Fair Trade USA Receives $600,000 Grant: Climate Data Tool for Coffee and Cocoa Farmers Aims to Reach 3,000 Farmers
Fair Trade USA, a U.S. nonprofit certifier, announced on November 2 a $600,000 grant from the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation to build a data tool that helps farmers plan and invest using climate, market, and outcome information. The project, for Producer Intelligence Infrastructure for Ethical and Regenerative Supply Chains, runs from September 2026 through September 2027.
Producer organizations generate valuable environmental, social, and economic information, but it often sits fragmented across internal systems, is difficult to access, and rarely reaches producers in a form they can act on. The new platform combines Fair Trade USA's certification records, audit findings, Community Development Fund investments, and open-source climate data with producer-submitted documents, images, voice recordings, and stories, returning decision-grade insights such as seasonal climate outlooks, market signals, agronomic guidance, and prioritized actions, with delivery supported by Fair Trade's on-the-ground staff.
The tool builds on the Nature Intelligence Dashboard, a previous project implemented with Colombian coffee farmers in 2026 that translated open-source soil, crop, and biodiversity data into guidance and action plans. Producers will co-design the new tool through workshops and follow-up visits with coffee, cocoa, and banana producer leaders in Peru, Cote d'Ivoire, and Colombia. Fair Trade USA will also formalize guidelines for producer data ownership and consent, on the principle that a cooperative's own data should serve the producer first.
For the last several years, we have been on a journey of democratizing data so that producers are best equipped to be the protagonists of change, said Felipe Arango, CEO of Fair Trade USA, adding that the grant will build the tools to unlock that vision. Vilas Dhar, President of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, said farmers are making high-stakes decisions as climate conditions and markets shift, but do not always have access to the same information as the buyers they sell to.
By September 2027, Fair Trade USA aims to reach at least 10 cooperatives across coffee, cocoa, and bananas in three origins, with a broader reach of 3,000 farmers. The tools will be shared among producers, exporters, and buyers at the World of Coffee and Fair Trade's Impact Fair in April 2027. Fair Trade USA works with 1.2 million producer partners in 52 countries.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：哥伦比亚 Hacienda Guayabal 咖啡园里结着红绿果实的咖啡枝。Bernard Gagnon 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Coffee berries at Hacienda Guayabal, Colombia. Photo by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
