Bridgehead Trading - An Alternative Marketing Organization.
Organization profile published 1982
http://www.connexions.org/Groups/Subscribers/CxG5641.htm
http://www.connexions.org/Groups/Subscribers/CxG559.htm
Year Published: 1982
Resource Type: Organization
Cx Number: CX2424
Four Toronto residents, committed to concrete action in the field of international economic justice, have established Bridgehead Trading, a Canadian Alternative Marketing Organization (AMO) that is part of a growing international network including development agencies and church groups in western Europe and Australia.
Abstract:
Connexions has published multiple abstracts on Bridgehead Trading.
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This abstract was published in Connexions Digest in 1982:
Four Toronto residents, committed to concrete action in the field of international economic justice, have established Bridgehead Trading, a Canadian Alternative Marketing Organization (AMO) that is part of a growing international network including development agencies and church groups in western Europe and Australia.
Bridgehead Trading of Toronto imports vacuum-packed, filter-ground, pure Nicaraguan coffee ("Now with the Aroma of Liberty") that is roasted, ground and packed by a Dutch AMO in Amsterdam. (There are at present no facilities in Nicaragua for vacuum-packing coffee). From Tanzania, Bridgehead Trading imports pure instant coffee processed in east and central Africa's only instant coffee factory - owned jointly by the Tanzanian government and the co-operatives of small-scale coffee farmers who supply it. The pure Ceylon tea that Bridgehead Trading imports (already packed) from Sri Lanka is grown on an estate owned by a Trust that runs six homes for mentally and physically handicapped children.
The coffee and tea imported by Bridgehead Trading is sold by mail order and through food co-operatives at prices similar to those charged for good quality coffee and tea in commercial outlets. Income that is surplus to the running costs of Bridgehead Trading is used to support development projects in Nicaragua, Tanzania and Sri Lanka.
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This abstract was published in Connexions Digest in 1983:
BRIDGEHEAD TRADING is a member of the Alternative Trading Organization (ATO) network which supports peasants and workers in the Third World in their struggle for economic justice.
BRIDGEHEAD is a non-profit partnership of four Canadians operating without financial aid from the government or other institutions. The profits gained from this business are used to actively support Third World people in their struggles. Money has gone to Oxfam Canada and then to Nicaragua to support a public health project. Profits have been used to support the federation of peasant and tea-estate workers organization in Sri Lanka. Future profit is planned to improve Tanzania's coffee processing plant.
BRIDGEHEAD is a business which by-passes transnational food corporations and links Canadians as consumers in solidarity with the Third World food producers.
The continuing success of the company depends in large part on the expansion of its distribution network in Canada. Thus far, BRIDGEHEAD has distributors in B.C., Alberta, Sask., Nova Scotia, and Ontario; and is stocked by retail stores in 13 urban centres. The comany also takes mail orders. However, it is still trying to break into the traditioinal co-op market (e.g. Federated Co-ops in Western Canada and Co-op Atlantic, both of which act as large-scale wholesalers to co-op retail stores). An example of the support it is receiving is the Bridgehead Trading Halifax Support Group, which has produced a slide tape show, Your World in a Cup, about the international tea and coffee trade and the context within which BRIDGEHEAD operates.
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