SPG Blog

Coffee is the world’s second most valuable commodity: only oil beats out the bean. It is also a staple in most office environments. In honour of National Fair Trade Weeks, celebrated across Canada May 1st to 15th, we’re spilling the beans on how coffee purchases can become a practical and simple way to align corporate procurement decisions with progressive social values.

When directly confronted with the facts, few would outright admit that they are in support of child labour, dangerous working conditions, environmental degradation, and paying people below a living wage. But when it comes to buying office supplies—whether for a small company or a large corporation—considerations such as the way a product was made or grown may be supplanted by other factors. Can we get it from a current supplier? How expensive is it? Do we get a corporate discount? And do they deliver? We argue that when fair trade is an option, it is a worthwhile corporate investment. Purchasing fair trade coffee for the office is an easy and relatively inexpensive way to demonstrate corporate values such as equity, fairness, environmental responsibility and global social investment.

So what is fair trade? Fair trade is an internationally-based way of doing business that provides fair prices to farmers and workers in developing countries, promotes sustainable environmental practices, improves social services, and invests in local economic infrastructure. While the fair trade movement began about 60 years ago, it was in the 1980s that an international system of fair trade labelling and certification was introduced. Fair trade products include coffee, tea, rice, bananas, mangoes, cocoa, sugar, flowers, chocolate, honey, fruit juices, wine, clothing and sports balls.

Why fair trade coffee? In order to increase short-term productivity, poorer quality (“robusta”) beans are grown on huge coffee plantations, which are created by clear-cutting forest and kept viable by large inputs of chemical pesticides and fertilizers. For every pound of coffee sold in North America, workers on coffee plantations make less than 14¢ US. But small scale coffee farmers—who make up more than half of the coffee producers globally—don’t fare much better. Forced to sell their coffee to mercenary mid-level traders, farmers make around 35¢ US a pound, too little to support their families and their farm. They go into debt (often to those same mercenary mid-level traders) and, unable to make the high interest payments, lose their land.

Fair trade coffee is a taste-good, feel-good alternative. While world coffee prices are set by the capricious New York and London Stock Exchanges, the 5 million farmers involved in fair trade relationships are guaranteed a minimum of $1.26 US per pound of coffee they produce—an amount which allows farmers to cover costs and pay for their daily needs—and are given a bonus for growing organic beans. These farmers sell to cooperatives and have access to low-interest loans, develop long-term trading relationships, and are provided with information and support for sustainable farming practices. Fair trade coffee is the higher quality “Arabica” beans, which are grown in the shade of the forest canopy and thus do not lead to deforestation.

Unfortunately, not every product that says it is “fair trade” has been certified; in 2006 more than 450 tonnes of coffee claiming to be “fair trade” had not undergone the rigorous certification process necessary to use the logo of an official fair trade certification body. In Canada, certification is provided by TransFair Canada. Look for the TransFair logo on any coffee you purchase.

Businesses concerned about the bottom line may balk at the common perception that fair trade equals expensive. In reality, there is little price difference between fair trade coffee and non-fair trade high quality “gourmet” brands. At Sage Portfolio Group, we’ve purchased our office supplies of fair trade coffee from Reunion Island and Mountainview Estates, but the TransFair web site makes finding your own fair trade coffee supplier easy. Visit the search page http://www.transfair.ca/en/products/ and enter your terms. You’ll know the coffee served in your company is truly good to the last drop.

Web resources:
http://www.transfair.ca/
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/fairtrade/coffee/
http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/publications/research_reports/mugged
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/fair-trade/