Fair coffee

Coffee matters

On a global scale, coffee matters. It is one of the major players in international imports and exports. The annual value of worldwide green-bean trading exceeds USD 80 billion; only oil has greater importance in global trade.

Yet the journey from producer to consumer, from an Andean plantation to a café on Warsaw's Nowy Świat, is so long that the raw material can change hands a dozen or even several dozen times. As a result, the producers who put the most effort into creating coffee retain only a modest share of its final price. How much? According to the WTO, the World Trade Organization, no more than 7–10% of that USD 80 billion reaches coffee growers.

Moreover, the money reaching producers does not increase even as shop prices rise. Hard as it is to believe, the average green-bean price fell last year from around two dollars per pound to 89 cents. At the same time, a finished bag became more than ten percent dearer. For over 125 million people working in the coffee industry, that means earning less even as European customers pay more for their product. Is it fair that the people most involved in producing something earn the least? No. Is there a solution? Yes. Is it effective? That is another matter...

Coffee's dark side

Life on a coffee plantation is far from easy. Harsh working conditions in a demanding tropical climate, physical labour on high mountain plots and pay of less than a dollar a day have given the industry a reputation as one of the world's most inhumane. Add the fact that child labour remains common on plantations in Africa, South America and Latin America, and that seasonal contract workers are often treated like modern-day slaves, and the price of our comfortable coffee-drinking becomes human lives.

What problems do plantation workers face? Above all, uncertainty and financial instability. Picking coffee cherries is largely seasonal and depends on the year's harvest. Families relying on coffee-sector work never know exactly what they will earn during picking season. Wages are a challenge for producers too: pickers' labour accounts for over 60% of plantation costs. That encourages cost-cutting through lower pay and off-the-books employment.

Research by Danwatch in 2016 showed how serious the problem of work without contracts is: no insurance and no prospect of a pension. In Brazil alone, over half of workers lacked appropriate contracts. Forcing people to work without legally required conditions, including pay, welfare and sanitation, is a modern form of slavery and undoubtedly a major problem on large coffee plantations.

Fairtrade coffee — why paying extra can be worthwhile

A response came with the development of fair trade, or, as some prefer, sustainable trade. In 1988, a coffee certification programme began within the movement associated with Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International, covering plantations implementing fair-trade principles. How were growers persuaded to improve working conditions voluntarily? Money proved the strongest incentive: they began receiving higher prices for green beans than prevailing market rates.

In return for greater financial security for their businesses, producers committed to better working conditions, a ban on child labour and environmentally friendly production and processing. Premiums were also paid when funds were directed towards investment and social projects, including education, worker healthcare and greener technologies. Equally importantly, there was to be a transparent system showing where money raised through Fairtrade projects went.

Coffee with the recognisable blue-and-green FAIRTRADE label has been with us for more than thirty years. Has it solved every problem of exploitation on coffee plantations? No. Certification has also created new challenges, such as corruption in social projects and the difficulty the smallest, poorest producers, including those in Africa, face in accessing expensive certification. But remember: FAIRTRADE is not a ready-made solution. It is an incentive to notice problems and work to solve them. In other words, FAIRTRADE is a journey, not a destination. That alone can make paying a few złoty more for a bag with the blue-and-green label worthwhile...