Did any of you hear the newstalk documentary about Fair Trade coffee?

AARRRGH

Hello

I heard this a few weeks ago. It was fairly shocking!

It seems Fair Trade coffee (from Ethopia at least) is the poorest quality coffee they produce, and the farmers end up getting less money than those who produce non-Fair Trade coffee.

The whole system appears to be corrupt (none of the extra money makes it back to the farmers) and Oxfam (Fair Trade Ireland) are aware of this but say there is nothing they can do.

I had a feeling Fair Trade was a bull**** marketing scam.

I've tried looking on newstalks documentary section (http://newstalk.ie/newstalk/podcasts/25/documentaries-on-newstalk.xml) but I can't find it.

Did anyone hear it?

EDIT: Found it. http://newstalk.ie/newstalk/podcasts/25/isPermaLink=%22false%22%3Ehttp://83.138.170.50/podcasts/audio/HumbleBean.mp3

Khannie

Listening to it now. Class!

edit: working link:

http://83.138.170.50/podcasts/audio/HumbleBean.mp3

Gran Hermano

AARRRGH wrote: »

I had a feeling Fair Trade was a bull**** marketing scam.

The sentence above sums up my thoughts on Fair Trade.

SeaSide

Steve in hasbean has a great critique here about fair trade

RE*AC*TOR

It's not a black and white issue. Fair trade has its faults, but when the coffee comodity market crashes as it does from time to time, the farmers who aren't producing Cup of Excellence grade coffees either get a guaranteed fair trade price or they suffer.

Khannie

Not the most powerful critique tbh. Marketing and brand recognition is a very important part of fairtrade, so the 1M spent will undoubtedly reap rewards.

Also, the Fairtrade organisation are going to be subject to more scrutiny (and that interview is a prime example). Point taken on the lack of quality assurance / lack of incentive to improve though.