Is Your Coffee Dolphin-Safe?

Royal Coffee Inc., Green Coffee Importers San Francisco    September 24, 1999

Ten years ago, before organic coffee comprised 15% (and growing) of our sales, these were the top six reasons roasters chose not to buy and offer their customers organic coffees:

1. "It's too bureaucratic." Yes.
2. "It's too expensive." Huh?
3. "The quality is not as good." For the most part, not the case.
4. "Not enough variety and supply." Si, Peru solamente.
5. " Organic agriculture is an environmental-wacko plot to end Western civilization as we know it." Actually it was fluoridated water which posed a much larger threat.
6. "It will call all my other coffees into question." Bingo, Pandora's box.

This last bit of reasoning was the most popular rationalization we heard against putting an organic coffee up on the menu board. This always frustrated us somewhat because organic produce, even way back in the old days of 1990, could already be found side-by-side with conventionally grown produce in counter-culture establishments such as Safeway and Lucky. They knew, given a choice, consumers buy organic stuff if the price is reasonably close and the quality is similar.

Well, big breaking news. Some of our largest Industry members have recently decided to start selling organic coffee. This is a good thing for organic agriculture, but we imagine this development could be a little intimidating for some small roasters, who have thrived on being the "organic alternative". To the organic pioneers we say: relax. The long inaction of the larger roasters has allowed you to get established. Since 1978, many ragtag cash-strapped companies, Royal Coffee being one, were given enough air and time to incubate. If past history of the specialty industry is any indication, the arrival of large well-known competitors will now expose a greater number of people to your product resulting in growth for your company. Remember the Viet Cong won the war because they knew the landscape and they wanted it more.

Why we offer fair trade.
Fair Trade, in our opinion, is not yet well understood. Thanks in part to the advertising approach of many well intentioned folks. We have no problem with roasters who believe in supporting the poorest of farmers by paying them a fair price. But when it comes to some of their advertising approaches, we agree with a commonly expressed opinion that, in the long run, their style and message will not serve them, or the coffee industry well. Depicting all coffees but their own as messengers of misery is simplistic and inaccurate. The implication of their approach is similar to the simple one the bird people are using with their "is your coffee song bird safe?" campaign. Are we driving a stake through the heart of a robin every time we have a Yemen Espresso? Don't get the wrong impression, we are behind all of these coffees. One, because we believe in the good trying to be accomplished, and two, because we are specialty coffee suppliers and have a warehouse full of this stuff.

Transfair USA is a non-profit certifying agency that promotes coffees grown by small family farmers and is marketed by co-ops. These are often the smallest and historically lowest paid growers in our industry. They also can produce some very decent coffee, which has consistently satisfied some of the biggest self-described coffee snobs we know. Because these farmers have never been able to market their own coffee, they have had no clue about world markets or international prices. Since most of them have never gotten a decent price, they have not had the chance to develop capital, modernize production, acquire adequate financing, or build a marketing infrastructure. All this was out of the question. Some of our best organic suppliers would not have survived the last sub-dollar market of the early 90's without the fair trade buyers of Europe.

Is fair trade a handout? — Not in our view. One of the underlying principles of capitalism is the idea of equal access to markets. If these small coops are for a limited time paid a higher "fair" price, they should be able to develop the tools to compete, and by supporting them now, we will have the benefit of more suppliers and more choices in the future. Ultimately, it will then be up to them to produce a premium product, market it to the world, and develop the trading expertise, which can insure them a future in the coffee industry. Our buying approach has been to develop and maintain close trusted relationships based on performance, but also to give small independents equal shots at becoming our suppliers.

1. Is Fair Trade a threatening concept?
   Lets go back to the six reasons not to buy organic coffee of 10 years ago and plug them into the current fair trade concept.
2. "It's too bureaucratic." Yes, of course.
3. "It's too expensive." It’s comparable to most other beans.
4. "The quality is not there." We invite you all to a blind cupping.
5. "The supply is not there." It's true, we have yet to find a reliable supply of organic Kopi Luac [that’s the Indonesian coffee gathered from animal dung]
6. "It will end Western Civilization as I know it." Chai—I'm tellin' you this stuff's dangerous. We've got a real problem with this one.
7. "It will call all of my other coffees into question." Right. And what's wrong with that?

—If you are a provider of guilt as well as coffee, you probably won't want to have much in the way of variety other than fair trade. "The blood of two thousand coffee farmers"."Pesticide-soaked child laborers" etc. Bad things do exist in our business, as a trip to any origin country will painfully illustrate. We have met a few producers who are scumbags. But many more farmers, millers, exporters, importers and roasters are decent caring and progressive people who want the same goals as the Transfair folks.

If you want to leave all the business on the table to the new marketers, who, with little effort, claim their product saves the world while yours does not, fine, go back to worrying about how much crema is on your espresso. We suggest offering it all: organic, bird friendly, fair trade and all the other great coffees you can find. Help your customers figure it out. It shouldn't be too hard, remember 50% of them are above average! What really could be the harm in offering one or two fair trade coffees along with everything else you do? Bottom line: they still gotta cup. There are much easier ways to change the world than by drinking lousy coffee.