Moyee and FairChain Inspire German Policymakers
Speaking to politicians and expecting results takes patience, but little strokes fell big oaks, right? Here’s a brief recap of our activistic journey over the last few months and how far we’ve come in abolishing the German coffee tax for fair coffee.
Last Monday, Germany’s Ministers of Development and Labour visited Ethiopia for a meeting with the Ethiopian Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Prize winner Abiy Ahmed Ali in Addis Ababa. Hubertus Heil (Minister of Labour) and Gerd Müller (Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development) are clearly in favor of abolishing the coffee tax for fair-grown and processed coffee to create a competitive advantage for products that comply with minimum social standards.
"I reminded Olaf Scholz that, as a Hamburg Senator, he had called for the abolition of the coffee tax on fair coffee – it would be a nice gesture if he followed through with that now."
— Gerd Müller, Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development
The news here: Previously, Gerd Müller only mentioned abolishing the coffee tax for FairTrade-certified coffee. This is the first time he has acknowledged that there’s more to fair coffee than just the FairTrade label and that it "should be possible to create more value through roasting in the country of origin."
Our push for the removal of the coffee tax for fair coffee started when we explored the German coffee market and discovered that Germany is one of the very few countries in the EU to apply this tax. When we attended the 19th Annual Conference of the German Council for Sustainable Development in June 2019, Gerd Müller spoke about the topic but seemed uninformed about the deeper, underlying issues. Why does he only talk about FairTrade coffee? While FairTrade was an important movement starting out 30 years ago, today – as we face an even more alarming race to the bottom – a certification is not the simple solution for a complex problem.
It was time to make a statement that we need to rethink value creation in coffee overall. To raise the bar and set a new standard. We decided to write an Open Letter to the Minister, explaining why the coffee value chain is broken and how we can fix it. Major German news outlet taz.de reported on this.
A few months later, Moyee Coffee and FairChain applied for the Coffee Innovation Fund, provided by the GIZ (German Society for International Cooperation). We were among 200 applicants competing to advance innovation in coffee-producing countries such as Ethiopia, Myanmar, Indonesia, and Vietnam. For Ethiopia, Moyee Coffee Germany and FairChain Foundation were granted financial support, alongside four other Coffee Changemakers. We couldn’t be more proud!
None of the many German media outlets that reported on the Minister’s visit to Ethiopia (FAZ, Tagesschau, Die Zeit, BILD) mentioned the important meeting that followed. Gerd Müller himself awarded Moyee Coffee and FairChain Foundation with the grant issued by the GIZ. Five months in, and a few minutes of face time with the Minister finally put our point at the top of the agenda.
Now that’s what we call momentum. This is just the beginning. Let’s get ready to rumble!
TWO OF THE 6 WINNING PROJECTS ARE FAIRCHAIN INNOVATIONS.