Fairtrade Impacts on Coffee Producers

Abstract

The claim is made on a packet of Okapa Organic Fairtrade coffee,¹ sourced from PNG, that ‘[t]he people who grew and picked this FAIRTRADE Certified coffee will directly benefit from our ethical choices by getting an above market price for their coffee and a local living wage for their efforts’. It goes on to say that ‘by choosing to buy FAIRTRADE we also choose to REHUMANISE the FOOD SUPPLY chain’. This raises the question whether the claims made by Fairtrade certifiers are justified, considering the impact of Fairtrade certification on participating producers. The previous chapter qualifies this evaluation of Fairtrade’s impact, with the reality that this certification is currently only accessible for a small portion of producers in the global South. Yet, Fairtrade may still serve as a model, which actors in the conventional market may aspire to. As such, it is important to ask whether Fairtrade achieves its promise of ‘an above market price’ and more broadly, to evaluate the opportunities this ‘fair’ market offers in contrast to the broader ‘free’ market.