Union Direct Trade in Action

Union Direct Trade is about ‘trade, not aid.’ Receiving sustainable prices for coffee lets farmers build viable livelihoods and have control over investments and development in their communities.

In this section you'll see some of the projects we've helped with.

Improving livelihoods through speciality coffee in Rwanda

April 23, 2021

Union was the first coffee company in the world to source speciality coffee from Rwanda following the devastating genocide in 1994. Find out how we continue to work with our farmer partners today...

Beans and Bees

January 11, 2019

Coffee and bees are natural bedfellows, in just the sort of mutually beneficial, direct relationship we like. Read about our work in Guatemala with female coffee farmers on how to maintain a bee colony and extract honey...

Preserving Wild Arabica and Improving Livelihoods

January 11, 2019

The Yayu Forest Reserve in Ethiopia is one of the last and most important remaining places for the conservation of wild Arabica coffee. Wild coffee...

Training at Origin

January 11, 2019

After coffee cherries are picked, they need to be dried and processed. In Yayu, Ethiopia, we have financially supported the cooperatives in building more drying beds to help with this. Read on for more...

Finca La Candelaria, Guatemala

January 11, 2019

We have been working with Finca La Candelaria in Guatemala since 2014 to improve the conditions for farmworkers. This project was aimed at helping with the workers children during the summer school holidays. Find Out more...

Yayu, Ethiopia

January 11, 2019

Ethiopia is the birthplace of Arabica coffee, and the Yayu Coffee Forest Reserve in Ethiopia is noted for its high levels of natural (wild) coffee genetic diversity. Find out about the work we do in one of the last remaining wild coffee forests...

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