Fair Trade coffee -it's the least you can do

Amongst this really helpful article telling us just how coffee gets from Ethiopia to us, there is an interesting comment on fairtrade. "'Fairtrade, even if all multinationals agreed to it, doesn't put much pressure on their profits in the larger scheme of things,' says Tadesse Meskele, general manager of the Oromiya cooperative. By his calculations, one kilogram of coffee provides a western coffee shop with between 80 and 100 cups of coffee, each costing around £1. 'So even if multinationals buy Fairtrade, they get at least £80 for a kilogram of coffee that they buy for £1.55. Is that fair trade? It's a complete misnomer, giving the impression that the farmer is getting a fair piece of the profit pie, and can live a decent life. But in reality, it's just one of the means to help the farmers struggle for a slightly better deal.'"
In other words, there is really little excuse for our fairtrade coffee to be significantly more expensive than the other stuff. That will help me as I consider writing to Caffe Nero to get them to put FT on their menu (they are the only chain coffee shop in Durham who don't). It's also a good point to argue with other suppliers. As to the rest of us; the article may be a little disparaging about the effect of FT on growers, but it does give an idea of how much a relatively good and stable price can mean for growers. We really should only consider drinking FT.
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Coffee trail:[:fairtrade:]