Fair Trade coffee grew 91 percent in 2003
San Francisco Business Times
March 29, 2004
TransFair USA, an Oakland-based nonprofit that certifies
so-called fair trade coffee imports into the United
States, said Monday that it certified 18.7 million
pounds of such coffee in 2003, a 91 percent increase
from 9.8 million pounds the year before. The 2003
figure represents 0.7 percent of the 2.8 billion pounds
of coffee imported into the U.S. that year, but 3.5
percent of the 535 million pounds of specialty coffee
imported, according to Lloyd Gray of TransFair.
The organization also said it had signed agreements
during the year with mainstream companies like Dunkin'
Donuts and Procter & Gamble to sell fair trade
coffee, an indication of growing demand.
Fair trade-certified coffee, which costs nearly twice
as much per pound as uncertified coffee, is an attempt
to pay more money to poor coffee farmers without foreign
aid. Fair trade advocates say their environmentally
conscious customers will pay more for coffee if they
believe it will help such farmers preserve their farms
and earn better wages.
Steve Hahm, owner of two NaS Coffee shops in San
Francisco, said he pays even more for his café's
fair trade coffee because it is also certified organic.
He can afford it, he said, because many of his customers
want it and are willing to pay extra.
"Economically it's not a good thing to do,"
Hahm said. "But we see it as not just a business
decision but as a community decision. Some customers
do look for fair trade."
Oregon and California are probably the states with
the highest customer awareness of and demand for Fair
Trade coffee, Hahm said. In San Francisco, the Mission
District has many such customers. "Marin is also
very strong," he said.
Hahm said the fair trade growth numbers were good
news for his business. "It means that what we're
doing is catching on," he said.
© 2004 American City Business Journals Inc.
Source: http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/fairtrade/coffee/1679.html
