Fair Train Blog : Switzerland
Our three members from Switzerland are all guaranteed members that have been part of the WFTO community for many years now. We are very glad to count them with us, therefore, we would like you to know more about them, with this section!
El Tucan
El Tucan is a family enterprise that has been working since its foundation in 1989 inspired by Fair Trade. The objective of its founder was to buy products from Latin American crafts producers and to sell them onto the Swiss market. They maintain a tight contact net with their producers, which are family businesses and micro-enterprises. At the same time, they also organise, finance and lead Fair Trade projects in Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and Bolivia.
El Tucan is specialised in textile products, hammocks and art craft. They sell their products directly in several markets throughout Switzerland, as well as on their webshop.
Gebana
Gebana is a Swiss pioneer for Fair Trade. It started in 1973 as a grassroot movement of women fighting for better working conditions for banana workers. In 1998, they became a company with the goal to associate social and environmental values with economical activity. In 2003, they started to directly distribute the products from the South to their consumers. In 2009, Gebana was in crisis. The small business struggles to survive in the global market environment while suffering from production risk issues in the South. Gebana does not give up, in particular thanks to thousands of customers, but also to solidarity partners and investors. Following this experience, gebana redefined itself in 2015 as a network of customers, farmers and partners sharing the same vision of fairer trade.
Nowadays, gebana buys organic products from family farmers, processes them locally and sells them into the wholesale market but also via online shops directly to consumers. So far, the company built sustainable supply chains in Burkina Faso, Togo, Brazil, Tunisia, Benin and Greece. Gebana works with a holistic approach on sustainability along the whole supply chain, striving for the company’s vision “Together we change global trade in favour of farmer families, the local economy and the environment.”
Tropical Mountains
Tropical Mountains was founded in 2014. It’s a sustainable coffee company and stands for premium coffee, fair and direct trade. Their mission is to serve organic coffee beans and home-compostable capsules, sustainably produced and traceable up to the coffee tree (family owned farm). Tropical Mountains creates shared value for customers and coffee producers by reinvesting profits in sustainable growth and social projects in Peru. In particular, they have created their own foundation for Peru’s coffee kids.
Their USP: they are the first company in Europe that offers a 100% sustainable alternative to aluminum and plastic capsules. Their clients are hotels, restaurants, corporates, NGOs and individuals that use their garden-compostable coffee capsules for Nespresso machines and enjoy a high-quality coffee and an improved CO2 footprint.