There’s no denying that for the last four and a half months our lives have seen a dramatic change. The days of waking up early for work and leaving the door to rush to work, before picking up your morning coffee seems like a lifetime away and although we’ve all had to change and adapt over the last 165 days, industries like ours have taken a huge hit. Not only closer to home but across the farming communities of the world.  

Impact of COVID-19 on International Trade and the effect on SME’s. 

The global outbreak of the virus and the major impact it has on International trade is significant. Supply chains are being interrupted due to suspended travel causing delayed arrivals and associated knock on effects.  Due to delays and disruptions, the way in which companies operate has had to change completely.  

Farming communities and dealing with COVID-19:  

There’s no doubt that farmer communities all around world have been one of the hardest hit by coronavirus. The fact that a lot of these communities don’t have the facilities to deal with the severity of the virus due to limited health services, lack of PPE and cramped living conditions means that the spread of the virus between individuals is at an all-time high.  

 As a society, and furthermore as a co-op, we need to work with the Fairtrade Foundation to make sure that farmers are taken care of.  Revolver Co-operative and other coffee businesses are taking part in UK Coffee week on the 19th-25th October. UK Coffee week is a week where money is raised for Project Waterfall. They provide clean water to farming communities in developing countries so that farmers and their families don’t need to travel miles for clean water. It also ensures some sort of sanitation, which in turn protects against COVID-19. To find out more, visit www.ukcoffeeweek.com to see how you can help.  

320 words, 3 min read