Report on USA Fair Trade Coffee Movement

Report on the Fair Trade Coffee Movement in the USA & World Coffee Market
Conditions

Dear Fair Traders,

As many of you know, Global Exchange has just returned from a four-country
tour in Central America to meet with Fair Trade farmer cooperatives;
Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Mexico. I apologize for the lapse in
communication; next week we will send out reports of the cooperatives so
that their visions for the future of Fair Trade in the US can be
disseminated amongst all of you who advocate on their behalf.

The main lesson of the journey was this: coffee prices have been low for a
long time, but recent drops in world coffee prices have made the farmers'
lives even worse. Prices are currently at an eight-year low, sliding below
80 cents a pound last August and reaching 61 cents today. With production
costs averaging at least 90 cents a pound, farmers right now are pressed to
feed their families, nevermind pay their outstanding debts. As you know,
most farmers involved in Fair Trade sell only half their coffee to the FT
market; the rest they sell at conventional prices. Farmers need our support
now more than ever.

Below please find an analysis from activists from UC Berkeley about their
campaign; the first part is about the Business School, the second half is an
article from the school paper from the fall. I hope that this information
is useful to all of you in developing your campaigns. Every day I hear from
schools across the country that are getting involved in Fair Trade
campaigns, and demanding that their schools start offering Fair Trade
coffee!

PS If any schools out there are served by Superior, please let me know
asap!!!!!

Sincerely

Deborah
_____________________________________________________

January 14, 2001

In the fall of 2000, MBA students at the UC Berkeley Haas School of
Business successfully campaigned for the privately-run café at the school to
offer Fair Trade coffee. This small but meaningful change occurred despite
the café¹s initial foot-dragging and apathy. Students in the Net Impact
group (a nationwide organization of MBA students interested in socially
responsible business) organized the effort.

After emails and in-person conversations failed to convince café management
to change, Net Impact students organized a campaign channeled through an
information table in the school¹s courtyard. The table, staffed by two
student organizers during lunch hours, operated for three days and conducted
the following activities:

* Free Fair Trade Coffee. Organizers contacted a local supplier who offered
to donate Fair Trade coffee to be given out free during the three day
campaign. The table offered the free coffee and generated much interest and
publicity in the campaign.

* Education. Table staffers explained to passing-by students the problems
with the current café coffee (e.g. not organically grown, substandard wages,
etc.) and the benefits of Fair Trade coffee. A video tape with more
information also ran continuously.

* Petitioning. Students were asked to sign a petition urging the café
management to offer Fair Trade coffee in addition to current products.
Several hundred students signed the petition.

* Empowering through direct action. Students were each given slips of paper
to present to café cashiers during their next purchases. The slips stated
that the customer supported Fair Trade coffee and would be willing to pay an
extra 5-10 cents for it (this amount reflected the additional costs of Fair
Trade coffee, according to the above supplier). Also, organizers told
students to ask for Free Trade coffee when making a café purchase at the
school or any other café.

As a result, the café has been offering Fair Trade coffee since the
campaign. The new coffee seems to be selling well among students.
Furthermore, the students have an increased awareness of environmental and
fair labor issues.

_______________________________________________________

Daily Cal
Local Cafes Welcome Fair Trade Coffee
by ERIN GALLAGHER
Contributing Writer
Thursday
October 19, 2000

Whether students go to a cafe to meet a study group or get their daily fix
of caffeine, one thing is for sure < the coffee business in Berkeley is an
integral part of student life.

Students may ponder whether to order a latte or a cappuccino, or perhaps
decaf or regular. But how many actually ponder where their java comes from?
The fairly young "fair trade coffee movement" takes that question and places
a new importance on what kind of coffee they drink.

The movement specifically attempts to help small coffee farmers who need
assistance accessing the market by ensuring that fair trade-certified coffee
farmers receive a fair flat rate, regardless of market fluctuation.

The big name coffee growers, with large farms and a large following, can
sell coffee even when the market is down because of their size and
prominence, said Doug Welsh, director of coffee purchasing at Peet's Coffee
& Tea.

Peet's recently started selling a Fair Trade Blend, joining a slew of local
cafes, responding to activist and consumer pressure, which have brought fair
trade coffee to customer's cups.

Even the university has begun using fair trade coffee at the Free Speech
Movement Cafe and the residence dining halls.

"The consumer is the engine," Welsh said. "If the customer doesn't demand
it, it will only go so far. Awareness needs to be raised so that consumers
will look for the fair trade symbol and know when they buy fair trade coffee
they are giving direct assistance to small farmers." Coffee is traded on the
Future's Market and is one of the largest commodities traded in the world,
second to oil.

Farmers with enough money to make very high quality coffee are paid premium
prices, Welsh said, but that is why the smaller farmers need help.

The price of raw coffee is fairly cheap, so middle agents often exploit
small coffee growers by offering them a very small price for their crop,
which farmers have to accept because they have no other option.

The fair trade system gives guarantees to farmers so that instead of
worrying about losing money or reducing their quality, they can focus on
producing good coffee for which they will receive a fair price. Fair trade
works through the price floor mechanism, which is set at $1.26 per pound of
coffee. It is paid to the farmer cooperatives, which can be made up of
hundreds to thousands of workers, Welsh said.

In order to qualify for fair trade certification, a co-op must produce only
very small amounts of coffee beans.

Typically the farm only has one to three acres.

The third party organization, TransFair USA, guarantees that the co-ops will
receive this minimum price and distributes the money.

"Although the system guarantees payment, it is not designed to pay coffee
growers $1.26 forever," Welsh said. "The hope is for farmers to invest in
their farms, perhaps purchase a mode of transportation, thus becoming better
farmers and eventually they won't need fair trade assistance anymore."
TransFair is a nonprofit organization that monitors the coffee market. Along
with certifying the coffee growers and the coffee sellers, TransFair also
certifies the coffee roasting businesses and has currently approved 64
roasters and 16 importers.

In order to be certified, the businesses must meet specific requirements and
sign an agreement with TransFair that the coffee they label as "fair trade"
is bought from fair trade cooperatives. The organization follows a complete
paper trail from coffee grower to seller, Luttinger said.

"They basically open their books to us," said Nina Luttinger, spokesperson
for TransFair. "We should be able to trace every bag of coffee back to the
cooperative who sold it." University Housing and Dining Services unveiled
fair trade coffee last month and will serve it in the residence halls.

Peerless Coffee Company, which supplies the residence halls with coffee,
started delivering the fair trade coffee approximately three weeks ago.
George Vukasin Jr., vice president of Peerless, commented that UC Berkeley
buys organic and fair trade coffee, which is more expensive and a "notch
above" regular fair trade coffee.

"I'm an alum, so I want Berkeley to be on the cutting edge," Vukasin said.

Vukasin compared the fair trade coffee movement to the organic coffee
movement that began 25 years ago. When the organic movement began, selection
was limited, but now the industry has grown a great deal.

The main concern of coffee roasters, both Vukasin and Welsh said, is the
quality of the coffee. There are a small number of farms producing fair
trade coffee currently, so there is a smaller sampling to pick from.

"We're very picky about our coffee," Vukasin said. "The market for fair
trade coffee is getting better and we've found some beautiful coffee. It's a
good thing for everyone." Local Berkeley coffee houses have also been swept
up in the movement whether they wanted to or not. Last spring, protesters
voiced their disappointment in the lack of fair trade coffee at Starbucks
and the newly opened Free Speech Movement Cafe. Since then, those cafes have
decided to join the movement, while others have continued to serve just
regular old joe.

"I'm all for fair trade coffee, but we like the coffee we have," said Ken
Kamura, manager of Wall Berlin Kaffeehaus.

"We stick with our traditions." Kamura said he received a positive response
from the coffee he uses and thus has no intentions on changing.

Daryl Ross, owner of the Free Speech Movement Cafe, Muse, the cafe at the
Berkeley Art Museum and Caffe Strada, said the goal of fair trade coffee is
to raise awareness of the products everyone consumes.

All the drip coffee served at the Free Speech Movement Cafe and Muse is fair
trade, while Caffe Strada does not serve drip coffee. At all three cafes,
patrons can order fair trade coffee for their espresso drinks for an
additional 25 cents.

"If it's available, I always buy it, but we shouldn't have to pay cafes
extra to support workers," said Taal Levi, a sophomore. "We should only sell
fair trade coffee on campus." Strada is in the process of turning over all
of their coffee to fair trade, without additional charge to patrons.

"It's part of our philosophy having cafes on and around campus," Ross said.
"We want to introduce students who are away from home, possibly for the
first time, to food that makes them aware of where the products they buy
come from." All of Strada's fair trade coffee is also organically grown.

In comparison to the $1.26 that cooperatives receive for fair trade coffee,
they are paid $1.41 for coffee that is both organic and fair trade.

Last Thursday, San Francisco celebrated fair trade with the introduction of
Peet's Fair Trade Blend in city hall.

Berkeley, San Francisco and Oakland have all passed resolutions to support
fair trade coffee, Welsh said. The city of Berkeley has purchasing
restrictions that allow it to only buy coffee that is certified fair trade.

"It turns an old Berkeley saying on it's head," said Welsh.

"Drink locally and act globally." Send letters to the editor to
opinion@dailycal.org.
--
Deborah James, Fair Trade Director
Global Exchange
deborah@globalexchange.org
415.558.8682 ext.245
415.255.7498 fax
2017 Mission Street #303, San Francisco, CA 94110
www.globalexchange.org/economy/coffee

Buying Fair Trade Certified coffee is a simple, easy thing you can do on a
daily basis to support fairness for farmers around the world. At least when
it comes to our daily brew, there is finally an independently monitored
alternative to sweatshops that sets a standard for Fair Trade in the global
economy.
_____________________________________________________________________
Global Exchange http://www.globalexchange.org