Welcome to Fair Trade
Fair Trade Crafts Article
. For a permanent link to this article, or to bookmark it for further reading, click here.
What is Sustainable Coffee and How Does it Affect My Wake Cup?
from: http://www.TastesOfTheWorld.net © Copyright 2005Gourmet coffee lovers have been seeing a few new terms in the
local premium coffee shop as they file past the seasonal retail
displays of roasted whole bean bagged coffees. Phrases include
eco-friendly, organic, shade grown, fair trade and certified
sustainable. Most often those beans seem to the casual buyer to
be simply more expensive than the corporate mega-brands.
But these few phrases represent far more than at first glance,
including economic and social gains for the growing regions and
farmers, harvesters and processors of green coffee beans at the
local level. Sustainable coffee means premium prices and quality
coffee due to organic farming practices, fair market payment for
beans to local growers and quality controls being adopted by the
"certified" coffee brands.
Those premium coffee prices reflect growing concerns worldwide
of paying fair wages to growers, using more expensive
ecologically friendly organic farming practices, better pay for
traditionally underpaid harvesters and processing workers and
strict quality controls being adopted for "certified sustainable
coffees."
Daniele Giovannucci consults with governments, international
agencies, and businesses on coffee markets and production
strategies to improve competitiveness and support innovative
environmental and rural poverty reduction work. Giovannucci has
authored exhaustive studies, including the 2003, "The State of
Sustainable Coffee Report - A Study of Twelve Major Markets."
http://www.cec.org/files/PDF/ECONOMY/CoffeeSurvey_EN.pdf
This study discusses coffee market forces in Europe and Japan
and the growth of sustainable coffee around the world,
estimating that fair trade, organic, and eco-friendly coffees
represent less than 2 percent of coffee consumption in developed
markets.
Another Giovannucci authored study, "Sustainable Coffee Survey
of the North American Specialty Coffee Industry," he estimates
the Global market for sustainable coffee to be approximately
$565 million retail for over a million 60 kilo (about 132
pounds) bags of green coffee beans.
http://www.eftafairtrade.org/Document.asp?DocID=391&tod=21534
It is estimated that growers of certified sustainable coffees
can nearly double their income from otherwise depressed coffee
prices. So economically challenged third world countries see
small farmers adopting organic growing techniques as a ticket
out of poverty and subsistence. Corporate buyers are attracted
to sustainable growers by consumer goodwill and health concerns
related to those organically grown coffees. This leads to
dubious claims by some of the corporate coffee representatives
and has lead to the need for certification authorities.
One group, Fairtrade Labeling Organizations International (FLO)
has been active in monitoring and certifying, auditing and
verifying standards for sustainable coffees. Another, named
Transfair USA, carries on similar activities in the American
coffee market. Consumers are justifiably confused when many
terms are applied to sustainable coffees and fail to
differentiate between organic, eco-friendly, fair trade and
sustainable terms.
Premium prices are sometimes supported by certification,
labeling and monitoring by third-party organizations and
sometimes by local governments such as the "Jamaica Coffee
Industry Board." But some labeling is simply slick sales and PR
by greedy corporations seeking premium prices for average coffee
beans, so support for labeling initiatives and independent
certification is growing.
Fair Trade and sustainable coffees are seeing increasing
production in Central and South American growing regions, most
notably in Mexico and Peru. Columbia has seen some pressure and
attempts to divert production of cocaine with coffee crops for
the fair trade market with little major success to report so
far. Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia are big participants in
sustainable coffees in Africa while East Timor, India and
Indonesia are major supporters of sustainable coffee in Asia.
With the North American coffee market dominated by multinational
giants Sara Lee, Kraft and Procter & Gamble, little interest has
been shown in adopting sustainable coffee by major corporate
coffee producers. Meanwhile, Brazil and Vietnam, the world's No.
1 and No. 2 coffee producers, respectively are flooding the
market with poor quality beans and driving down coffee prices.
But major grocery chains are seeing demand for sustainable
coffee and may adopt fair trade and organic coffees to sell
nationwide at Safeway, Kroger and Albertson's stores. Increases
in availability, demand and awareness of sustainable coffee are
leading to more of the same in a spiraling increase for fair
trade organic and shade coffees in premium markets. Some
sustainable coffees are even finding their way into instant
coffees, but the vast majority of the sustainable market is in
premium and specialty markets.
About the Author
Tastes of The World coffee company
http://www.tastesoftheworld.net Rare Gourmet Coffee from Jamaica Blue Mountain to Kopi
Luwak exotic and fine Italian Espressos from Illy and Marcafe as
well as a selection of premium Puerto Rican coffees including
Cafe Tres Picachos. Come discuss your favorites in the coffee
talk forums at http://www.tastesoftheworld.net/talk/
Fair Trade Crafts News
Fair Trade Wholesaler Global Crafts Gets a Major Facelift With New Website - GlobalCraftsb2b.com
Focusing on functionality, Global Crafts is launching a new wholesale website today. With a vision of making buying and selling handmade products much easier, the development team believes it has reinvented the process of wholesale buying.Edgewater, FL (PRWEB) February 02, 2012 With an emphasis on simplicity, functionality and speed of checkout the new Global Crafts site is designed exclusively ...
Read more...Scotland has sights set on becoming a Fair Trade Nation in 2012
Scotland aims to become a Fair Trade Nation in 2012, and to raise awareness the Co-operative Group's membership team is backing a series of events to promote African cooking using fair trade ingredients.
Read more...7 Pakistani companies appear in German trade fair
KARACHI : Seven Pakistani companies had displayed a wide range of products at world's leading international trade fair "Premier Paperworld 2012, held in Frankfurt , Germany that concluded on January 31, 2012 .
Read more...Wowopolis™ Ignites the Imagination as its First-Ever Line of Games and Crafts Debuts at New York Toy Fair
NEW YORK, Jan. 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Encouraging unbridled imagination by combining creativity, art and fun, Wowopolis LLC today announced that it plans to unveil its premiere line of all-new games, activities and crafts at New York Toy Fair. (Photo:...
Read more...Coalition fights human trafficking with awareness event in Boone County
COLUMBIA — The Friends Room at Daniel Boone Regional Library is a melange of geometric print and pastels. Brightly colored crafts arranged there Sunday afternoon by three local fair trade vendors replicated the visual impression of entering a literary candy land. But a stark black-and-white poster at the forefront of the room boasted in unforgiving boldface a question far-removed from any sugar ...
Read more...More than 250,000 visit Doha trade fair
More than 250,000 visitors have attended this year’s edition of the Doha Trade Fair, which concluded yesterday at the Doha Exhibition Centre, a spokesperson for the organisers said.
Read more...Tulane based fair trade initiative benefits women locally and internationally
Operating out of a boutique set-up within Tulane University’s Lavin-Bernick Center for Univ ersity Life, IN Exchange is setting itself apart as a nonprofit that’s advancing social enterprise and economic development across international borders.
Read more...