Fair Trade Coffee News

Can fair trade coffee break through the clutter of “green”?

I have written in a few posts about the challenge faced by the fair trade movement when it comes to finding a place in consumers’ minds.

In a recent article in Brand Week they talk about how the whole “green’ thing is becoming confused in people’s minds.

Here is a short excerpt from that article:

"Is it about the environment, organic food or 'good-for-you' living? … It could be about all of those things," said Allen Adamson, managing director at Landor. "It is easy to say you are green, but consumers are skeptical. And because everyone wants to jump on the green bandwagon, all of a sudden it is noisy in this space, and it is hard to break through."

Both large companies and small send out messages about how green and responsible they are.

Many people quite rightly feel suspicious about these messages when they come from companies like Kraft and Nestlé – both of which market fair trade coffee.

The trouble is, that skepticism trickles down and damages the credibility of smaller companies too.

As I have said before, the fair trade coffee movement needs to create a clear, single message that resonates with consumers, is genuinely credible and is then used by as many fair trade coffee companies as possible.

When you’re in the middle of noise and clutter...your communications need to be very clear, honest and consistent.

How much can Intelligentsia Coffee charge for fair trade coffee?

I came across this interesting quote from a piece in Reveries Magazine:

Intelligentsia Coffee may be paying “at least 25 percent above the Fair Trade price” for its coffee, but is turning a profit, “with 2005 sales of $9.4 million and a 2006 growth rate of 21 percent.” Intelligentsia’s keys to success are the idea that drinkers will pay considerably more for better quality coffee, and that growers can share in the margins if they produce better beans. Intelligenstia’s idea apparently takes notions of “Fair Trade” to another level — as “Fair Trade relates only to working conditions, not the quality of the coffee beans.”

Good for them. If Intelligentsia Coffee can get more money into the hands of small coffee growers, they have my vote.

But I can't help wondering just how much coffee drinkers are willing to pay. How high can prices go before people just say no?

The price of a good cup of quality coffee is pretty high if you buy it at a coffee shop.

Meanwhile, the price of good coffee at home is getting higher too. People are now spending $150 or more for the latest single-cup coffee makers, and anywhere from 25 to 50 cents per cup of coffee when they buy their K-cups or coffee pods to fit these fancy machines.

I have no doubt that each day at least one person shakes his or her head and remembers that you can make some great coffee with a handful of reasonable Arabica beans and a five dollar manual drip cone filter.

But what happens when a thousand people a day start shaking their heads?

Are coffee drinkers willing to pay more and more? Or is there a bubble here, waiting to burst?

Less than half of fair trade coffee is sold at fair trade prices.

I was reading a long and interesting article in the Washington Post about the impact Wal-Mart is having on the fair trade coffee movement.

Then I came across this passage:

“For most fair-trade farmers, finding a willing buyer is the most difficult part of the process. About 35 to 45 percent of fair-trade-certified coffee is actually sold at fair-trade prices, according to TransFair USA. The rest goes for market value, undistinguishable from regular coffee.”

Did you know that? I didn’t. Perhaps it was naive of me to think that every pound of fair trade coffee grown would be purchased at a fair trade price.

If the figures are that bad, then there is a strong argument for supporting mass buyers like Wal-Mart.

But then again, if coffee farm coops become suppliers to Wal-Mart, they will run all the same risks that every other Wal-Mart supplier faces.

In other words, if you build your entire business and community based on a relationship with one company the size of Wal-Mart...what happens when Wal-Mart changes its mind?

It may be easy for me to say, in my comfy Western home, but my gut tells me that fair trade coffer growers should explore every other possible avenue before getting into bed with a partner like Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart’s financial self interest will always come first, and its commitment to ethical trading will be lucky to come second.

Fair trade nation – a national commitment.

The U.S.? Canada? No. Scotland.

Scotland’s First Minister, Jack McConnell, has a plan that aims to have at least 40% of Scots buying fair trade goods and produce on a regular basis. His aim is to have the country focus on the need to buy fair trade and help disadvantaged producers in developing countries – not with handouts, but with trade.

This is one more example of the power of the fair trade movement...and how it is shifting perceptions and actions among individuals, companies and now even governments.

You can find more details in this article in Scotland’s The Herald.

Fair trade helps find new export markets for coffee producing countries.

Fair trade helps find new export markets for coffee producing countries.

In this interesting article from the Tanzania Daily News, you can see how fair trade expands opportunities for developing countries in coffee growing regions.

With fair trade, Tanzania now finds itself with export orders to both Russia and Japan.

The deeper you look at the fair trade coffee movement, the more benefits you see. It helps individuals, communities, the environment...and the countries themselves.

Another niche...buy fair trade coffee in support of individual communities, regions or countries.

In my last post I talked about buying fair trade coffee to support women farmers in Peru.

Another way you can target your support through fair trade coffee purchases is to buy from countries or regions that you feel need more support than others.

In this article on East Timor you will see just how badly that country needs all the support it can get.

Once again, it is wonderful to know that buying coffee can have such a beneficial effect on communities in so many parts of the world.

And as the trade in fair trade coffee continues to grow, we will have more and more ways to target our support to particular groups of coffee farmers, regions or countries.

Fair trade coffee supporting women coffee growers

While more and more companies are now jumping on the marketing bandwagon and selling fair trade coffee, this is the first time I have seen a “niche” fair trade company seeking to support one group of growers in particular...women in Peru.

Take a look at the Cafe Femino Foundation web site and you’ll quickly get a sense of how appropriate and important this cause is.

How the fair trade coffee process works. An excellent explanation by Jason Cangialosi

If you ever get confused by the process of fair trade...who does what, where the money goes and how etc, read this article by Jason Cangialosi.

I found it to be one of the best pieces I have read for anyone who is interested in fair trade coffee, but is having trouble finding a clear explanation as to how it all works.

Organic Coffee Lifestyle

My apologies for the delay in posts over the last few days. It has been a busy week or two. One thing I have managed to get done is to put together a short page on the Coffee Detective site on the Organic Coffee Lifestyle.

It strikes me that coffee is one of the very few things we consume where we can make choices and do no harm from the moment the coffee is grown, to the moment we throw away the used grinds.

My Top 5 Fair Trade Coffee Companies

In a previous post I wrote about compiling a list of my top ten ethical fair trade coffee stores. For now the list stands at five. If you know of others which deserve to be on the list, please let me know.

How did I choose them?

First I was looking for companies which went above and beyond the requirements for fair trade certification.

In other words, I was looking for a level of personal commitment. I wanted to find evidence that these companies weren’t getting certified simply as a marketing tactic. I looked for solid evidence that caring about coffee farmers and the importance of the fair trade movement was a true part of the company’s own values.

Based on my views about publicly traded companies, one company stands out as an oddity on this list...Green Mountain Coffee.

It wasn’t my intention to have any “big” companies on the list. But a big company that does good things deserves a mention. Green Mountain Coffee is on the list because they send a number of employees on a trip to coffee growing communities each year, on salary. They don’t have to do it, but they do. And it’s a perfect way for employees to see first-hand what coffee growing is all about, and the importance of fair trade.

This is just my first pass at this list. With your help I can refine it and maybe get it up to a list of ten companies.

In no particular order...

Thanksgiving Coffee

Just Coffee

Pura Vida Coffee

Green Mountain Coffee

Cafe Campesino