2 days ago
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.
