Fairtrade certifiers must redouble
their efforts
20 October 2006 10:08
Chris White
Fairtrade products have come more sharply into the spotlight in recent weeks, and this time for all the wrong reasons. An investigation by the Financial Times has revealed that labourers involved in the production of Fairtrade coffee in Peru have been paid less than the legal minimum wage.
Quoting industry sources, the financial daily newspaper also reports that non-certified coffee has been marked and exported as Fairtrade while certified coffee has been illegally planted in areas of protected rainforest. “This casts doubt on the certification process used by Fairtrade and similar marks that require producers to pay the minimum wage,” reports the FT’s Peru corrrespondent. “It also raises questions about the assurances certifiers give about how premium-priced fair trade coffee is produced.”
Coffee was among the first major food products to carry the Fairtrade mark, attracting at first a small clientele of socially-concerned consumers. Since then, Fairtrade coffee and, it has to be said, the philosophy that drinking a cup of it represents, has gone mainstream, so much so that even Nestlé has launched its own line of fairly-traded coffee.
Although, as has been suggested, much of the interest in Fairtrade used to be limited to a specific and comparatively small group of socially and ecologically aware shoppers, its arrival into the mainstream is not only a result of the wider acceptance of these ideas but also, and probably most importantly, because everyone involved in the Fairtrade supply chain sees there is good money in it too.
Fairtrade gained ground in the 1990s as a means of helping bring higher returns to food producers, many of whom got poor returns year after year as money was swallowed up by the rest of the supply chain and returned only meagre amounts to the producers themselves. In the fruit sector it is Fairtrade bananas that have made the biggest splash, not least because they’re a commodity product available year-round and from numerous sources.
Indeed, in certain markets such as the UK, some major food retailers have become so interested in Fairtrade bananas that they’re keen to market ever more volumes of the product. A quick look around a handful of major stores in central London last month demonstrated the extent to which, at least in these shops, Fairtrade bananas now dominate the offer. It seems they’re being sold much more effectively than conventional fruit, which was offered loose or as a ‘value’ product; in fact, it was the famous banana that bears the blue label that was selling at the lowest price on that day!
Fairtrade bananas have taken the UK market by storm in the last few years, so much so that retailers are now demanding sometimes exponential increases in volumes from one year to the next. And even if it has something to do with the demand for Fairtrade coming from the shopper, it is fair to assume that food retailers also see good money and good margins to be made from them.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong in any of this, especially if it helps to reinvigorate the sector and drive sales. But, much like the FT’s coffee story in Peru, it begs the question whether, in the rush to source new supplies, there is not a danger that the systems of certification and control start to come unstuck.
If anything, the recent problems that the FT has reported have come at just the right time. It obliges those who certify in this rapidly growing part of the business to redouble their effforts to ensure that only the produce that is certified has the right to call itself Fairtrade.
Fairtrade products have come more sharply into the spotlight in recent weeks, and this time for all the wrong reasons. An investigation by the Financial Times has revealed that labourers involved in the production of Fairtrade coffee in Peru have been paid less than the legal minimum wage.
Quoting industry sources, the financial daily newspaper also reports that non-certified coffee has been marked and exported as Fairtrade while certified coffee has been illegally planted in areas of protected rainforest. “This casts doubt on the certification process used by Fairtrade and similar marks that require producers to pay the minimum wage,” reports the FT’s Peru corrrespondent. “It also raises questions about the assurances certifiers give about how premium-priced fair trade coffee is produced.”
Coffee was among the first major food products to carry the Fairtrade mark, attracting at first a small clientele of socially-concerned consumers. Since then, Fairtrade coffee and, it has to be said, the philosophy that drinking a cup of it represents, has gone mainstream, so much so that even Nestlé has launched its own line of fairly-traded coffee.
Although, as has been suggested, much of the interest in Fairtrade used to be limited to a specific and comparatively small group of socially and ecologically aware shoppers, its arrival into the mainstream is not only a result of the wider acceptance of these ideas but also, and probably most importantly, because everyone involved in the Fairtrade supply chain sees there is good money in it too.
Fairtrade gained ground in the 1990s as a means of helping bring higher returns to food producers, many of whom got poor returns year after year as money was swallowed up by the rest of the supply chain and returned only meagre amounts to the producers themselves. In the fruit sector it is Fairtrade bananas that have made the biggest splash, not least because they’re a commodity product available year-round and from numerous sources.
Indeed, in certain markets such as the UK, some major food retailers have become so interested in Fairtrade bananas that they’re keen to market ever more volumes of the product. A quick look around a handful of major stores in central London last month demonstrated the extent to which, at least in these shops, Fairtrade bananas now dominate the offer. It seems they’re being sold much more effectively than conventional fruit, which was offered loose or as a ‘value’ product; in fact, it was the famous banana that bears the blue label that was selling at the lowest price on that day!
Fairtrade bananas have taken the UK market by storm in the last few years, so much so that retailers are now demanding sometimes exponential increases in volumes from one year to the next. And even if it has something to do with the demand for Fairtrade coming from the shopper, it is fair to assume that food retailers also see good money and good margins to be made from them.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong in any of this, especially if it helps to reinvigorate the sector and drive sales. But, much like the FT’s coffee story in Peru, it begs the question whether, in the rush to source new supplies, there is not a danger that the systems of certification and control start to come unstuck.
If anything, the recent problems that the FT has reported have come at just the right time. It obliges those who certify in this rapidly growing part of the business to redouble their effforts to ensure that only the produce that is certified has the right to call itself Fairtrade.
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