Fair Trade for All: Delivering More Impact for More People
Fair Trade USA is dedicated to empowering farmers and farm workers to fight poverty, improve
lives and protect the environment. We are proud of our track record within the Fair Trade
movement: for the past fourteen years, Fair Trade USA and our partners have delivered over
$225 million in additional income to rural families around the globe, supporting community
development and environmental sustainability. We believe this success validates the vision for
growth and impact that we have championed for many years.
Tragically, according to U.N. poverty statistics, over two billion people still live on less than two
dollars a day. We believe that all small farmers, farm workers and their families deserve to have
access to the opportunities and benefits of Fair Trade. This conviction, that Fair Trade can be
more inclusive and more effective, lies at the heart of our Fair Trade for All initiative.
Including More Farmers
Only through innovation can we expand the reach and deepen the impact of Fair Trade for
rural families. Toward that end, we are gradually and carefully implementing a series of pilot
programs to determine best practices for delivering more impact to more people.
For over a decade, FLO has had rigorous Fair Trade standards for farm workers on banana,
tea, and flowers estates. We have personally visited many of these farms, spoken with
workers, and witnessed a strong experience of empowerment and impact within their
communities. We are now extending this positive experience to farm workers and their
families in coffee. We believe the Fair Trade movement has a calling: to be inclusive and to
embrace the needs of the entire rural community, including farm laborers on larger farms.
Similarly, FLO standards have served independent small farmers (who are not in
cooperatives) in the rice and cotton sectors for many years. This model creates a journey
whereby independent small farmers can freely choose their own organizational form, enjoy the
benefits of Fair Trade and, over time, organize themselves into more advanced structures
such as cooperatives. FLO evaluations indicate that this has been a successful experience
that generates significant impact for participating rural families. We now seek to extend this
model to independent small farmers in the coffee sector, given that only 8% of coffee farmers
are currently organized in cooperatives. For those in the Fair Trade movement who prefer to
champion the cause of small farmers, this innovation should be particularly welcomed.
To date we have launched four coffee innovation pilots. In our first pilot – a 500-acre, familyowned, 100% organic farm in Brazil called Fazenda Nossa Senhora de Fatima – farm workers
are already seeing impact. This farm passed a rigorous inspection by Scientific Certification
Systems (SCS) and became the world’s first Fair Trade Certified coffee estate in January
2012. After making their first sale to Whole Foods Market a few months later, the farm’s 110
workers democratically elected to invest their Fair Trade first community development
premiums in eye and dental care. Many workers and their children just received their very first
pair of eyeglasses. As we look to strengthen worker participation on this farm, we have
sought the counsel of the United Farm Workers of America (UFW), which is advising us on
worker training and empowerment programs.
Jonatan Santos Silva, a worker with 12 years at the farm, says, “I had never been to a
dentist before because I could not afford it. I am happy and thankful because we are
receiving health services we did not have before. I just went to the dentist for the first
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time in my life. My wife Karina went to the eye doctor and received glasses. Now she
can read again! We did not have this before Fair Trade”.
Jonatan is not alone. The workers on this farm recently sent Fair Trade USA a thank-you
letter expressing their deep appreciation for being allowed to participate in the benefits of Fair
Trade and their support for an expansion of the model to other farm workers.
A second pilot impacts independent small farmers who are not organized into cooperatives. In
the Nariño region of southern Colombia, we are working with 350 independent farmers who
each own 1-3 acres of land. There are no cooperatives in the area, so these small farmers
currently sell their coffee to a local exporter, Exportadora Nariño. Over the past few months,
through our pilot program, these farmers have been developing small community-based
associations of 30-40 people per association. This village-level network will enable them to
transport and sell their coffee as a group. They will also receive technical assistance in quality
and productivity, get business skills training, and earn Fair Trade community development
premiums which they will manage themselves. Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is our field
partner in this pilot, focusing on farmer organization and training. The Nariño pilot has already
been inspected by SCS and is expected to pass certification this month, at which time it can
begin to look for Fair Trade buyers.
“Instead of hoping and waiting for government assistance, in the future we hope to
implement community improvements with our own funds and decided by us. We like the
concept of Fair Trade. We want to make it a reality in our communities,” says José
Ahuamada, a 2-acre coffee farmer participating in the Nariño pilot.
Our third pilot is with Café de Altura de San Ramon, a small farmer association in central
Costa Rica. San Ramon brings together 537 small-scale coffee farmers who own an average
of 4 acres each. San Ramon was inspected earlier this year and just became certified in May.
Our fourth pilot is with a large coffee farm in Brazil called, Ipanema Agricolak, which employs
almost 1,000 workers, all members of an agricultural union that enjoy wages and benefits
above the norm in the region. To date, Ipanema has been inspected against Fair Trade
standards and is awaiting the certification decision of SCS.
We will conduct 10-20 pilots over the next two years, aiming for a good mix of both
independent small farmer groups and estate/farm worker pilots. Our Coffee Innovation
Council, comprised of 7 experts with diverse NGO, producer, academic and industry
backgrounds, is advising us during the pilot process. We are committed to implementing
these pilots with care and assessing the results at the individual farm level as well as the
macro level. We will monitor and report sales of both the pilot farms and cooperatives to
ensure that co-ops are expanding their sales and benefits as the Fair Trade movement
expands. We will also seek external assessments of the pilots to validate our findings.
Although we are only just beginning, we are already learning much from these pilots. And we
are proud of the initial results. Strong, respected NGO partners like Catholic Relief Services
and United Farm Workers are supporting our efforts in the field. Leading companies like
Whole Foods and Green Mountain Coffee are excited to buy the coffee and be a part of
expanding impact. Most importantly, hundreds of farm workers and independent small farmers
are eagerly participating in the pilots, looking to us all to expand opportunities for them and
their families in the Fair Trade market.
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Strengthening Cooperatives
At the same time, Fair Trade for All seeks to deepen the impact of Fair Trade for farming
cooperatives, which have been the pioneers of the model. Since 2006 Fair Trade USA and its
partners have invested over $10 million in our Co-op Link programs, helping cooperatives
improve quality, increase productivity, access capital cost-effectively, and become stronger
business partners. Here are but a few examples of recent results:
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With support from World Bank and Avina Foundation, Fair Trade USA delivered timely
management training to 180 coffee cooperatives in Latin America and East Africa in
2011. Price risk management and export contracting were key topics.
In 2012, we launched a three-year partnership with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and
Progreso to promote economic security and sustainable livelihoods for cooperative
coffee farmers and beekeepers in the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico.
We just kicked off a multi-year effort, in partnership with Lutheran World Relief,
Rabobank Foundation and Progreso. This project will develop business skills, market
linkages and access to capital for Fair Trade coffee cooperatives in Sumatra.
This spring, we launched a series of country-level producer gatherings to boost sales
and direct support services to cooperatives while creating a forum for engaging
producers on strategy and policy. The first gathering, held in Peru in March 2012,
brought together all the cooperative leaders in the country, as well as U.S. importers,
roasters, NGOs and lenders. Over the course of three days, we shared market analysis,
discussed strategy, and sought input from coop leaders on Fair Trade for All and other
initiatives. The U.S. companies present took advantage of the gathering to negotiate and
contract millions of pounds of coffee for the upcoming harvest. Participating social
lenders took loan applications on the spot and committed to expanding access to
affordable credit. Participating NGOs engaged the cooperatives around capacity
building services. We held a similar event in Honduras (May 2012) and will be organizing
additional gatherings in other key origins throughout the year.
Engaging Consumers
In 2011, the Fair Trade movement delivered record impact to farmers. Imports of Fair Trade
Certified products grew to an all-time high, responding to the continued growth in consumer
demand for the more than 11,000 unique products carrying our label in supermarkets, cafés,
universities and workplaces. This growth was driven by the promotional efforts of business
partners, NGOs and grassroots activists as well as a multi-dimensional consumer education
strategy with growing use of both traditional and social media. Last October, during our
annual Fair Trade Month campaign, our message reached nearly 30 million consumers.
This year, Fair Trade Month promises to be bigger and better than ever before with
participation and investment by a wide range of our stakeholders. Fair Trade Towns are
spreading rapidly while the proliferation of Fair Trade Universities is breathing new life into
the student movement. Over the next two years, we will launch a series of consumer
activation efforts that bring together brands, retailers, NGOs and community organizations.
The use of social media and mobile technology, aimed at creating a more intimate
connection between consumers and producers, is a key innovation for elevating farmer
impact.
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Moving Forward
Fair Trade for All has received conceptual and operational input from a diverse global
network of cooperative leaders, independent small farmers, farm workers, labor leaders,
activists, NGOs, businesses, academics and conscious consumers. Most stakeholders firmly
support the effort to broaden and strengthen our model to ensure that all farming families can
access the opportunities of Fair Trade. In addition to those who have signed our open letter of
support, numerous stakeholders have privately expressed their support, solidarity and
encouragement. Most recently, we received a letter from Coocafe, a Brazilian cooperative
representing 5,000 of the 6,000 Fair Trade coffee farmers in the country, expressing
agreement with an expansion of Fair Trade to support farm workers.
We understand that in some sectors Fair Trade for All has fueled an important debate.
Should we maintain the status quo, or should we innovate for greater impact? We honor this
debate. We believe the diversity of visions and strategies in our movement can be a source of
strength, growth and development. Therefore, we call on everyone in this great movement to
encourage open, honest, respectful dialogue. In the end, we are all Fair Traders, bound by a
common vision of a more just and sustainable world. Mutual respect and collaboration are
undoubtedly in the best interest of the farming families that we all serve.
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