History and Achievements
No other organisation has done more or gone further in developing fair trade in action than Twin.” - Third Sector Magazine
Twin’s history is closely aligned with that of the global fair trade movement. It played a lead role in developing the market for the first generation of fair trade products including coffee, cocoa, fruit and nuts, and continues to participate in the ongoing development of Fairtrade standards.
Twin was established in 1985 with support from the Greater London Council. Originally known as the Third World Information Network, Twin spent its formative years trading and exchanging goods from countries excluded from international trade opportunities for political reasons, such as Cuba, Nicaragua and Mozambique. The imposition of structural adjustment and particularly the collapse of the International Coffee Agreement in 1989 focussed Twin’s attention on coffee.
In 1991 Twin launched Cafédirect in partnership with Traidcraft, Oxfam and Equal Exchange to introduce fair trade coffee to the mainstream market for the first time. The Fairtrade Foundation was established the following year, working closely with Twin since its inception.
With Twin’s help Ghanaian farmers set up the pioneering Kuapa Kokoo cocoa cooperative in 1993. Kuapa Kokoo and Twin are the lead shareholders in Divine Chocolate, launched as Day Chocolate in 1998.
Following years of development work on the ground, Twin’s Producer Partnership Programme (PPP) was officially created in 1997 at the request of producer organisations. The PPP has done considerable work to build capacity and facilitate access to markets for some of the poorest and most marginalised smallholders in the trading chain. (Find out more about Twin’s PPP projects)
In 2001 Twin launched Agrofair UK with producers and partners of Agrofair Europe, bringing fairly traded fruit to the UK for the very first time. Then in 2006 Twin began importing nuts for the first time and subsequently launched a dedicated Fairtrade-certified nut business, Liberation Foods CIC, in 2007 with producer partners from Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The Liberation team works closely with Twin to continue to develop fair trade nut supply chains and the market. Nuts is still a small and relatively new player on the fair trade scene but with Twin’s expertise and ingenuity we are punching above our weight and helping to bring smallholder producers and African origins back into the world nuts market.” – Kate Gaskell, Managing Director, Liberation Foods
Also in 2007, Twin underwent an organisational restructure, becoming a membership organisation – giving smallholder organisations a direct say in how Twin is run (see ‘Structure’ for more details).
Twin began to expand its trading work in the late 2000s. In 2010 we ended our formal green (raw) coffee supply agreement with Cafédirect. This allowed our commercial arm, Twin Trading, to focus on developing its business, trading with high-profile roasters and importers around the world.
In 2011, Twin supported the development of Afri-Nut Ltd, a groundnut facility in Malawi. Afri-Nut adds significant value at source for smallholder producers and is helping to develop a therapeutic product of high nutritional value for consumption in the domestic market.
Twin is currently working on a number of exciting projects across Africa and Latin America, focusing on business capacity building, social justice and climate change adaptation.
