+ Beans for Hope = Awesome!
We are very grateful to the local buyers at our neighborhood Whole Foods, particularly Krista and Neil for their enthusiasm and passion for good coffee and a good cause. All our coffee sold at Whole Foods will be wrapped come in our beautiful hand woven textiles to support our Mayan textile co-op. (more…)
We applaud the efforts of UK retailers who are becoming more dedicated to the Fairtrade movement to increase wages and lifestyle of poor farmers in foreign countries and urge more American-based companies to become more socially responsible and follow the UK example.
Filed under: Hope Projects, The Coffee, fair trade | Tags: coffee, Fair Trade Coffee, Local Harvest, Smart Shopping
Beans For Hope Expands Coffee Sales to Local Harvest Grocery.
If you’re looking to find BFH coffee shopping at Walmart, Sams Club or Starbucks you should probably stop reading right now. But if you care about what’s happening outside the major corporate grocery world and looking for retailer and coffee working for better environment, healthier choices and sustainable communities visit Local Harvest and keep reading.
Filed under: Coffee Report, fair trade | Tags: coffee, fair trade, Fair Trade Coffee
Fairtrade Price Increase Not Something To Shout About
Finally after years and years of stagnant coffee prices, the Fairtrade Labeling Organizations (FLO) have decided to evaluate the current “fair” trade price for coffee beans to a whopping $1.25 per pound of washed Arabica coffee beans starting June 2008. This is only a 5 cent increase per pound on average from the previous “fair” prices.
Although FLO is touting this increase as a major move forward in the coffee trading industry, it’s really too little, too late – less of a move forward than a realization of the need to keep up with the current economy.
First of all, the current fair trade prices aren’t exactly fair to begin with, still leaving the small coffee farmers in Guatemala and other coffee farming nations with a tiny cut of the coffee’s profits. The $1.25 per pound price paid to coffee farmers is really nothing when you consider the harsh labor associated with coffee farming and the fact that distributors are making so much more.
In addition, the fair trade concept is supposed to go beyond fair coffee prices but also toward positive changes in the farmer’s living and working conditions. However, the fair trade standards aren’t really supply the farmers and their families the additional support they need.
In order to be fair trade certified, coffee farmers must follow a strict set of standards that must be met in order to be considered fair trade. Often these credentials are hard for these small farmers to actually comply with due to their way of life and the lack of funds.
All that aside, FLO’s price increase of only 5 cents is not really significant enough to off-set inflation or the natural increase in cost of coffee production since the fair trade price was standardized in the late 1990s.
This price increase is now the set standard and will not be reviewed again until 2010! That is a long time to keep a set price!
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