ONE of my favourite co-ops is Revolver in Wolverhampton. It is the brainchild of Paul Birch, who has had a long career in the music business and came to fair trade while sourcing cotton for bands’ T-shirts.

Birch felt that the new-found desire for knowing the provenance in coffee played to the fair trade agenda in a new way.

The need to identify the region, or even estate, the coffee had come from meant you could ensure higher quality and have a real relationship with the producers.

His second idea was that Fairtrade was not fair enough. If Nestle or Walmart could get the Fairtrade logo on their products, it was far too easy.

So what was to be done? Well, if you formed a co-op with membership available to both producers and consumers you could make the connection that the original idea of fair trade was meant to be all about.

So far so good. The business was growing steadily in a very competitive marketplace when the chance arose to add Cuban coffee to the range.

It was Crystal Mountain coffee grown by some 200 farmers around the Sopapo-Mayari plateau in the Cuatro Vientos region, nestled in the valleys of the Sierra del Escambray Mountains where frequent rain produces a perfect mico-climate.

The soil, rich in mica and quartz crystal deposits, gives the coffee its name.

The coffee cherries are handpicked and naturally sundried before being brought to Cumanayagua for processing. It has an intense aroma with an elegant and delicate sweetness. Following meetings with the Cubans and a visit to Cuba, this soon became Revolver’s bestseller.

Demand for this coffee, with its rich, strong and rounded flavour, was growing steadily. Like many small businesses internet trading has been a real boon.

Then a customer trying to pay for some Cuban coffee online through PayPal received an alarming email.

It began: “Paypal’s compliance department has reviewed your account and identified activity that is in violation of United States regulations administered by the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).”

It went on: “It has come to our attention that you initiated a payment for the purchase of an item of Cuban origin. To ensure that future activity and transactions comply with current regulations, PayPal is requesting that you complete the following appeal step: Agree to no longer undertake activities in violation of laws, regulations and rules as outlined in PayPal’s User Agreement.

“Any further violations will result in the closure of your account. As a result of the violation, details of your account and the transaction have been reported to OFAC.”

As the email continued to explain, OFAC enforces economic sanctions against countries and regimes the US dislikes, as well as “terrorists, international narcotics traffickers, those engaged in activities related to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and other threats to the national security, foreign policy or economy of the United States.”

A British company being paid by a firm based in Luxembourg selling Cuban coffee is perfectly legal. But bigger firms often give up at this point because they want to do other business in the US. These extraterritorial sanctions are holding Cuba back.  

Then came Revolver’s second setback. One of the companies which had been distributing its coffee to retailers in the Midlands went bust owing them money and breaking the supply chain.

A less resilient group of people could have given up. Finance frozen. Supply chain bust.

However this co-op is made of sterner stuff.

Revolver arranged to sell the coffee through the Cuba Solidarity Campaign website (where you can get the ground coffee and beans). It spent months getting its PayPal account unfrozen and is rebuilding its website.

Working with the Cubans, it is also looking at importing and marketing other commodities, including rum, honey and beer.

There is no doubt that these problems have damaged the business but it is still standing and being a threat to the US is a real honour.

To grow and take support for Cuba to a new level it really needs more member investors. The experience has made it more determined to succeed than ever.

If you want to help break the embargo and get a great cup of coffee go to: www.Revolverworld.com and note that members get free delivery.

Nick Matthews is chair of Co-operatives UK. He writes in a personal capacity