y(,ejtzu ...... --., ..-... ...

_
d n
dgehead with her neighbours and even
Hp to meet people at the storeto help
sales. Bridgehead has also become a
Jlum
&ca for students and schod groups who've
4 thefair trade crusade. Weget a fair
P
@bcr of r r ~ueb to J pealr to gr0upSr says
,,&e Lebel, miUwger of the Toronto store,
S d
Buyingd i n d ~ from the source - thereby
fining out the middlemen who S t e prices
in thegap bctween prodracer and consumer- is
linchpinof fair tradc. The Alternative Trade
wi zati ons ( K I D S ) that put fair trade into
iorcst. "It's good, and I really l i i the idea
dirninating the middleman." Bacon talks up
.*hi& we Can't
because m don't hlw the
r . I I ' *r I --
large corporations and other conventional
buyers so Third World firmen and Enfu
pcoplecanmjoyabetterqualityoflifc.
Take coffee Totexample. oneof the most
popular fairly traded items. The next time
you savour a cup of your fivourite d u n e fix?
consider thi s: the farmer who grew those beans
may have received less; than one-tenth of the
price you paid. The market price for gmn
coffee isabout 90 cents U.S. a pound. But
h a s sdliageoflee fiom busiaases
licensed by FairTradcMarkCanada,an
Ottawa-basedcompanysupportcdbykbaur
and chmh groups, rrceivc a minimum of
$1.26 U.S. per pound.
farmer BertiMo Gama Fens sdkhercoffe
to the British company caftdirrct ona fairiy
traded basis.% didn't make amugh to l i
on bebr4":she says.Wow m get a bettaprice
and the money comes dm to us.1 can buy
more food. I can hdp support my daughter
at university and take care of my son."
Producers arc also treated fairly in other
ways. Tm Thousand Viges. an AT0 supported
by theMennonite Church. pays up to half the
value of a handicraft order when i t ' . . placed.
and the balancewhen goads anshippait0
North AmericzThiis provides working
capital for artisans to buy raw materials
That price difference adds up. Nicaraguan
and for craft groups to pay workers.
As these examples indicate, most of the
larger fair trading companies are linked to
non-government organizations involved in
international development, such as Ten
Thousand Villages, which runs more than M
stores across Canada selling crafts, rugs and
coffee. Bridgehead is 90 percent owned by a
British financial co-operative called Shared
Interest. with OxfamCanada holding the
remaining 10per cent. In the Third World.
trading partners include co-operatives,
community-owned organizations and private
the fair trade movement, what unites themisa
commitment to fair treatment of producers and
to community development.
topping $500-million. fair trade has moved well
beyond catering to a small core of development
junkies. It's only a small fraction of overall
global trade, but fair exchange ishaving an
impact. ATOs import products fromabout 800
tnding partners in 45 countries, involving
8OO.OOO producers. In Switzerland. fair trade
coffeehas captured fiveper cent of the market.
It's three per cent in England, and two per cent
With worldwide annual sales by ATOs
I businesses. While there are different players in in Holland.
susta'inaMeM
Wjm: a I I
In Canada, p u can't yet walk into just any
Supermarket and pick up fairly traded CO~ ~ CC
dong withthe rest of purgroceries But it
canadipns consider thcm~~lva ethical
shoppm and ue willing to pay more so
ptoauccnaneniayalivingwagc.
found that 55 pa cent of the 3,000
because of many new fair trade initiatives,
some h d in surprisig places.
In the town of New Minas, nestled in the
booming at Just Us Coffee Roasters bop, run
CO-operativdy by bur of its dozen joint owners.
Its coffee desto wholesale and retail markets
in the Atlantic prwinces have dimbed abow
555.OOO per month, up from less than 540,oOO
says Moore. Sponsorbg a group of Mexican
coffee farmers to visit h a d a sparked media
intmst 'that was just magical: he recalls.
could happen soon; a sizable number of An~pol U V' cy in Nova Scotia, business is "It really put us on the map."
Yet Moore aedits an insistence on quality
and hard-nosed business smarts as key factors
A 1998 sumy by the CROP polling 6rm
consumers questioned said they
for a package of
monthly a year ago. Youcan
now buy their fairly traded.
organically g m coffee
throughout the ngion at
supermarkets such as Sobeys
"There's a real advantage to
bei g a small tish in a small
pond:* Jeff Moore of Just Us.
The business has created a buzz
around Nova Scotia. in contrast
to fair trade busiiesses in big
cities who've struggled to get on
theconsumer map. Just Us has
relied on word of mouth to
increase demand for its coffee, as
well as a strong community
out to community events,"says
would pay 15 per cent more
. - .
carried a label
saying it was and IGA.
produced
under
conditions
mpecting
human
rights. Fair
TradeMark
Canada
currently
liccnscs U) fair
trade coffee
suppliers - presence."We're always going
triple the
number
of a year
ago.
Sales of
coffee licensed
by Fair TradeMark
in 1999 reached
l00,OOO kilograms -
double the tally for 1998.
While that's only one-tenth
of one per cent of the overall
market share, this figure isrising quickly
Moore."We've always seen
education as almost the primary thing
for us."
While traveling in the Third World in 1995.
Moore visited coffee farmer co-ops in Mexico.
Onhis return to Canada, he decided to sell
fairly traded coffee. Direct connections with
Third World farmers continue to today.
The co-op's lively online newsletter "Full 0
Beans" features an account of Moore's most
recent trip to visit tea farmers in Sri Lanka.
has helped offset a meagre advertising budget.
Making shrewd use of guerrilla media tactics
behind the success of just Us. Theco-op
cracked the supermarket market because it
offered top-quality coffeeat a competitive pr/
"We've focused on the best product wc can put
out," says Moore."We take a business appro@
to fair trade, not because we'regreedy, but
because if you don't makemoney, in the long
run you're not going to do anybody any good."
The coffee farmers working with JU# Us waq
strong business partners, he addsnther th&l
charitable groups.'Those people can help out,
but they can't run a business that can grow.'
- v,ncouver Food hliCy Organization has
Fairly traded bananas havealready captured
launched a Fair Fruit
Initiative, with the p a l OF
selling fairly tr;idd
bananas in Can.d.1. htr .
than half of the price we
pay for bananas is
wllowed up hy C~I WS. ~
corporations likeChiquita,
Doleand Del hlunte. whilt
J scant fiveper cent p ~ s
10 theproducer. The F.iir
.. -lit campaign n i s t s
areness of these Lwua in
c hopethat when
wadians know \thew
thclr food conies fmnr jlic{
five per cent of the
market in the
Netherlands.
remains: fair trade,
despite impressive
growth, isbut a bit
global economy "Fair
tradenfleasall the
contradictions of the
societies we livein:
says Bob Thornon.
managing dimtor of
Fair TradeMark Canada.
'Fairtrademakesa
concrete difference and
But the harsh truth
player in an unqual
i s O l l C ~ d W a y O f
showing that thmarc
alternatives that an
viable. It is coastructive
economic inequity, it can only be a 'necessary
but not sutlicirnt' condition hr change."
And fiir trade businesses facc daunting
challenges in growing bepnd the margins
of the economy and in becoming viable
enterprises. Bridgehead Trading, hr aample,
has had a troubled financial history and had to
bem buying fair trade coffec. It
has been too much trouble to
seek it out.
need to understand the
real costs of what they
purchase, both ecologically and
socially: says DwayneHodgson. a
Canadian community dmlopment
worker in Tmnia.'The notion that m
can't afiord to buy fair trade products needs to
be turned on its head. By pnf er r i ngW
products, m an contributing to injustice and
ecological degradation. That's a tough message
to market, but it gets to the mot of the issue."
And that's definitely something to chat about
overcoffee.
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Fair TradeMark's internet site i s at
Just-Us Coffee's web page i s at
. '3. . * t ~ i i . ! i < ~ , ' i ~ i r ? i ..+
.*:..'I :I ,uSiuSCO;f ~ ~ . < L x I