How Do I Know If My Coffee Is Fair Trade?

Most companies that carry a fair trade certification will label their coffee with their fair trade logo,. Fair Trade classification is determined by the Fair Trade Labeling Organization International (FLO), their U.S. division is known as TransFair. Some companies have their own version of fair trade labeling because they want to offer different things to farmers, like higher prices (Direct Trade offers 25% more than Fair Trade prices) or allowing farmers to join in fair trade practices without joining a farmer coop. So, you might see a label that touts "Fair Trade", "Equal Exchange" or "Direct Trade" depending on which company is backing the standards.

Many companies will advertise upfront their personal relationship with farmers or that they offer a fair price. Starbucks claims on every bag that they support farmers. In their annual corporate social responsibility report they advertise that they paid $1.43/lb on average in 2007, but they only specify one country as an example where farmers retain most of that profit. There is no mention of how much of that price goes to farmers in other countries. They do have one coffee that is expressly labeled "Fair Trade" by TransFair. So, while it sounds mildly impressive that they 'support farmers' and pay '$1.43/lb', it's still not clear how much of that money goes back to the actual farmers. One company that advertises it's relationship with supplying farmers is 'Dean's Beans'. I like this company a lot. They're very transparent with their prices (no less than $1.41/lb going directly to the farmers), they pay an additional $.06/lb for "social equity" where they help build services in the communities and they submitted themselves to an external audit of their fair trade practices.

I just read last night in "Javatrekker", by Dean Cycon, the founder of Dean's Beans, that $.60 is the make or break. When a farmer makes less than $.60/lb he is no longer making any money on his crop. Often, in this situation the farmer won't even have the money to finish harvesting his crop and the berries are left to rot on the tree. At $.60 the banks don't want to offer the farmers any more assistance either because there is no guarantee that it could be repaid. The price for coffee is set on Wall Street and the buy and sell of coffee futures which vary depending on what the weather will be like in Brazil and whatnot.

If you want to know if your coffee is fair trade I would recommend checking out the web page of the company you get your coffee from or asking the roaster directly. Often a roaster will carry some fairly traded coffees and a majority that aren't. If they don't offer fair trade coffees ask them if they'd consider carrying some. There are less than a dozen 100% fair trade coffee companies in the U.S. according to the Dean's Beans web page, but this is the direction I want to go with my business. In time, as I grow, I would love to be able to travel to the coffeelands and foster relationships directly with the farmers. I already have people-who-know-people in El Salvador, Uganda and Rwanda and I'd like to see that list of countries grow. I'm so excited that I could be a part of this change.