Fair trade coffee

The agreement was renegotiated in 1976 due to increasing coffee prices, largely a result of a severe frost in Brazil.

In 1984, the agreement was again redrawn, this time creating a database on coffee trade, and implementing stricter import and export regulations.

Launched in the Netherlands, fair trade certification aimed to artificially raise coffee prices in order to ensure growers sufficient wages to turn a profit.

The agreements of 2001 and 2007 aimed to stabilize the coffee economy by promoting coffee consumption, raising the standard of living of growers by providing economic counselling, expanding research to include niche markets and quality relating to geographic area, and conducting studies of sustainability, principles similar to fair trade.

A few examples include the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center's Bird-Friendly Coffee, which promotes practices that help to protect the habitat of migrating birds, the American NGO Rainforest Alliance, whose mission is to protect ecosystems and to preserve biodiversity and sustainability of modes of production, and UTZ Certified, which focuses on improving the efficiency and market access of producers.

Under the Fairtrade International standards they are obliged to pay a minimum price to the exporting organization, currently $1.40c/lb New York Board of Trade “C” contract, F.O.B.

This plus an increased demand put up sales of certified to around 50% in 2003[13] with a figure of 37% commonly cited in recent years.

[17] In the fair trade debate there are many complaints of failure to enforce these standards, with farmers, cooperatives, importers and packers.

The marketing system for Fairtrade and non-Fairtrade coffee is identical in the consuming countries, using mostly the same importing, packing, distributing and retailing firms.

Colleen Haight of the Stanford Innovation Review argues that fair trade coffee is merely a way to market the idea of ethical consumerism.

Deborah Sick's research, involving interviews with coffee farmers in Costa Rica, finds that many farmers often produce more fair trade coffee than they can sell, so will often end up selling to independent buyers that will often pay more than fair trade buyers can.

[23] It is also valuable in fostering closer farmer to roaster business relationships, which can ultimately increase quality of life and profits for coffee growers and buyers alike.

[26] The system could not become a solution to all humanity misfortunes; there are still concerns as the large amounts of profits does not go to the less privileged producers although much of the labor have been provided by these marginalized people.