Twin Trading was an alternative trading company in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. It was founded in 1985 and was based in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. Twin Trading was wholly owned by Twin, a registered charity and membership organisation. It was co-founded by economist

Michael Barratt Brown Michael Barratt Brown (15 March 1918 – 7 May 2015) was a British economist, political activist and adult educator. He was a key figure in the creation of the British New Left in the period after the Soviet invasion of Hungary; he helped to found ...

, who was also at one time its chairman. He stood down from the Board in August 2007. Twin was founded as the Third World Information Network with the support of the

Greater London Council The Greater London Council (GLC) was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. It replaced the earlier London County Council (LCC) which had covered a much smaller area. The GLC was dissolved in 198 ...

. In 1988 it began to import coffee, sold through

Oxfam Oxfam is a British-founded confederation of 21 independent charitable organizations focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, founded in 1942 and led by Oxfam International. History Founded at 17 Broad Street, Oxford, as the Oxford Co ...

and

Traidcraft Traidcraft is a UK-based Fairtrade organisation, established in 1979. The organisation has two components: a public limited company called Traidcraft plc, which sells fairly traded products in the United Kingdom; and a development charity c ...

, leading to the 1988 founding of

Cafédirect Cafédirect is a UK-based alternative trading organization. History Cafédirect was founded in 1991 by Oxfam, Traidcraft, Equal Exchange Trading and Twin Trading as a response to the 1989 global collapse in coffee prices. Its aims was to "g ...

by Twin with Oxfam, Traidcraft and

Equal Exchange Trading Equal Exchange Trading is a UK-based alternative trading organization. Equal Exchange is a workers co-operative distributing food and beverage products in the independent natural food sector. The organization's origins stretch back to 1979 "wh ...

. In 1993, Twin helped chocolate farmers in

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

to found the

Kuapa Kokoo Kuapa Kokoo is a Fairtrade-certified cocoa farmers organisation in Ghana. The organisation was established in 1993 by a group of cocoa farmers from Ghana with support from Twin Trading, Christian Aid and The Body Shop. They are based in Ghana an ...

co-operative, and in 1998

Divine Chocolate Divine Chocolate Limited is a British purveyor of Fairtrade chocolate. It was originally established in the UK in 1998 as a company limited by shares co-owned by the Kuapa Kokoo cocoa farmers' co-operative in Ghana, Twin Trading and The Body Sh ...

was formed, largely owned by Kuapa Kokoo, to market

Fairtrade A fair trade certification is a product certification within the market-based movement fair trade. The most widely used fair trade certification is FLO International's, the International Fairtrade Certification Mark, used in Europe, Africa, As ...

chocolate. Twin also launched OKÉ and Liberation Nuts. In November 2019 it was bought by Sustainable Harvest, a United States-based green coffee importer.

References

External links

{{fair trade Alternative trading organizations