Our Take on 'Fair Trade'

To be classified Fair Trade, a coffee must meet several criteria: it must be produced by a small-grower cooperative that has registered with TransFair International (an organisation that regulates and certifies trade practices); our broker must pre-finance the coffee for the cooperative (pay for it well before it ships); and the broker must pay a minimum floor price for the coffee in the event the coffee market falls below an agreed-upon level.

The Transfair initiative is an excellent first step—but the Fair Trade classification criteria exclude coffees most people would consider fairly traded. The organic Columbian (www.cafemesadelossantos.com) coffee we buy is a case in point. The farmers who grow the beans receive a price that’s higher than the internationally set fair trade price, but because they don’t belong to a growers’ cooperative, their coffee can’t use the Fair Trade label.

We hope that some day, Fair Trade will include any coffee that’s grown sustainably—whether by a cooperative, small farmers, or larger estates (with “sustainable” encompassing everything from fair wages and good working conditions to stewardship of the land and healthy environments for animals and birds).

We buy fairly traded green beans from Guatemala, Peru, Mexico, Nicaragua, Sumatra, and sometimes, Costa Rica and El Salvador. Fairly traded Timorese beans should be available within the next year. Shade-grown and certified organic plantations account for about 80% of our green bean volume. Fairly traded coffee  represents approximately 75% of our volume, up from 10% several years ago. These percentages will grow as support for fair prices for farmers grows. One of our support strategies is to retail these coffees (along with organic coffees) for the same price as all of our other coffee; because the price difference is so little, we see no reason to charge the consumer extra.

Oso Negro buys the majority of its green beans from Royal Coffee in San Francisco. The people at Royal do thorough research on beans and their sources, taking field trips into plantations and co-ops so they can meet the growers and see how the beans are grown. Read about some of their field adventures on our Coffee Tales page. They also test each shipment of beans rigorously to ensure their quality. Last, but not least, they’re fun and have a great sense of humour. We’re confident in their expertise and grateful to have such knowledgeable, trustworthy consultants, since we haven’t reached the point where we can finance field research of our own.

There is another slight twist on the fair trade concept, and that concerns local wages. Even though we are a small company with limited financial resources, we are determined to represent fair wages to ourselves and to operate our business democratically. We also support local businesses whenever possible, shopping locally whenever we can and promoting as many local artisans and community groups and events as possible.