Fair Trade:
Fair trade is an organized social movement and market based approach that aims to help producers in developing countries make better trading conditions and promote sustainability within their communities. It also advocates the payment of a higher price to producers as well as higher social and environmental standards.
Fair trade certification costs as much as 5X that of organic which is burdensome to the coffee co-operatives. Cost will range from about $2000-4000.
The questions that we hear over and over is, how much of the money the West pays for a cup of coffee actually makes it's way back to the impoverished labourers who picked the beans?? Fair trade products have higher retail prices than non-fair trade, although the premium varies; for commodity goods such as coffee, the difference is often not much, actually pennies to the dollar when you factor in other costs, such as transport, processing, harvesting and labor.
How is fair trade monitored?
Fair trade foundation faces an uphill battle in trying to monitor how much of the extra money paid to the exporting co-operatives actually reaches the laborer. The wages paid to the coffee labourers by the land owners during the coffee picking seasons are never verified as part of the certification or annual inspection process.
Studies though showed membership in self-organizing groups especially those with links to FT markets (where partnerships have been formed) do increase empowerment in those communities as it becomes easier to monitor and groups are more accountable to their success.
Fair trade is an organized social movement and market based approach that aims to help producers in developing countries make better trading conditions and promote sustainability within their communities. It also advocates the payment of a higher price to producers as well as higher social and environmental standards.
Fair trade certification costs as much as 5X that of organic which is burdensome to the coffee co-operatives. Cost will range from about $2000-4000.
The questions that we hear over and over is, how much of the money the West pays for a cup of coffee actually makes it's way back to the impoverished labourers who picked the beans?? Fair trade products have higher retail prices than non-fair trade, although the premium varies; for commodity goods such as coffee, the difference is often not much, actually pennies to the dollar when you factor in other costs, such as transport, processing, harvesting and labor.
How is fair trade monitored?
Fair trade foundation faces an uphill battle in trying to monitor how much of the extra money paid to the exporting co-operatives actually reaches the laborer. The wages paid to the coffee labourers by the land owners during the coffee picking seasons are never verified as part of the certification or annual inspection process.
Studies though showed membership in self-organizing groups especially those with links to FT markets (where partnerships have been formed) do increase empowerment in those communities as it becomes easier to monitor and groups are more accountable to their success.
0 comments:
Post a Comment