Good on you, Robbie, for leaping into the fair trade fray – you’ve wittingly or serendipitously found your way to an excellent place to pose your questions (I’m new here, myself, please keep up the great service you’re offering here Siel!)

You’ve already picked up from Siel that as the fair trade concept becomes more popular (read profitable), we’re seeing a lot of interesting dynamics coming into play, and these are very well described both here and in other postings on this site.

In New Zealand, as in the States, we (aye, as it happens I’m a fellow kiwi, and to declare my interest I am the coffee buyer for Trade Aid) are seeing not only traditional fair traders like ourselves increasing our distribution, but there are now also literally dozens of coffee roasters selling beans to cafes around the country which are being marketed as fair trade – some bought inside the FLO certification system, some from without.

It’s worth bearing in mind that while there is rightfully discussion as to whether or not FLO (or non-FLO) beans put enough money back to growers to get them beyond mere subsistence, there is no rule stopping any coffee importer getting to growers more money than they have to, beyond the very powerful checking mechanism we know as market forces.

How can anyone sustain a business paying (say) twice as much for their coffee as their competitor, if their own customers will only pay so much for their coffee in turn, before they would seek out a cheaper ‘fair trade’ alternative? It simply goes against human nature to expect western consumers to relinquish enough of their cash to both sustainably support the smallest necessary number of intermediates throughout any coffee trading chain and to also allow coffee farmers the kind of lifestyle we might otherwise wish they could enjoy.

But, we must do what we can. At Trade Aid, we hope we can lay claim to helping push these limits by (a) keeping our trading chains as short as possible so as to maximise returns to growers’ co-operatives and thereby the farmers (b) informing New Zealanders about trading injustices so that they may more confidently make pro-fair trade buying choices, even when it means paying more for a product than they have to (c) paying back to our co-operative trading partners by means of a rebate all profits we consider excessive to those we need to continue growing our purchases from them (d) regularly checking back with our trading partners by means of a social audit that we’re doing a good job of doing our job – which is at least, we trust, an alleviation of poverty and at best, we hope, ultimately a whole lot more.

This is our version of ‘fair trade’, although one which we accept is far removed from the norm. We hope that my description of our version, at least, encourages you to believe that an approach with such a positive pro-farmer bias is worthy of your support and energies.

Beyond this – figuring out just which ‘fair trade’ coffees (or any other products for that matter….) would meet with your approval, and which ones would not, well, that’s not easy. Look for companies that offer specifics that can back up their fair trade claims to your satisfaction. Active advocacy for fair trade on their part is another typical sign of genuine pro-farmer empathy. Keep asking questions – and expect answers. All the best.