Café Michel and Terra Etica: Coffee in Bordeaux that supports organic initiatives and fair trade

Project

Implementation

Café Michel has been roasting coffee beans on an artisanal level in Pessac (Gironde) for 38 years. The company is one of the pioneers of organic farming and fair trade in organic stores, alongside associations and companies like Artisans du Monde and Max Havelaar, etc. .

Following financial concerns that the company went through in the early 2000s and in order to avoid the takeover by a large group, the employees decided to take over the company by creating a SCOP (Cooperative and Participative Society) with the help of solidarity finance partners and another SCOP . This change of status took place in 2007 and made it possible to guarantee the independence of the company and to maintain employment locally.

Employees are now the majority shareholders of the company. They take part not only in the decisions of the statutory general meetings but also in the important decisions of the business plan. During the votes 1 man = 1 vote ; the manager is also elected during these meetings.

SCOP Café Michel currently has 18 employees, 12 of whom are members.

They also have the ESUS (Entreprise Solidaire d'Utilité Sociale) certification which requires meeting the following 4 conditions:

• pursuit of a goal of social utility or general interest
• democratic governance
• reinvestment of the majority of profits in the operation of the business
• maximum ceiling for wages

Products

Their coffee-roasting know-how consists in bringing out the intrinsic and unique qualities of their 8 origins of coffee from different highlands. For each origin, they determine a unique roasting curve which is defined after a test phase developed by the master roaster offering an exceptional flavour when served. 

These coffees come from agro-ecological systems under cover : the producers leave large trees which provide the coffee trees with shade and which make it possible to diversify agricultural production, for example with coffee trees and cocoa trees on the same plot. The Coffee cherries are picked by hand and only when they are ripe.

Their products do not stop at coffee. They also offer fair trade and organic gourmet products (chocolates, tea, sugar, spices, cereals, ...) which reveal exceptional terroirs under the Terra Etica brand.

For this range they favor:

• old or local varieties
• a simple transformation preserving the flavors and the nutritional quality of the products
• natural recipes with short lists of ingredients

All their products are certified by a fair trade label and the European organic label. Depending on the sector, they seek to obtain the most demanding fair trade certification possible.

Means

Their fair trade is based on a field practice with organizations of small-holders, and a vision of development and enhancement of the wealth and qualities of the  local products of these organizations.

Café Michel tries to show that organic agriculture supported by another distribution of the value chain offers healthy, quality and sustainable food.

Their fair trade approach :

• a long-term commitment with producers
• remunerative and stable purchase prices which allow cooperatives to carry out their development and empowerment projects
• direct and constant links with cooperatives
• knowledge-sharing with consumers in order to demonstrate that an economic model based notably on a different distribution of the value chain is viable and relevant

The Fair Trade labels with which they work

• The Symbol of Local Producers (SPP) label

SPP is an international fair trade certification created in 2004 in Mexico and present in France since 2015. It is the only label founded and administered by producers. It focuses exclusively on small-scale and family farming: 85% of producers in a cooperative have less than 15 hectares of land, the other 30 hectares maximum.

• Fairtrade Max Havelaar

The oldest fair trade label, recognized internationally.

• Fair Trade EcocertThis label combines fair trade and organic farming. To obtain it, the product must first have organic certification.

Results

Today SCOP Café Michel works with 31 partner cooperatives in 19 countries.

They market around 3.5 million products per year in more than 1,000 specialized stores.

At the start of 2018, they moved into a new 2,000 square meter factory located in the Bersol industrial area, also in Pessac.

The Little Extra

To strengthen their environmental approach, the coffee packaging is aluminum-free (they also refuse to produce capsules) and they launched the first concept of bulk coffee in 2008 for which they received the innovation prize from the Biocoop network.

Written by Claire Caillaud, volunteer LFC - May 2019. 

Last modification : 01 Apr 2020.