Nestlé’s going fair trade — or at least trying to. The Swiss company’s planning to enter the UK fair trade market with a brand new fair trade coffee line, called Partner’s Blend, to be launched in the UK in the next few days.
Think this new move could be related to the Nestlé boycotts?
Sadly, most people in the US haven’t even heard of the boycotts. But fair trade advocates — like Oxfam and Global Exchange, cut Nestlé off a while back. And the movement’s big in the UK — Even back in 2003, The Guardian UK named three universities that already had fair trade status — the first of five steps toward this status is throwing out Nestlé vending machines.
Nestlé, apparently, is UK’s most boycotted company. In addition to Oxfam and Global Exchange, organizations such as Baby Milk Action are boycotting Nestlé for its involvement in child labor, union busting, and environmental destruction, among other concerns.
In fact, organizations like BMA argue against awarding Nestlé any fair trade status, since the status may greenwash Nestlé’s continued abuses against both people and the planet. Nestlé’s one of the big four companies that, together, buy about half of the world’s coffee supply — the others are Kraft, Procter & Gamble, and Sara Lee .
Whether due to the boycotts or not, Nestlé’s had better days; its stock dropped 1.2% last quarter. So far, Nestlé’s given lip service to fair trade, without actually doing anything. But facing boycotts and hurting stock prices, fair trade doesn’t sound so bad now –
I dunno — It may be greenwashing — but like Starbucks, if Nestlé makes a change, its sheer size could have huge impacts on the coffee farmers.
Of course, this could happen if consumers bought ONLY the fair trade coffee, continuing the boycott on Nestlé’s slave-labor crap. Is it possible that consumer demand could force Nestlé to quit its more heinous habits? Or should we still boycott all Nestlé stuff, fair trade certified or not?
Update, 1/25/06: More about the controversy around Nestle’s entering the fair trade market.
Filed in: nestle fairtrade coffee chocolate boycott oxfam globalexchange
I have boycotted Nestle since 1990, when I was pregnant with my first child. I began researching breastfeeding vs. formula and became aware of Nestle’s contribution to the murder of third world babies.
I’ll be boycotting them till the day I stop having a choice about what to buy. I don’t care what kind of coffee they buy from farmers or how it’s grown, they’re killing the children of those farmers by glamourizing “Western” style formula feeding.
Not a lot of businesses cause white hot hate, not a lot of companies piss me off just on seeing their name? Nestle is one of the few, the elite, the companies that make me stabby on principle. They’re up with Monsanto in the Evil Scale.
Comment by Will Pillage For Yarn — October 2, 2005 @ 10:52 pm
I actually had the chance to vote for the Nestle boycott when I was at Nottingham. For me, the final straw was when Nestle was demanding $6m from Ethiopia when the country was in the grip of a major food crisis and a collapse in coffee prices. I don’t know who in Nestle’s PR department thought it was a good idea for a company making over $5b a year to sue a country whose per capita annual income is only a $100, but I know that finally clinched it for a lot of us.
Comment by Brian — October 3, 2005 @ 8:25 am
Thanks for the info people — For those just learning out Nestle, here’s a BBC news story about the company’s heartless demands on Ethiopia.
Nestle ended up dropping this claim due to public outrage.
Comment by Siel — October 3, 2005 @ 9:14 am
Well, I can perfectly understand why somebody is boykotting Nestlé, but I can’t join in on – don’t you think the farmers care?
I appreciate their launch of a Fair Trade coffee line, but I will keep on pushing them until all their coffee is Fair Trade!
Comment by Gernot — January 26, 2006 @ 1:05 pm