What Does Fair Trade Commerce Mean?

In North America, billions of dollars are spent each year on coffee. The majority of the coffee purchased is grown in South America, Africa and Asia.

The vast majority of coffee farmers are small farmers living in poverty, making almost no profit from their harvest. The average farmer makes only enough money to barely survive and because of this must force their children to harvest the coffee instead of going to school.

The price of raw coffee, determined by the Chicago and London stock exchanges, often below what it costs to be produced. As a result, thousands of farmers are forced to leave their ancestral land to go to live in refugee camps near large cities to try to find a way to survive.

The coffee bought by the Fair Trade system is very different. Under this equitable system of trade, the small farmers form democratically-managed cooperatives in order to create better working conditions, as well as better education and health conditions for their children and the community at large.

Coffee roasters that buy equitable coffee do not exploit the producers. The equitable system is set up so that all parties have equal negotiating positions, in order to create a relationship that benefits all those involved.

The coffee must be bought directly from family cooperatives producing coffee on a small scale using methods that respect the environment. These co-operatives are organized democratically and set up their own community projects for health care, education, transportation and environmental protection.

The co-operatives have access to advance payments or low-interest-rate loans from Northern buyers, with whom they negotiate long-term agreements.

What is “Fair Trade Certified”?

When you see the “Fair Trade Certified” logo on a package of coffee, you can be certain that the coffee producer was paid a fair price for his product. Only coffee roasters who are certified by Fair Trade Canada are authorized to use the Fair Trade logo. What that means is that the coffee is checked by Fair Trade Canada from picking to packaging in order to verify that it was indeed bought according to equitable commercial standards.

Coffee company, like all certified roasters, must produce a quarterly report and pay the appropriate expenses for this periodic inspection, in order to guarantee that the product sold is in fact an equitable product.

Fair Trade Certified coffees also guarantee that the methods used to harvest the coffee respect the environment.

Fair Trade coffee is part of our desire to offer a high quality product while at the same time being sensitive to what is happening in the industry.