Fair Trade Issues

Fair Trade Issues: Coffee

Did You Know?

For every $4 bag of coffee you buy in the grocery store, the farmer who grew it gets only 25 cents. For every $1 cup of coffee you buy at Tim Hortons the farmer who grew it gets only 1 penny -- the rest of the profit goes to an endless string of middlemen or big companies like Kraft, Nestlé and Procter & Gamble.

‘Modern’ farming techniques encouraged and used by the large conventional coffee companies are causing major deforestation, agrochemical pollution, soil erosion, and killing off birds and other wildlife in Latin America.

The Globe And Mail (September 18, 2002) reported:

Poor countries that grow the world's coffee beans, backed by aid groups, are banding together to push for major changes in the industry, saying it is up to consumers in countries such as Canada to take responsibility for the devastating consequences of the coffee trade.

“Coffee producers are going through the worst crisis in history due to the low prices they receive for the coffee they sell to importing countries," said Nestor Osorio, president of the London-based International Coffee Organization, which represents the producing countries. "The price is lower than it was in the Depression.”

Coffee bean prices are down 50 per cent from 1999, with devastating consequences for coffee farmers in countries such as Kenya and Vietnam. They remove their children from school and cannot feed their families nutritious food or buy medicine for simple illnesses, aid agencies say. The governments of the affected countries lack revenue for schools and hospitals.