September 26-October 2, 2011
General Assembly News
PCT Indigenous Ministry Production Board highlights fair trade, good coffee and good stories
Reported by Chiou Kuo-rong
Written by Lydia Ma
“Farmers all over the world are poor mainly because they are primary producers,” said Dean Cycon, a businessman and founder of Dean’s Beans, during a meeting attended by Production Board directors from every Indigenous presbytery of the PCT.
Dean’s Beans is a brand of fair trade coffee and its founder was invited to visit and speak in Taiwan by PCT Indigenous Ministries Production Board Center and Taiwan College of Indigenous Studies . Dean Cycon has already spoken in seminars in 13 other countries interested in creating fair trade coffee.
The meeting, held on September 26, 2011, at PCT headquarter offices was aimed at helping indigenous reservations, where the majority of the residents depend on marketing produces to make a living.
Dean Cycon explained that produce have the greatest value when there is a story that can be marketed in tandem. He underscored that if these produce could be used as means to introduce indigenous culture as well, then, consumers’ attention could be shifted from the product to the story behind the product. Such a shift would create additional value for indigenous produce.
Indigenous Ministries Production Board Director, Rev. Chen Hsin-liang from Changhua Presbytery, exchanged gifts with Dean Cycon after the meeting. Chen told Dean Cycon he was happy to meet Dean Cycon and hear him speak about good methods for producing and marketing coffee because it was one of the produces being marketed by his board.
Chen underscored that the goal of the Production Board is to protect producers’ rightful profits from corporate or wholesalers’ exploitation and help Indigenous farmers obtain their fair share of economic profits. In the long run, their goal is to enable young adults in indigenous reserves to find jobs to sustain themselves in their hometowns without migrating to urban areas.
