Coffee Grinds: What are the coffee companies doing about Fairtrade?
We'll soon be getting a big screen insight into the realities of the coffee trade in the form of Black Gold, which hits our screens in June. So this week, I invited our intrepid reporter Ben Keningale out for coffee...at every coffee chain he could set foot in. His task: to find out at a grassroots level just how ethical the different chains are, and how much their staff are willing to divulge. The results were not always predictable...
Ben Keningale writes During the recent Fairtrade Fortnight, coffee, in particular, has been highlighted by the media, and not without reason. It is one of the most important commodities in considering Fairtrade due to its status as a multi billion dollar industry which employs hundreds-of-thousands of workers in developing nations...
These are people most at risk from exploitation in the form of low wages and poor working conditions, something that the Fairtrade Organization tries to combat in ensuring that companies provide a minimum wage for producers of its coffee. So naturally I wanted to find out how much each coffee producer, including high street coffee franchises, were doing to support Fairtrade.
What has made itself explicitly clear, is that coffee makers tend to keep any information concerning their business practices close to their chests. And why not? Information is valuable, especially to competitors. A careless word here or there could easily damage stock prices, which all companies aim to protect. And any reports released by the coffee makers are highly diversified and vaguely worded, making extrapolating data, such as how much of their coffee is ethically sourced compared to the rest of their produce, very difficult.
I contacted the following companies: Nestlé, Coffee Republic, Caffé Nero, AMT, Costa, Smith’s Coffee and Sara Lee (makers of Douwe Egberts and Senseo). Of all these, only two responded.
Costa came back promptly, but flatly refused to answer some of my questions, stating only that some of their coffee is sourced direct from the farmers, and that they were working toward increasing the amount of Fairtrade coffee in the future.
AMT coffee also issued a “sugared espresso” statement (short and sweet!) “AMT Coffee is please to tell you that all the coffee sold in our 47 UK outlets is 100% Fairtrade”. That’s progress! AMT are, in fact, the first National coffee company to go 100% fairtrade, so they're a choice of brew you can feel happy about drinking - if there's a branch near you. Unfortunately, their website is currently lacking in information, but their outlets are springing up at more locations, including stations and city centres.
However, after several emails and phone calls to the remaining companies, I was still in the dark about their fair trade policies. So I took to trawling the internet for any facts, figures or statements that could aid me in my search for a more ethical cup of coffee. What I found was very surprising.
In today’s market, many consumers buy products on the basis of their ethical credentials. Many companies have responded to this by changing their business practices to suit these consumers e.g. by operating under the Fairtrade banner. Not coffee companies, apparently.
I discovered that Coffee Republic do not use Fairtrade coffee, but are planning to in the future. Caffé Nero are a bit of an anomoly: they do not sell under the Fairtrade mark either, but an undisclosed percentage of their coffee is directly sourced, ensuring the farmer receives a fair price for their coffee. And Smith’s Coffee sources around 20% of their coffee under the Fairtrade mark. Not fantastic by any means. As reported recently in the Guardian, Starbucks are doing their bit for fairtrade, with 'bit' being the operative word as it accounts for only 4% of the total amount of coffee they import.
However, the most disconcerting information I found concerned two of the “Big Four” international coffee makers - and these aren't the ones you'll visit on your way into work, but the makers of brands that most people have in their kitchen cupboard. According to Oxfam, Nestlé and Sara Lee (makers of Douwe Egberts and Senseo) still refuse to buy ANY Fairtrade coffee, and will not buy from the farmer direct, despite making huge profits year in, year out. Together with their counterparts, Kraft (Maxwell House) and Procter & Gamble, the Big Four control over half the worldwide coffee market, but do little to ensure the farmers producing the coffee receive a fair price.
Quite frankly, this is utterly appalling, especially when you consider that some farmers are getting such a low price for their coffee, they are turning to more profitable cash crops – drugs, mainly in the form of cocaine or marijuana. But until these powerful companies start to offer a fair price per bag of coffee, or assist farmers in diversifying their crops so they do not have to rely solely on coffee, what other alternative do they have? These people have families to support. We must also remember that ultimately the consumer has a responsibility. We need to stop drinking cheap, freeze-dried coffee, which creates the market in the first place and demand quality coffee that is ethically sourced.
