Chilean Fair Trade Co-ops Hurt by Quake

As the dust settles from this past weekend’s massive earthquake in Chile and the full extent of the damage is assessed, the well being of the producers and vineyards in the TransFair USA family is on everyone’s mind.

The quake, which measured at 8.8 on the Richter scale with an impact of 50 gigatons, occurred underground just off the coast near the city of Concepción. As of today the death toll is up to 750, with the potential for it to rise due to high numbers of missing people. Even though Chile, one of the most developed nations in Latin America, has strict building codes for housing that includes seismic retrofitting, initial estimates put the damage in the range of $25-30 billion. This includes some 500,000 residential buildings that are beyond repair, leaving almost one out of every eight people homeless.

Some of the hardest hit areas include Constitución, Talca and Curicó, in the southern part of the country. Talca and Curicó are two of the main wine producing regions in Chile, home to several Fair Trade Certified vineyards. Initial estimates say that 90 percent of the historic old town of Curicó has been destroyed...

[Continue reading this article at the Fair Trade Certified Blog]