Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade Foundation coffees are available now to order from Gala Coffee Direct.

The coffee market has, arguably, been at the forefront of the important general trend towards ethical sourcing, and Gala has certainly played a major role in this. It's also fair to say that we haven't just 'jumped on the bandwagon' and indeed we developed a policy on the issue as far back as 1990.

Across the different markets Gala operates in – so including own-label for supermarkets, branded product for food service and our own Lyons coffee brand – we have a full range of options with strong sustainability and ethical sourcing credentials.

The main two organisations that both businesses and consumers will recognise are The Fairtrade Foundation and The Rainforest Alliance. We have strong relationships with both and many of our products carry their respective logos.

But for us it goes further and part of our ethos is to directly support the communities that produce the very thing we must have to run our business – high quality coffee beans. As an example, Gala directly helped improve the lives of coffee growers in Canton Las Lajas, El Salvador, by providing the funds to expand and improve a drinking water system.

Going forward and with a backdrop of a rapidly changing world, we will be looking at not just how we ethically source our raw commodity and that it's grown in a sustainable way, but the very way we operate to minimise our carbon footprint.

If you’re the owner or manager of an independent coffee shop, an independent hotel, independent restaurant, independent catering company, a small chain of any of these, or from any business which uses and needs fresh bulk coffee which is Fairtrade Foundation or Rainforest Alliance Certified, then Gala Coffee Direct is the website for you. Click here to see our range of Rainforest Alliance and click here for Fairtrade Foundation coffees