Fair Trade Awareness and Engagement: A Coffee Farmer's Perspective

• Author: Adina Gray,Andrew H. T. Fergus
• Date: 01 September 2014
• Published date: 01 September 2014
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/basr.12037

Fair Trade Awareness and

Engagement: A Coffee

Farmer’s Perspective

ANDREW H. T. FERGUS AND ADINA GRAY

When you sit back with a good cup of coffee you are

engulfed in the aroma, the taste, the acidity and the

body of the brew. You take in all the dimensions of the

cup –yet this is only the surface. Swirling beneath are

worlds within worlds of culture, custom, ecology and

politics. All of the major issues of the twenty-first

century –globalization, immigration, women’s rights,

pollution, indigenous rights and self determination –

are being played out through this cup of coffee in

villages and remote areas of the world. (Cycon, 2007)

ABSTRACT

As one of the world’s most traded commodities, coffee has

been criticized for its contribution to environmental deg-

radation, social injustice, and economic disparities

between the producing regions of the Global South and

consuming countries of the Global North. However, the

Fair Trade concept is promising to change this through

the establishment of a trading system where producers,

importers, and processors form a more direct network

characterized by an established set of ethical principles

and practices deemed as “fair.” While the transformational

Andrew H. T. Fergus is an Assistant Professor at School of Business and Economics, Thomp-

son Rivers University, Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada. E-mail: afergus@tru.ca. Adina

Gray is an Instructor at School of Business and Economics, Thompson Rivers University,

Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada. E-mail: agray@tru.ca.

bs_bs_banner

Business and Society Review 119:3 359–384

© 2014 Center for Business Ethics at Bentley University. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.,

350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA, and 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK.

benefits of Fair Trade at the producer level have been

examined in several impact studies, the farmers’ low

awareness and understanding of Fair Trade concepts,

principles, markets, and customers represent an issue of

concern. Among the many benefits associated with

increased Fair Trade awareness is greater participation in

Fair Trade governance bodies and the long-term viability

of the market itself.

This research looks at Fair Trade from the perspective of

farmers and their cooperative and uses the case of

Cooperativa Agraria Cafetalera Pangoa, Peru, to examine

how Fair Trade awareness (defined as knowledge of dif-

ferent areas of Fair Trade) is understood at the producer

level. We then develop a three-level Fair Trade awareness

Model that illustrates both the existing and desired levels

of understanding with regard to Fair Trade awareness.

INTRODUCTION

Coffee, one of the most traded commodities worldwide, is

grown by 25 million small-scale farming families. Although

these famers typically earn less than $2 a day, they play a

vital role in an international trade where nearly 15 billion pounds

of green coffee are exchanged yearly (Bates et al. 2007). While each

of the world’s top four roasters, Kraft, Nestle, Procter & Gamble,

and Sarah Lee, own coffee brands worth over $1 billion in annual

sales (Gresser and Tickell 2002), many coffee farmers struggle to

cover their production and living costs (Cycon 2007).

The global coffee trade has been criticized for its contribution to

environmental degradation, social injustice, and economic dispari-

ties between the producing and consuming regions. The “Fair

Trade” concept offers an alternative approach to managing the

coffee industry by connecting farmers (producers), traders, and

consumers (Fridell 2007; Murray et al. 2003). In the context of this

study, the use of the term “Fair Trade Coffee” is limited to coffee

certified by Fair Trade Labeling Organization (FLO). An interna-

tional nonprofit organization, FLO, sets the Fair Trade criteria for

farmers and buyers, audits all parties in the supply chain, and

grants permission for the use of the FAIRTRADE mark.

360 BUSINESS AND SOCIETY REVIEW