It was co-founded by economist Michael Barratt Brown, who was also at one time its chairman.
[2] Twin was founded as the Third World Information Network with the support of the Greater London Council.
[1] In 1988 it began to import coffee, sold through Oxfam and Traidcraft,[3] leading to the 1988 founding of Cafédirect by Twin[1] with Oxfam, Traidcraft and Equal Exchange Trading.
In 1993, Twin helped chocolate farmers in Ghana to found the Kuapa Kokoo co-operative, and in 1998 Divine Chocolate was formed,[1] largely owned by Kuapa Kokoo, to market Fairtrade chocolate.
In November 2019 it was bought by Sustainable Harvest,[4] a United States–based green coffee importer.