Fair trade in coffee

Although much of the coffee trade remains unfair, some changes are taking place.

Co-operatives

In some places, as the number of small coffee farms has increased, farmers have begun to join together and form cooperatives - organized groups of farmers who work together to sell their coffee beans. This has happened in the Sandia region of Peru, for example, where coffee farmers have formed small local cooperatives, and sell their coffee beans through a central co-operative organization called CECOVASA. In this way, the farmers support each other, and have a stronger position for trading, especially when they can deal with fair trade organizations.

For more about the cooperatives, see On the Road by mule & by truck

Fair trade - not aid!

The idea behind fair trade is simple: Small farmers in the South have the right to a decent standard of living, and to be treated as equals by consumers in the North. The farmers do not need aid to achieve this, they need only to be paid a fair price for the goods they produce.

In 1986, Mexican coffee farmers told a Dutch aid organization that if they were paid a fair price for their coffee beans, all aid to them could stop. They just wanted a price that would cover the cost of producing the beans, and allow them to live a decent life.

CONSUMERS: the people who buy something

AID: money or goods given by rich countries to poor countries.

NORTH & SOUTH

As a result, fair trade organizations like the Max Havelaar Foundation were started in Northern countries. They work directly with small farmers in the South, to make fairly traded coffee (and other goods, for example tea, cocoa, honey, bananas) available to consumers in the North. Now there is a network of Fair Trade organizations across Northern countries . Some of them sell fairly traded products directly; others license manufacturers to use their fair trade label if the manufactures agree to their fair trade conditions.

LICENSE: (v) to give someone permission to use something for a certain period of time

Fair Trade Organizations

The Fair Trade Criteria

These are the things that the fair trade organizations believe in, and practise in their trading:

CRITERIA:( n) conditions that must be met

• An equal partnership of mutual respect between producers and consumers
  The producers (the coffee growers) and the consumers (the companies & people who buy the coffee) should have respect for each other. The relationship between the producer and the consumer should be one of equality.
• A long-term commitment to purchase
  The buyers agree to continue buying coffee from the same growers year after year. This gives the farmers security and stability, and helps them to plan ahead effectively.
• Informed consumers
  The consumers in the North need to know the reality behind the coffee for sale in their shops; this gives consumers the chance to make responsible choices about what they buy.
• A guaranteed minimum price to be paid to producers, which may involve a surcharge or premium over and above the world-market price
  The buyers will pay a certain amount for each sack of coffee beans, even if the price on the world market is less than that. Buyers may also pay an extra amount of money for the coffee beans for other reasons, for example because of the extra work and economic risk to farmers when they grow coffee organically.
• No intermediaries - direct buying from the producers
  The Fair Trade organizations buy directly from the growers; in this way, more of the money that is paid for the coffee goes directly to the farmers, instead of some of it going to 'middle-men'.
• Control of production by the producers
  The farmers are independent of the producers; they make their own decisions about growing their coffee.
• A commitment to improve social conditions for the producers
  Many small farmers in the South live in poverty without enough food, or without proper health care or education. Consumer countries in the North have done a lot to create this situation; therefore Fair Trade organizations accept that it is the consumers' responsibility to help improve living conditions for the farmers they buy from.
• Care for the environment by encouraging organic methods of growing coffee
  Organic farming does not use chemical fertilizers, pesticides and so on, which can damage the environment in many ways.

PURCHASE: (v) to buy

GUARANTEED MINIMUM PRICE: an amount below which the price cannot fall

PREMIUM:
SURCHARGE: an extra amount of money

INTERMEDIARY: middle-man / someone who buys something in order to sell it to someone else for a profit

Coffee drinkers can change the coffee trade

Right now, the fair trade market offers real hope, but there are limitations:
much of the fair trade coffee still has to use the big companies for roasting and selling the coffee;
the size of the market is growing, but it is still small (CECOVASA, for example, still has to sell most of its coffee on the normal market)

But, as David Ransom said, it's the coffee drinkers who can change that by choosing to buy fairly traded coffee.