If you’ve been in the store or followed us on social media, you may have noticed it’s Avocado Month at Seward Co-op. We purchase our avocados from Equal Exchange, who sources them from a grower cooperative in Central Mexico. Equal Exchange’s mission is to build long-term trade partnerships that are economically just and environmentally sound, to foster mutually beneficial relationships between farmers and consumers, and to demonstrate, through success, the contribution of worker cooperatives and Fair Trade to a more equitable, democratic and sustainable world.

Equal Exchange partners with Pragor, a progressive group of small-scale avocado farmers in Michoacán, Mexico. Farmer members of Pragor were some of the first in the area to transition to organic in the early ’90s. Together they do the daily work of navigating this dangerous area and try to find solutions to problems with growing, packing and exporting.

Seeing the Equal Exchange brand on an avocado (or a banana) guarantees a customer that their fruit is sourced from a small farmer receiving a fair price for their fruit. It’s not just a better wage, it’s a better way of life. Farmers own their own land and are helping to rebuild their own communities through hard work and enterprise. It also guarantees that the grower cooperatives are working directly with the Equal Exchange produce team, not through a third party like the majority of farmers and plantations in the produce industry.