows in Brazil VW's investment in Brazil has largely paid off from the start. It not only invested in cars there, the company has also sought to make money on cows, specifically, beef. 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VW is accused of having exploited and abused the employees of subcontrators working at its failed cattle farm, Fazenda Volkswagen Image: Wolfgang Weihs/picture alliance Only VW workers were taken care of on the Fazenda VW contracted Swiss agricultural economist Friedrich-Georg Brugger to set up the farm in 1974. Brugger counted on VW employees and other contracted workers to carry out his ambitious agrarian experiment. It was only years later, in a report broadcast by German public television, that it became clear just how ruthless Brugger was in pursing his plans. Kopper said VW workers were always taken care of. "They had their own houses, their own schools, a medical clinic. But that did not apply to workers employed by subcontractors. They worked under conditions akin to indentured servitude." The historian explained that the company always maintained that distinction. He said managers always "talked their way out of trouble by emphasizing that they were not responsible for the treatment of laborers employed by subcontractors." At the same time, they never tired of "pointing out that full-time workers directly employed at the Fazenda by VW lived very well by local standards." Volkswagen accused of using slave labor To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Dark secret: VW and Brazil's military dictatorship Work at the farm was conducted far away from prying eyes, and the project's ultimate failure did not make headlines either. "The Fazenda had no chance of making a profit from the outset," said Kopper. "The project was a wash." But what was even more shocking to Kopper than conditions at the Fazenda was what he learned about the company's attitude toward cooperation with Brazil's ruling military junta. "VW worked closely with the dictatorship's security apparatus," he said. 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Founded in Nazi Germany by Nazi organizations, Volkswagen systematically profited off of slave labor, exploiting and abusing thousands of forced laborers. Had those in positions of responsibility in Wolfsburg learned nothing? Of course, there were immediately suspicions that the company planned to continue its misdeeds from a decade earlier, just under another dictator on another continent. The scandal of what VW did in Brazil is made that much darker considering its roots in Nazi Germany Image: dpa/picture alliance VW managers with skeletons in their closets Kopper said it is really difficult to brush aside such accusations. "I would partially agree with that regarding management at VW do Brasil." He said the reasons for that have to do with the fact that many of VW's managers in the 1950s and 60s "had been army officers and Nazi party members" when they were younger. 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DW
a day ago
- DW
Sailing coffee to Germany: A sustainable trade model? – DW – 06/14/2025
Cafe Chavalo promotes fair, sustainable coffee trade. The beans are grown on organic farms in Nicaragua, then sailed to Europe. From there, bike couriers deliver the coffee to cafes. In 2014, German journalist Jens Klein founded the cooperative Cafe Chavalo after visiting coffee farms in Nicaragua. These farms, organized into local cooperatives, soon became part of his vision for more equitable trade. Today, around 250 families are part of the initiative. Instead of relying on the volatile global market, they now receive a fixed price per pound — offering them a more stable and fair income. Every spring, Cafe Chavalo's organic coffee beans are shipped across the Atlantic on the Avontuur, a wind-powered cargo vessel. The journey from Nicaragua to Hamburg takes about four months. While the project doesn't aim to transform the global coffee trade, its founders hope it sends a clear message, calling for fairer trade and greater sustainability amid the climate crisis.
DW
a day ago
- DW
Sailing coffee: A sustainable trade model? – DW – 06/14/2025
In 2014, German journalist Jens Klein founded the cooperative Café Chavalo after visiting coffee farms in Nicaragua. These farms, organized into local cooperatives, soon became part of his vision for more equitable trade. Today, around 250 families are part of the initiative. Instead of relying on the volatile global market, they now receive a fixed price per pound - offering them a more stable and fair income. Every spring, Café Chavalo's coffee beans are shipped across the Atlantic on the Avontuur, a wind-powered cargo vessel. The journey from Nicaragua to Hamburg takes about four months. While the project doesn't aim to transform the global coffee trade, its founders hope it sends a clear message: calling for fairer trade and greater sustainability amid the climate crisis.
