coffee for 61p?
October 2007
That’s not the price for a cup. It's for a kilo.
According to a fascinating radio programme on the BBC, 61p ($1.22) is the price that a farmer in Tanzania is initially paid for a kilo of coffee by the local Kilimanjaro co-operative. A farmer who owns one hectare can expect to grow around 10kg of coffee per year. I'll let you do the maths.
At the end of each year, the profit that the co-op has made selling the coffee is distributed amongst the farmers. The Fairtrade Foundation helps individual farmers because it pays a higher / fairer price for the coffee. (It should be noted that Fairtrade is not a quality assurance scheme.) This additional money can be the difference between running a small sustainable business and making a loss.
Although the precise amount that Fairtrade pays was not made clear in the programme, Ian Bretman, the Deputy Director of The Fairtrade Foundation, estimated that the initial 61p could be doubled to around £1.20 ($2.40). Compare that to the £3.19 ($6.40) which Sainsbury's current charges for just 227g (8oz) of its Fairtrade Kilimanjaro coffee. This equates to a retail price of about £14 ($28) per kilo, which is more than a one thousand percent increase on what the farmer receives.
The principle of fair trade – which has been around for decades – seems great, although it does have some heavyweight detractors. There are a number of organisations promoting the concept, both in individual countries like the USA as well as internationally. But someone, somewhere is still making a ton of cash. If an extra 60 pence represents a 'fair' price for farmers, I shudder to think what non-fair trade companies are paying.
According to a fascinating radio programme on the BBC, 61p ($1.22) is the price that a farmer in Tanzania is initially paid for a kilo of coffee by the local Kilimanjaro co-operative. A farmer who owns one hectare can expect to grow around 10kg of coffee per year. I'll let you do the maths.
At the end of each year, the profit that the co-op has made selling the coffee is distributed amongst the farmers. The Fairtrade Foundation helps individual farmers because it pays a higher / fairer price for the coffee. (It should be noted that Fairtrade is not a quality assurance scheme.) This additional money can be the difference between running a small sustainable business and making a loss.
Although the precise amount that Fairtrade pays was not made clear in the programme, Ian Bretman, the Deputy Director of The Fairtrade Foundation, estimated that the initial 61p could be doubled to around £1.20 ($2.40). Compare that to the £3.19 ($6.40) which Sainsbury's current charges for just 227g (8oz) of its Fairtrade Kilimanjaro coffee. This equates to a retail price of about £14 ($28) per kilo, which is more than a one thousand percent increase on what the farmer receives.
The principle of fair trade – which has been around for decades – seems great, although it does have some heavyweight detractors. There are a number of organisations promoting the concept, both in individual countries like the USA as well as internationally. But someone, somewhere is still making a ton of cash. If an extra 60 pence represents a 'fair' price for farmers, I shudder to think what non-fair trade companies are paying.