By mid March, your local Starbucks may not have any fair trade coffee in stock. Again.
Yes, many local US Starbucks have already been consistently out of fair trade coffee. The difference is that, this time, Cindy of Starbucks has at least let us know beforehand that this fair trade shortcoming will be happening.
According to Cindy, who green LA girl ran into at the United Students for Fair Trade convergence in February, the sales of Starbucks’ fair trade coffee — Cafe Estima — has been higher than expected (thanks challengers!), meaning Starbucks will be running out of its stock.
We’re aware that Starbucks has been giving challengers a lotta excuses. That said, this is a new — and somewhat positive — one.
We are thus planning to push back Starbucks Challenge 4.0 until late-April (It was initially planned for mid-March). While we’re not extremely happy about this, we do want to continue working with Starbucks to encourage the mermaid to live up to its fair trade promises. Starbucks, again, has said that it’s facing unpredicted difficulties meeting its fair trade promises.
We’re taking them at their word. We hope that you’ll be patient with us, and that you’ll take the challenge again in May.
Have a fair trade day :)
The delay may be positive news for the UCs on quarter system. Spring quarter kicks of late march/early april giving us an opportunity to organize something big on our respective campuses. I look forward to participating in Starbucks Challenge 4.0! -Viraf
Comment by Viraf Soroushian — March 1, 2006 @ 4:39 pm
I’m confused… what’s causing this delay? The harvest just ended in Latin America (it’s in December and January), and you made the point in the previous post that there’s plenty of fair-trade coffee out there. So… what’s the problem?
Comment by esteban — March 1, 2006 @ 11:05 pm
This is an interesting discussion. I run a very small coffee roasting co. We roast certified organic and Fair Trade certified coffee almost exclusively. This past year we have been struggling to find the fair trade coffees we normally can buy from our importers on “Spot”. “Spot” means the importers have the bags in their warehouse. What I have learned from my importers is that several reasons are contributing to this . One is that large roasters like Starbucks, Nestle, Green Mountain, are buying large quantities of fair trade beans. Another reason is that roasters large and small are getting smart and are buying coffee before it arrives in port on future contracts. Another reason is that small farmers are being offered equal or better prices than fair trade for their crop from middlemen as prices for coffee rise, making it difficult for fair trade coops to maintain their stores. Another reason of course is the weather, hurricanes etc. So it seams that there is allot of coffee available but the coffee that is going through the fair trade channels is limited.
Comment by joebella — March 2, 2006 @ 6:18 am
That makes no sense. How can Starbucks be out of coffee? The distinction between coffee and fair trade coffee makes no sense here, because coffee is a natural product. If regular coffee is in plenty supply and fair trade coffee is out of stock because of “weather” what kind of weather is being used to grow regular coffee. Also, from a business perspective you don’t quit selling your top seller.
Don’t let starbucks off the hook.
Comment by Josh — March 2, 2006 @ 9:19 am
Hey green girl, awesome site you’ve got here.
Comment by Eric — March 2, 2006 @ 11:09 am
esteban — I think the delay has more to do with Starbucks’ working cycle as a large, corporate giant than anything related to the actual coffee harvest. Cindy said something about how Starbucks coffee is ordered and proocessed at certain times. The orders have to be put in beforehand (I think she called it forecasting) — and the last time Starbucks put in the order, they underestimated the demand for Cafe Estima. Thus, the current stuff’s gonna run out before the new stuff comes in.
joebella — Thanks for the info — It seems that perhaps fair trade getting big and popular enough to require new channels by which companies can procure the stuff? I don’t think this is the prob. Starbucks is facing, but interesting info nonetheless.
Viraf — Thanks for pointing out the silver lining in the situation :) And thanks Eric :)
Comment by Siel — March 2, 2006 @ 11:18 am