Battle Is Brewing Over Ethics of the Coffee Trade
Battle is brewing over ethics of the coffee trade
By Charles Clover, Environment Editor
A battle for coffee drinkers' consciences is about to begin with the launch of a rival to the Fairtrade label.
Now that nearly half of shoppers consider the ethical dimension of goods, competition for the moral high ground is big business.
Fairtrade coffee's big selling point is that it offers small coffee farmers in the developing world a guaranteed price for their beans if commodity prices fall below $1.26 (68p) a pound.
Its competitor, Rainforest Alliance Certified, guarantees that coffee is produced in a way that preserves the forest and its wildlife and ensures that workers, who are often temporary, enjoy good working conditions, housing and pay. It pays a premium of a few pence a pound.
Kenco, which sells 76 per cent of the coffee bought in Britain, has chosen to work with the Rainforest scheme, whose label will appear on Kenco jars. The Rainforest Alliance has achieved a major conservation victory by "greening" Chiquita, the world's largest banana supplier, once notorious for low pay and deforestation.
Chris Wille, of the Rainforest Alliance, based in Costa Rica, said its standards on wildlife conservation and workers' conditions were higher than Fairtrade's.
Fairtrade, which brought sustainable coffee to the mass market, can claim that it started to address the same social problems even earlier.
Ian Bretman, of the Fairtrade Foundation, said: "We don't see it as a competition. They are not doing what we do. We are a certification scheme that addresses small-scale farmers.
"If your primary concern is the environment, check out the Rainforest Alliance. If you accept that the environment is just one of a package of issues to do with sustainability, check out Fairtrade.
"If the world's vast number of small-scale farmers can't put food on the table and send their kids to school it is hard to see how they can invest in the environment."
coffee
rainforest fairtrade coffee
perfect cup of coffee
By Charles Clover, Environment Editor
A battle for coffee drinkers' consciences is about to begin with the launch of a rival to the Fairtrade label.
Now that nearly half of shoppers consider the ethical dimension of goods, competition for the moral high ground is big business.
Fairtrade coffee's big selling point is that it offers small coffee farmers in the developing world a guaranteed price for their beans if commodity prices fall below $1.26 (68p) a pound.
Its competitor, Rainforest Alliance Certified, guarantees that coffee is produced in a way that preserves the forest and its wildlife and ensures that workers, who are often temporary, enjoy good working conditions, housing and pay. It pays a premium of a few pence a pound.
Kenco, which sells 76 per cent of the coffee bought in Britain, has chosen to work with the Rainforest scheme, whose label will appear on Kenco jars. The Rainforest Alliance has achieved a major conservation victory by "greening" Chiquita, the world's largest banana supplier, once notorious for low pay and deforestation.
Chris Wille, of the Rainforest Alliance, based in Costa Rica, said its standards on wildlife conservation and workers' conditions were higher than Fairtrade's.
Fairtrade, which brought sustainable coffee to the mass market, can claim that it started to address the same social problems even earlier.
Ian Bretman, of the Fairtrade Foundation, said: "We don't see it as a competition. They are not doing what we do. We are a certification scheme that addresses small-scale farmers.
"If your primary concern is the environment, check out the Rainforest Alliance. If you accept that the environment is just one of a package of issues to do with sustainability, check out Fairtrade.
"If the world's vast number of small-scale farmers can't put food on the table and send their kids to school it is hard to see how they can invest in the environment."
rainforest
perfect cup of coffee
posted by Colin & Donna-Lee | 12:31 PM
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