Twin Trading is a leading alternative trading company in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. It was founded in 1985 and is based in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

.

Twin Trading is wholly owned by Twin, a registered charity and membership organisation. Twin's membership comprises 24 farmer co-operatives in eight countries, drawing together a network of over 1,000 co-ops, representing more than 163,000 farmer families. There are an additional 13 individual members with external experience. Members elect to a Council annually and also elect Guardians to oversee Twin’s mission, constitution and procedures.

Twin was originally founded in 1985 as the Third World Information Network with the support of the Greater London Council

Greater London Council

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

. In 1988 it began to import coffee, sold through Oxfam

Oxfam

Oxfam is an international confederation of 15 organizations working in 98 countries worldwide to find lasting solutions to poverty and related injustice around the world. In all Oxfam’s actions, the ultimate goal is to enable people to exercise their rights and manage their own lives...

 and Traidcraft

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 called Traidcraft Exchange that works with poor producers in...

, leading to the 1988 founding of Cafédirect

Cafédirect

Cafédirect is a UK-based alternative trading organization. It is currently one of the largest Fairtrade hot drinks companies in the world. As well as coffee, Cafédirect has a hot beverage range that includes 100% Fairtrade tea and hot chocolate...

 by Twin with Oxfam, Traidcraft and Equal Exchange Trading

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...

. In 1993, Twin helped chocolate farmers in Ghana

Ghana

Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...

 to found the Kuapa Kokoo

Kuapa Kokoo

Kuapa Kokoo is a cocoa farmers' cooperative organisation, established in Ghana in 1993. It was formed following the Ghanaian government's liberalisation of internal cocoa marketing in 1992, which, farmers feared, would lead to the entry of private companies into the market with whom they would be...

 co-operative, and in 1998 Divine Chocolate was formed, largely owned by Kuapa Kokoo, to market Fairtrade chocolate. Twin has also launched OKÉ

Oke

The , were branches of the Japanese Imperial Family created from branches of the Fushimi-no-miya house. All but one of the ōke were formed by the descendants of Prince Fushimi Kuniye. The ōke were stripped of their membership in the Imperial Family by the American Occupation Authorities in...

 and Liberation Nuts.