That was the big Q for the second workshop at the Equal Exchange summit, which asked how we could make fair trade relationships better and more dynamic.

After a few opening remarks from Michael of Red Tomato, we split into four groups. I went into the discussion on “Strong autonomous links in a cooperative supply chain,” which asked: What are the key ingredients to make sure all partners in the fair trade relationship are satisfied?

Most strikingly, Ancelmo of CEPICAFE, a nonprofit that represents a number of fair trade coffee and sugar cane co-ops in Peru, spoke out about big corps entering the fair trade movement. While he said that fair trade has been a huge boon for co-ops, he also remarked that due to mechanization and such, only about 50% of his co-op’s products are being sold. “Today we’re a little worried because we have a lot of production and we don’t have the market for the production.”

However, despite this overabundance of unsold stuff, Ancelmo said “But I continue thinking that the big nationals are actually doing us harm because they are bringing products that are cheaper in the supermarkets, and they’re not marketing what’s quality.”

With the bigger companies, Ancelmo said, there’s not much of a financial incentive to improve quality — an incentive that he feels is necessary to develop the market.

He named the fear that the big corps would put smaller, more quality-focused fair trade companies out of business: “Once they [the big corps] have finished up with the smaller producers, then they’ll be able to control the markets.”

And Ancelmo pointed to a problem many involved in fair trade have been concerned about for years now: “Companies like Equal Exchange don’t seem to have any power on deciding what kind of company can get the label,” he said. “Companies like Equal Exchange have to be united with other companies to have a say in the labels.”

Equal Exchange — We’re lookin’ to you to help make things happen.

Ancelmo’s comments were especially interesting to me, because I’ve listened to many smaller US coffee companies say that one of their major reasons they’re not fair trade certified is cuz certification doesn’t have a criterion that screens for quality. But Ancelmo seems to be saying that there IS lots more quality fair trade coffee than there are small companies willing to buy the stuff…

I’d love it if others in the fair trade community would help clarify things a bit for me –

Update, 7/17/06: Here are deets on the 3rd and final workshop –

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