Sales of Fairtrade coffee are up 67 per cent from 2002 until 2004 - and that's just to the hospitality and catering industry. Sales are also up in supermarkets and shops - 42 per cent for the same period. In other words, it's not a blip in the statistics.* And Progreso is going to take things one stage further. It's a company which Oxfam and Matthew Algie are helping to get started. We're putting up some cash, and we'll supply the Fairtrade organic coffee, but we won't own any part of the company. The revolutionary part is that coffee growing co-operatives in Honduras, Ethiopia and Indonesia will get a share in the profits.

That's a huge leap forward. At the moment, 25 million growers depend on coffee as their only cash crop. As world prices have fallen by 70 per cent since 1997, they've seen real hardship. That means taking their children out of school, no basic healthcare and no money for clothes.

With Progresso, that isn't going to happen - and because the beans are Fairtrade and organic, the farmers get a higher price. Not to mention a cut of the profits from the cafés, coupled with the chance to showcase their products in the UK.

Progreso is an independent company, and is already looking for sites throughout the UK. The outlets will concentrate on pushing quality above all else - the Fairtrade message will be unmissable, but it's the taste which will make people come back for more.

And you can't say fairer than that.

* Source MORI March 2004

This article originally appeared in Fresh 17