10 May 2012

A Thousand Carrotmobbers Expected In Support Of Fairtrade Coffee Farmers in the Pacific

Café goers in Auckland, Wellington and Hamilton can enjoy a Fairtrade flat-white, knowing that coffee farmers in the Pacific will benefit - even more than usual. Conscious Consumers, a New Zealand-based social enterprise, is organising the ‘Carrotmob’ events on Sunday 20 May, as part of Fair Trade Fortnight.

During the last two weeks, cafes in Auckland, Wellington and Hamilton have been bidding for the right to be mobbed by hundreds of ‘conscious’ consumers. “The café that will be mobbed in each city is the one that pledged to donate the highest % of money spent by consumers during the 2-hour mobbing period”, said Ben Gleisner, National Director of Conscious Consumers. “All the donations will go towards a renewable energy scheme for a Papua New Guinea coffee farm”, he said. The winning cafes and their bids are:

• Auckland: Cosset Café, Mt Albert – with a bid of 70%
• Hamilton: Just Food Café, Te Ara Hou Village – with a bid of 50%
• Wellington, Celcius Café, Petone – with a bid of 45%

Stephen Knapp, CEO of Fairtrade ANZ said that “the pledges from the cafes were amazing”. “For every cup of coffee bought during the Carrotmobs, about 2-3 dollars will be going directly to a Fairtrade coffee farm in Papua New Guinea” he said. The target is to raise $1500 from the three events, which will fund a small solar-power system to run the office of the Neknasi Coffee Growers Cooperative Society.

Speaking from PNG, Moung Bungun, the Chairman of the Neknasi Coffee Growers Cooperative Society wanted to say “thank you to our friends at Conscious Consumers - Neknasi appreciates what you are doing for us”. Michael Toliman, Coffee Industry Cooperation of Papua New Guinea, currently touring New Zealand for Fair Trade Fortnight added “over the years we have been using the generator and have experienced high costs of fuel for the generator and also a lot of noise. “We want to appreciate the effort of Conscious Consumers to what you are trying to do for us by purchasing solar panels”, he said. “It will really help us do our programme in the Neknasi office and at the same time it will also help us to preserve the environment”. The solar-power system is being sourced from EcoWise Energy ltd, and will be shipped to PNG once the funds have been raised.

Over 4000 people have been invited to the events (2-4pm on Sunday 20 May) through social networking sites such as Facebook, Youtube and Twitter. Further details available on the Conscious Consumer website.

www.consciousconsumers.org.nz
www.carrotmob.org
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpH8VKwZcYk

ENDS

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