In this series, coffee companies share what they think the top 3 things that needed to be changed about fair trade certification are. Read the whole series here.
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A lil while back, I asked coffee companies to share what they thought the top 3 things that needed to be changed about fair trade certification are.
Tim of Sacred Grounds — an organic, fair trade coffee roaster in Arcata, Calif. — commented here on that issue — and I wrote him asking for a follow-up, to which he obliged. So now, here’s Tim’s top 3 list:
1. The minimum paid for fair trade coffee needs to be repriced and revalued. (Same as one of Geoff of Intelligentsia‘s points)
2. A better and more detailed auditing system is necessary. (Same as one of Geoff of Intelligentsia‘s points)
3. The fee structure needs to change. Right now, coffee roasters have to pay the TFUSA fee for ALL coffee that comes from fair trade co-ops — even if that coffee’s used as a part of a blend, making it ineligible for the fair trade sticker (if a coffee blend has any beans from a non-fair trade certified source, the package isn’t allowed to carry the TFUSA sticker).
Sez Tim: “Presently it discourages roasters from buying fair trade coffee that will be blended with non-fair trade coffee. For example, our espresso could be 75% fair trade licensed coffee. We do not/cannot label it as fair trade, however. If we operated under the current fee structure, we would be paying a .06-.09 per green pound licensing fee to TransFair for coffee that will not be marketed with their logo or affiliated with fair trade. Frankly, this is BS, and many roasters have simply removed fair trade coffees from their blends.”
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Tim adds that while coffee companies are likely to all have different opinions on what needs to happen first, “One point that seems to be mostly agreed upon is the notion that TransFair is joining relationships with corporations that are not genuinely interested in change but recognize the fastest growing sector of specialty coffee is fair trade/organic. TransFair makes the argument that by bringing these companies into the tent they are creating a culture ripe for a paradigm shift. I have a little less faith in multinationals to believe this is possible.”
“Four years ago I held the opinion that TransFair was absolutely vital to the success of our business. Today I recognize there might be a time when we need to part ways, and part of being a small, nimble microroaster with a mission would make that move pretty easy.”
Wow. I appreciate Tim’s honesty, and I do hope that TFUSA will make an effort to listen to these concerns and work to address them.
Roasting Fair Trade coffee requires a commitment and a cost, just like getting certified to roast Organic. You can’t put “Organic ” on the label unless you are certified and its all organic(well at least 95% organic, currently). Creating blends that are 100% fair trade is difficult and often limiting.
At this time, the fee structure requires paying a premium for fair trade coffees and doing a quarterly reporting of fair trade coffee usage and then paying a fee to transfair based on that usage. Isn’t it possible to set aside a few bags of fair trade coffee that you like to use in your blends and not report them on your quarterly audit and thereby not pay the transfair fee? Obviously you wouldn’t put the Fair Trade sticker on the blend.
Comment by joebella — September 18, 2006 @ 6:33 am
Hey Joe — I’ll give you a call tomorrow about this — Sorry I’ve gotten so behind :(
Comment by Siel — September 19, 2006 @ 12:49 am
Still awaiting your call –we could do an email interview– Joseph
Comment by joebella — September 20, 2006 @ 5:43 pm
Hey Joebella,
Part of my rub with the Transfair fee structure has to do with the very idea that you mentioned. Used to be you could just set aside a few bags and use them in non-tf blends and only report and pay on the roasted totals of coffee marketed with the TF seal, now any coffee sold to you under a FT contract has to be reported and a fee paid based on green coffee purchased. “setting aside” a few bags from the contract would constitute a violation of your licensing arrangement.
I’ve had to resort to splitting my lots, a real pain, more paperwork and kinda silly: Recently I had 80 bags written up as a TF licensed lot, paid the co-op $1.85/pound and will pay TF their licensing fee. I’ll call it “Fair Trade”
Then I had a second contract for 70 bags drawn without TF mentioned in the contract, to make a point I paid the co-op an extra .10 per pound because they took the time to do the paperwork and humor my request. This is really silly, we had a good laugh about it and the farmers asked me if I would try harder to sell more of the non-FT blend so I could buy more at a .10 premium next year.
Comment by tim — September 27, 2006 @ 2:42 pm