Sip coffee with a conscience

The Age May 27, 2006

The purchasing power of the ethical dollar offers a better return for the harvest, reports Bridie Smith.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/sip-coffee-with-a-conscience/2006/05/26/1148524888632.html

ETHICAL shopping no longer means ditching the fox fur coat in favour of the hemp jacket.

The concept now is as much about protecting the rights of people as animals. It means drinking coffee with a conscience and tea with sympathy - all while being assured that the labourers who strained their backs to pick the tea leaves are getting their fair share of the profits.

"It's the old adage of teaching someone to fish rather than giving them a fish, that's what Fairtrade is about. It's fair trade not aid," said Sarah Scarborough.

Her business, Scarborough Fair, was one of the first to put Fairtrade products on the shelves of Australian supermarkets.

It's a sign that the German-based global movement, which is thriving in Europe and America, is fast taking hold here. The Fairtrade brand, with its blue-and-green circular logo, which is being applied to everything from chocolate bars, coffee beans, soccer balls and sports shoes, is no longer limited to charity shops.

Commodities produced in some of the world's poorest communities, such as coffee, cocoa and tea, are often Fairtrade products. The movement is about promoting greater equity in international trade and securing better working conditions for the producers.

Since arriving in Australia in 2003 with just six companies selling coffee and tea, the number of products in the Fairtrade range has swelled to more than 50. Sales of products carrying the Fairtrade symbol have doubled every quarter since it was introduced to Australia in October 2003.

"There is a lot available now, but because people are now testing the market and there is interest, the range of products is only going to grow," Australian Fairtrade labelling officer Audrey Jacometti said. "People look for that label because the label is a guarantee."

Meanwhile in England, Fairtrade products number more than 1500, including T-shirts sold in mainstream teen fashion stores and wine, muesli and baby food in supermarkets.

In Britain, where the Fairtrade Foundation has been around for 15 years, "Fairtrade coffee is 15 per cent of the roast and ground market," Ms Scarborough said.

British retail and supermarket giants Marks & Spencer, Tesco and Sainsbury's all stock Fairtrade products.

"It always starts with the smaller companies and passionate people who believe in Fairtrade, understand it and want to do something about it ... but then it expands out," she said.

A Marks & Spencer campaign called "Look behind the label" run earlier this year was a strong signal that ethical shopping has gone mainstream.

Research commissioned by Marks & Spencer showed more British consumers were thinking about ethical and health issues when buying clothes and food. Almost one third of the respondents said they chose not to buy an item of clothing because they were concerned about where it came from and 78 per cent said they would want to know more about the way clothes were made, including the conditions in factories where the clothes came from.

"There you have a reasonably conservative, mainstream retailer now dabbling in ethical waters," said Steve Ogden-Barnes, program director at Monash University's Australian Centre for Retail Studies. "And it's significant
because generally once trends have taken hold in Europe and America, we see them arrive in Australia."

Endorsements from Coldplay frontman Chris Martin and U2's Bono also introduce the concept of fair trade to the mainstream.

This, combined with worldwide campaigns such as last year's Make Poverty History concert, and an age where consumers are probably their most educated and socially informed makes for a powerful combination.

"It's starting to appear more on people's radar than it used to," Mr Ogden-Barnes said. "Most people know now that coffee beans aren't picked by smiling, happy, ideal Pacific families in Hawaiian shirts ... consumers have had a dose of reality now and are much more informed."

Ms Scarborough agreed. "People are educated and aware," she said. "This is the information age and people know what is going on in the world."

She said to ensure Fairtrade products were able to establish themselves in the mainstream, the products had to compete on price and quality with the market's big players.

"Not everybody is willing to go out of their way, find a car park, go into a different shop, make a big effort and pay $10 or $15 for a bag of coffee. It has to be available and affordable," she said. \

"Trends that start in Britain do generally follow in Australia and getting Fairtrade to the mainstream makes it practical for the consumer. They no longer have to go to an Oxfam shop and pay $10 for a bag of coffee, they can go to the supermarket aisle and switch their brand of coffee."

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