I believe the Fairtrade scheme was created to address the injustices which occur in commodity markets.
With specific regards to coffee, Fairtrade has been designed to discourage exploitation by coffee traders who underpay smallholders that produce commercial or lower grades of speciality coffee. These grades are usually bought with no transparency or liability.
Fairtrade, as an organisation, regulates the financial transactions between the producing cooperative and their exporting agent with the importing buyer. The system regulates the use of the Fairtrade Mark by coffee roasters and controls the sale of all Fairtrade roasted coffee. The existence of this body has had an overall benefit on the coffee trade.
However, we do not buy commodity coffee; we buy specialist coffees of the highest qualities, we travel to farms, get our boots dirty and work closely with farmers. We spend time with them, stay in their houses and are engaged in continuous communication about how we can benefit together.
Over the years, our experience has demonstrated that we have made progress under our own hard work, accomplishing greater improvements in labour standards than by just buying Fairtrade certified coffee. In my opinion Fairtrade was not developed for a business model like ours.
