Comments on: Fair Trade USA Freezing Price Minimums, Plans to Revise Model https://dailycoffeenews.com/2023/07/06/fair-trade-usa-freezing-price-minimums-plans-to-revise-model/ Business news for specialty coffee professionals Sun, 09 Jul 2023 05:20:46 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2.2 By: Charles Wetaka https://dailycoffeenews.com/2023/07/06/fair-trade-usa-freezing-price-minimums-plans-to-revise-model/#comment-492724 Sun, 09 Jul 2023 05:20:46 +0000 https://dailycoffeenews.com/?p=171764#comment-492724 I think the definition of fair trading should not be confused, demand, quality verses sustainable income must be well looked when defining FAIR TRADE. but the mistake which are always miss led the international policy implementers or stake holders is that they neglect the views of the producers and only base on views of traders which is very difficult to get proper defination of the word in common.

The producer is the manufacturer of the product. Without a small farmer we shall not have the coffee. Which means the producer is the first person or first stage in coffee trading industry. The question would be what is the cost of producing 1kg of green coffee beans from the farm to the warehouse before it is exported? What is the quality?’ It’s sustainability? Is there a living incomes among the producers? Basing on the price we are giving is the producer trading?.

I believe when some of you are arguing, you don’t look at the above but that is the major point. Becuase if the producer is trading he or she will automatically take in consideration of climate and environmental impact as he or she is looking at the sustainable business relationship and conteneouse productions. Genda and other sorts will not be an issue Becuase there revenue.

So come back to my point , The U.S. position on fair trade premiums is based on traders perception which doesn’t address the producers problem and it doesn’t define the true meaning of Fair Trading as farmers are not meeting their break even point in that business.
Giving an example of the vehicle manufacturers in Japan, it is the manufacturer of the vehicle to put the price targ becuase he or she knows the cost of production of the care it is not client’s. What a client or consumer puts in consideration is its quality. Why is it in coffee trading industry is a consumer who want to set the price targ.

It would have been very important for fair trade foundation to put more effort on the factors that influence the coffee prices and remiums to a nable us meet the living income ad we sale coffee above the break even point in that business relationship such that things like environment, Natural resource conservation and soil managment for sustainable social economic transformation is automatically influenced as we need to protect our crop.

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By: Jon https://dailycoffeenews.com/2023/07/06/fair-trade-usa-freezing-price-minimums-plans-to-revise-model/#comment-492719 Sun, 09 Jul 2023 03:35:22 +0000 https://dailycoffeenews.com/?p=171764#comment-492719 When Rice states, “If our goal is to increase farmer income, and we do that by raising price in such a way that we kill demand, then the impact will be negative….And that’s what we were told very directly from the vast majority of the companies that we interviewed.” – This is exactly what the CEO of a corporation would say when responding to protecting the interests of its shareholders, but his shareholders are NOT the cooperatives or smallholder producers providing the goods. He quite blatantly stated, “the vast majority of the companies” were the driving force behind his decision making process. This is quite the opposite when looking at Fairtrade International, where their stakeholders are actually cooperatives and smallholder producers.

The double-speak which is being presented to justify price-freezing is a classic move to protect their own existence. I’m not too surprised that Rice decided to demonstrate this price freezing by interviewing companies rather than smallholder producers and cooperatives Fair Trade USA claims to be “helping”.. This is going to be a PR nightmare for Fair Trade USA , while at the same time, very damaging to Fairtrade International because the volumes which these roasters and corporations how are simply buying blanketed “Fair Trade” coffee off an offering sheet will likely end up buying the cheaper Fair Trade USA certification version because roasting businesses will naturally seek the more affordable pricing, especially if the quality of the value proposition is the same (aka , in this case, Fair Trade was traditionally just Fair Trade, but now, they have drastically different standards).

So now, it appears that Fairtrade International and Fair Trade USA are not even close to being the same.

One is fighting for cooperatives to achieve higher prices, and the other is fighting for corporations to maintain lower prices.

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By: Jessie Myszka https://dailycoffeenews.com/2023/07/06/fair-trade-usa-freezing-price-minimums-plans-to-revise-model/#comment-492624 Fri, 07 Jul 2023 12:34:42 +0000 https://dailycoffeenews.com/?p=171764#comment-492624 FTUSA chose a different model years ago when it began certifying coffee plantations rather than giving preference to democratically organized farmer cooperatives. Following their own rules rather than internationally established fair trade practices is their right – but then they should take “fair trade” out of their name and marketing because it is misleading to shoppers.

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By: Anis Kuri https://dailycoffeenews.com/2023/07/06/fair-trade-usa-freezing-price-minimums-plans-to-revise-model/#comment-492582 Thu, 06 Jul 2023 14:42:41 +0000 https://dailycoffeenews.com/?p=171764#comment-492582 Dear Sir/Madam,

My name is Anis Kuri (Mr), a 0wner Manager for Baglaga Coffee Plantation in the Western Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea. The Coffee Industry in PNG is not healthy, and production over the years has declined from 1, 500, 000 x 60kg bags to 700,000 bags due to over 90 % of Coffee Plantations being neglected and rundown for multiple reasons
It needs partnerships with investors and excess markets such as Fair Trade International and Fair-trade USA to revive these Plantations boost production. From my experience, a good partnership with individual Plantations and Fair-trade will help Plantation Owners (growers) to fully revive the Plantations and, in turn, produce quality coffee for export through Fair-trade International and Fair-trade USA.
From my experience with my Plantation for the last 22 years, no matter how best I try to keep my Plantation Operational, I am handicapped in selling my produce ( g.b coffees) as the markets are controlled by Exporting Companies and most if not all of them don’t participate in farming or growing Coffee

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