Fair Trade Coffee News

Fair Trade Coffee Certification – It’s not just about the money.

When one reads about fair trade coffee in the media, a great deal of emphasis is placed on the extra money that goes to the farmers...the guaranteed minimum of $1.26 a pound.

This is a core benefit, giving small coffee farmers a living wage.

But the fair trade coffee movement is about more than that.

As part of the certification process, cooperatives are strongly encouraged to use sustainable growing and processing practices.

This means composting, terracing, water conservation, reforestation, and minimizing the use of agrochemicals.

And it seems to be working.

According to TransFair USA, over 80% of fair trade certified coffee sold in the U.S. is also certified organic. And 80% is shade-grown.

I think it helps to see the movement within this broader context.

The guaranteed payment to small farmers may be the essential ingredient that helps growers and their families right now.

But the emphasis on sustainable growing practices is laying a strong foundation for the future.

This, arguably, is the true vision of fair trade: to build a sustainable future for the next generation of coffee growers, their families and communities.

Are you Fair Trade if Nobody Knows?

The latest entry in the greenlagirl blog is very interesting.

She writes about a few of the challenges of getting companies to go through the process of becoming fair trade certified by TransFair USA.

She cites a number of coffee companies that do as much, or better than is required in order to be certified, but are unwilling to pay the price to get the formal certification.

This reminds me of the early days of the organic food movement. Many farmers had been growing their produce organically for a long time. And some didn’t feel they should be compelled to pay extra to be recognized for what they were already doing.

There were also some additional complications. Some of the rules one had to follow in order to be certified were rather surprising. So even growers who already followed organic principles had to change their ways a little if they wanted to be certified.

However, over time, most organic growers took the plunge.

Why? Because it gave them access to the market.

If they didn’t get certified, how could they reach customers who had started actively looking for organic certification logos on the products they bought?

As soon as a certification system is in place, and becomes recognized by the buying public, that small certification logo on your packaging becomes an essential marketing tool.

How else are people to believe you grow “fair trade” coffee if you don’t have the TransFair USA logo on your packaging and promotional materials?

The logo, or seal, becomes an essential credibility indicator. People look for it and expect it.

Not having the seal, and simply saying, “But we are fair trade under our own terms” won’t persuade your customers.

I understand the hesitation these companies feel. But as more and more people come to recognize the TransFair USA logo, and look for it when they are buying coffee, not having that logo will become a huge disadvantage.

Tags: coffee fairtrade

Coldplay Supports Fair Trade

During the second leg of their "Twisted Logic" tour, January through April 2006, Coldplay continues to support Oxfam's Make Trade Fair campaign.

It's good to see such a popular band associating itself so closely with the fair trade movement. Often big bands, like big companies, are cautious about connecting themselves directly with good causes, unless they can see that it adds in some way to their bottom line. "Will supporting this cause help us in some way?" In other words, too many companies and celebrities support non profits to profit themselves, even if indirectly.

In the case of Coldplay, band member Chris Martin has been behind the campaign since 2002 and has traveled to Ghana to see the problems of poverty there first hand.

It's good to see. Celebrities have huge reach through the media, and their genuine commitment to a cause can make a big difference.

Nestlé sells fair trade coffee. But are they a fair trade organization?

When Nestlé announced it was going to start selling fair trade coffees, some supporters of fair trade were delighted, others were infuriated.

Those who were delighted saw the entry of such a huge company into the fair trade coffee arena as a sign that even the biggest buyers and sellers of coffee were finally taking notice.

Others took a more sober view, and saw the Nestlé move as simply a way to look good in front of the public. A comparison might be when a global oil company creates a “green” campaign.

One is right to be cautious and suspicious, simply because Nestlé is one of the companies which have been central to using their weight and buying power to keep coffee prices so low.

When you look at the company overall, they are still a big part of the problem.

This raises another question.

Should a company like Nestlé be allowed to benefit from the positive publicity that comes with selling fair trade coffee? But then again, how could one stop them?

One way to address this is to have two different levels of certification. Certify the coffee as fair trade...but also certify companies.

It is to address this latter issue that IFAT was created. Their role is to support fair trade by certifying companies, not just their products.

As consumers we should be aware of this, and not only choose fair trade coffees, but also, whenever possible, buy from fair trade organizations.

"Before you've finished your breakfast this morning, you'll have relied on half the world"

Who said that? Martin Luther King.

Had he been a little more brutal, he might have said, "...you will have trodden on the backs of half the world."

That's what happens when we brew our coffee each morning. We are enjoying the labor of someone else's back-breaking work. And they are paid in pennies.

That's why fair trade is important. That's why buying fair trade coffee counts for something.

Buying fair trade is a simple choice, but with far reaching consequences.

And that's a beautiful thing. Brewing a pot of coffee is one of the simplest ways in which you can fight for fairness and social justice.

Enjoy the coffee, and know that your purchase had a direct and beneficial impact on someone's life.

(Here's where I found the Martin Luther King quote...Make Trade Fair.)

How much more does Fair Trade Coffee cost?

Fair Trade Certified coffee typically costs about 10 cents more per cup.

This figure will vary a little. First, it depends on what you buy when you’re not buying fair trade coffee. If you normally buy poor quality coffee beans, fair trade will likely cost you more than an extra 10 cents per cup.

However, if you are in the habit of buying Blue Mountain Jamaican coffee, many fair trade coffees will cost you less.

There is nothing “fixed” about coffee prices or the premium paid for fair trade. There is simply a minimum cost per pound for fair trade coffee, at $1.26. Or $1.41 for organic fair trade.

Prices go up and down with the market. Premium specialty coffees will always cost more, and fair trade coffees will cost more because every fair trade purchase gives a little extra back to the farmers who grow the beans.

Fair Trade Coffee in K-Cups?

Isn’t the some contradiction here? Fair trade supports social justice and sustainable farming practices...and K-Cups end up in landfills.

I’m sure it makes great marketing sense...but there is an ethical contradiction here.

We have added a page on this topic to the Coffee Detective site, K-Cups filled with fair trade coffee – an ecological contradiction.

Finding a non-corporate coffee shop...

If you like the idea of supporting coffee shops which aren’t part of some huge corporation or franchise outfit, you can now find one in your neigborhood...or somewhere you are visiting...with Delocator.net. (USA and Canada only so far.)

Very cool idea.

Fair Trade Coffee. Exploitation Coffee.

It isn’t a recent post, but I enjoyed this blog entry from Marginal Revolution.

Here’s an excerpt:

How about a genre called "Exploitation Coffee"? You pay less, and they promise to treat the workers especially poorly. That wording is a less effective marketing ploy, but that is what quality differentiation and indeed "fair trade" boils down to.

It is well known that price discrimination can either raise or lower the average level of prices, but it does increase price dispersion. We can expect it to increase wage dispersion as well. It is harder to predict whether price discrimination will raise or lower wages at the bottom level of the scale.

By increasing output, fair trade can bid up wages for coffee producers. But fair trade also diverts some drinkers from Exploitation Coffee. If the switching effect is large, wages for producers of Exploitation Coffee can fall. Just as we have created two classes of market prices, so have we created two classes of market wages. If you believe that coffee producing firms have some degree of monopoly power, this is sustainable and again will increase profits but possibly worsen human misery for the poorest.

These are all "existence theorems." I would not be surprised to learn that current benefits from fair trade are positive. But since I am a development optimist, I have reservations about the institution in the longer run.

He makes a good point. If more and more coffee is purchased through fair trade cooperatives, then it is likely that less coffee will be purchased from the poorest coffee farmers who are not protected by the fair trade umbrella.

This is why it’s important, if one is thinking in terms of the well being of the growers, to spend your money on good coffee, as well as fair trade.

Buying good quality coffee encourages all coffee farmers to improve their growing and processing practices. It also means that when we pay a premium for quality, some of that increase in price will trickle down to all coffee farmers.

To protect the poorest farmers, the answer is not to buy only fair trade coffee, but also to buy quality coffees.

What Starbucks says. What Starbucks does.

There is often a significant disconnect between what big companies say, and what they actually do.

Often under pressure from customers and consumer groups, corporations will say what they think people want to hear.

Unfortunately, they don't always follow up on their promises.

The best publicized instance of "I say it, but don't do it" in the world of fair trade coffee is the Starbucks Challenge. Two bloggers took Starbucks at its word when it promised it would always serve a customer fair trade coffee, even if it meant making a single cup with a French press.

The two bloggers challenged their readers to go to their local Starbucks and ask for a cup of fair trade coffee. Hundreds of people from all over the world took up the challenge. In most instances, they didn’t get what Starbucks promised.

The Times of London picked up the story recently and took a look at how much fair trade coffee big companies like Starbucks and Nestle really sell. The percentages are small. That said, the volume of beans sold is still significant.

Here is a short excerpt from the Times article:

Starbucks, meanwhile, could certainly do better, as could many of the other biggies. In the last financial year, only 3.7 per cent of the coffee it sold globally was Fairtrade, though this is up from the 1.6 per cent of the previous year. Nescafé’s Partners Blend, the Fairtrade option launched by Nestlé, accounts for only 0.02 per cent of its total coffee sales.

The moral of the story? Keep pushing the big companies...and make sure they keep the promises they make.