Why fair trade still matters when coffee and cocoa prices are high • FRANCE 24 English

Why fair trade still matters when coffee and cocoa prices are high • FRANCE 24 English

[Music] [Applause] Welcome to People in Profit. I’m Yuka Hoy. Your morning boost keeps getting pricier. Here in France, a recent study shows coffee prices jumped as much as 37% in August from a year earlier. Volatile weather affecting harvest, uncertainty in global trade, and rising production costs could soon make everyday treats like coffee, tea, and chocolate a luxury. But are the farmers growing them getting a fair share of the price surge? August Hackinson has more on the global coffee market and about how the fair trade certification system is designed to help farmers, but is facing challenges. Coffee prices are hitting record highs. Both Arabica, which makes up most of global production, and Robusta have seen soaring prices in recent years, according to Bloomberg. In December, prices hit a 52year high. Global tea and cacao markets have also surged. Much of this is driven by unpredictable climate conditions in producing countries. Some say higher prices could help farmers. Others warn that volatility can hurt them. For many, it’s therefore crucial to create systems that provide stability and support. The fair trade certification system started in the 1980s. For consumers, products with the label cost a little more, but the impact is big. Fair trade helps farmers in two main ways. Securing a minimum price even when global prices drop. Providing a community premium, extra money that can be used for schools, better tools, etc. Fair trade also provides education and support to improve quality, negotiate better prices, reach more buyers, and build resilience against today’s volatile markets. They have really helped us uh to teach us on how to care for the environment and then the coffee bushes becomes healthy and then we get now better quantity, good quality and the women have got better income. However, the cost of joining fair trade is a heavy burden for many especially as they face the impacts of climate change. Out of roughly 570 million farms worldwide, fair trade includes just 1.9 million. For more on the topic, let’s bring in Jason Archia Champong, sustainable sourcing lead for coffee and cocoa at the Fair Trade Foundation. Thanks for joining us, Jason. Thanks for having me. Now, first off, why has coffee got so expensive even as overall food inflation has calmed down? really important question and fundamentally um the primary driver we see is underinvestment in farmers right I think there are fundamental challenges that farmers are facing on the ground that have been compounded by climate change and as a result farmers are unable to really invest in their farms um enhance their productivity and get the yields that required to meet the demand at the current time and why aren’t the producers and the farmers not getting paid more if prices are surging um if they are unable to invest uh to cope with climate change and face the challenges then obviously if they get more money then they can reinvest uh that to bolster their production can’t they? Yes. So as it currently stands cocoa and coffee farmers typically earn less than 10% of the final value or the retail price or chocolate or or coffee right um and that’s that’s really important to recognize. You know, we’re in a situation where studies have shown that by 2050, nearly 50% the global surface area used for coffee and cocoa farm will no longer be suitable. And as it currently stands, for years as fair trade, we’ve been really advocating the need for farmers to earn more, but ultimately that’s not fundamentally tricking down trickling down to farmers as it as it stands. So here at fair trade last year for instance as a global system nearly 210 million pounds was generating an additional premium to go back to farmers to help them invest. And it’s that type of activity that type of additional investment that we’re really encouraging businesses to to you know continually do and invest in to ensure that farmers can be supported to address these key issues. Because ultimately we as consumers will continually um want to buy chocolate, continually drink coffee, but without farmers farming the coffee and supported in doing so, we ultimately won’t won’t see see coffee and um chocolate at least at the prices that we would want to or at least struggle to be able to access um these important commodities. Now if we go back and look at how fair trade started, it was obviously uh to help farmers facing steep declines uh in prices does fair trade then you’re saying that fair trade still matters even with rising prices? Undoubtedly undoubtedly it still matters. You know when we see situations of high volatility and high prices generally what we see is that there’s issues in supply. So whilst demand still remains high there’s an issue in supply. So without fair trade and without important networks of support for farmers, farmers are unable to actually invest in their farms adequately. So we found with the premium as we, you know, we’ve implemented the premium for many years now, we see businesses being able to invest back into farmers and farmers then being able to invest back into their farms and that ensures that the supply that is so greatly required is still there. We also then implement a whole range of programs as well. So it’s not just the pricing mechanism that we have in play but also programs and those programs are key to enable farmers to address some of the key um climate risks that they face. So for instance, we have programs all across um Latin America and also in East Africa for instance where um farmers are able to plant more coffee um more climate resilient varieties of coffee and we see that similarly in cocoa where we see challenges with disease and so helping farmers address their productivity is a really key piece. So yes, there is the pricing and there’s also the programs which we continually work alongside um our farmers to to deploy on the ground. Um and yet as we saw in that report earlier, only a very small fraction of global farmers work with the fair trade system. Why isn’t that number growing? And this is and this is where we’re working um with businesses to see that number grow ultimately. um you know for a long time now we’ve been really stressing the need for um businesses to really look up and understand okay and understand what are some of the fundamental challenges existing on the ground and how we can work more closely with farmers. So as it currently stands within fair trade network globally we have about 2 million farmers and workers around the world that are benefiting from fair trade sale. We want to see that improve and so we are encouraging consumers to go out and yes buy fair trade certified products um because that goes a long way in ensuring that actually further investments can be deployed on the ground but also encourage other farmers and support other farmers as well in being able to grow and sell fair trade certified coffee and cocoa as well as other commodities. For consumers though, that fair trade label has been around for over two decades and many people now recognize that and uh quite a few uh a large number of people are willing to spend a bit more for ethically and sustainably sourced products. Yet your study also found uh that only about 10% of tea sold in the UK, for example, was fair trade certified. Why are companies or is it the fault of companies not selling more of them or is it um where where is the where does the problem lie? You know, currently as it stands in the UK alone, we have about 400 businesses. Um and that’s around about 5,000 fair trade products that consumers can buy in the UK. So, it’s a good foundation, but there is definitely more to do. And so what we are doing as fair trade um as it currently stands is also working alongside government to create an enabling environment that would level the playing field for those businesses that are have made that step in the right direction to actually address um you know human rights issues within their supply chains because by doing that um you know a business is able to actually help make you know um the situation much fairer for farmers but then by encouraging and working alongside government that would be really important. and is really important in creating that environment for other businesses to also do the same. So right as it currently stands I think we have a good foundation of businesses but there is more to do and I think it’s partly getting alongside partners ensuring that the there’s a a good regulatory environment um but then also creating a framework in which businesses can also do this and so with our framework we believe partnerships through programs which I mentioned earlier on um um in this response but then also through you know pricing premium which we believe is important and then also further advocacy work that we’re moving alongside with governments with um various other stakeholders across value chains as well. As you just mentioned, a key feature of the fair trade system is the so-called fair trade premium. That’s an extra money uh that farmers get on top of uh cost rise uh rising prices. Is the money being wisely spent though by the farmers? We’ve seen we see many farmers use that the premium to invest not just back into um you know the cooperative. So that’s also important. So firstly, investing back into cropives ensures that farmers have a an infrastructure as a small holder. You have an infrastructure of support to be able to pull on in times of challenge and in times of crisis. But then also what’s really critical to understand is that um cooperatives are able to independently with their farm farmer membership make a decision on how they invest that premium back into the communities. when we see nearly over 210 million pounds of premium generated for farmers, imagine if that wasn’t there, what what what other options do some farmers and cooperatives have to pull on? Sometimes those options are very minimal. So we believe that with that additional premium which has actually in many cases gone to invest in you know um community infrastructure also invest in enhancing productivity for farmers um so they can address specific issues that they’re fla they’re facing right now around climate climate change and then also what really importantly also in invest in you know um young people and so what we’re seeing across many of um um our corrupted and across the fair trade network is many younger people and As we know where is already a challenge to encourage the younger generation to get into farming. Because of the investment of that premium, many cropies are able to train younger generations to go into farming, train them with the skills to use technology and how they can adapt to climate change and so on. So we are seeing the premium being used for really meaningful um outcomes. Well Jason Archie Tampong thank the fair trade foundation. Thank you so much. Thank you very much for having me. And that’s all for this edition of People and Profit. Thanks for watching and remember you can catch up with this and all our previous episodes on our website france24.com or listen to them on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any questions or comments, you can also reach out to us on social media. Until next time, goodbye. [Music]

Volatile weather affecting harvests, uncertainty in global trade and rising production costs could soon make everyday treats like coffee, tea and chocolate a luxury. But are the farmers growing them getting a fair share of the price surge? Yuka Royer discusses this and more with Jason Archie-Acheampong, sustainable sourcing lead for coffee and cocoa at the Fairtrade Foundation. 
 
#coffee #cocoa #fairtrade

Read more about this story in our article: https://f24.my/BX9m.y

🔔 Subscribe to France 24 now: https://f24.my/YTen
🔴 LIVE – Watch FRANCE 24 English 24/7 here: https://f24.my/YTliveEN

🌍 Read the latest International News and Top Stories: https://www.france24.com/en/

Like us on Facebook: https://f24.my/FBen
Follow us on X: https://f24.my/Xen
Bluesky: https://f24.my/BSen and Threads: https://f24.my/THen
Browse the news in pictures on Instagram: https://f24.my/IGen
Discover our TikTok videos: https://f24.my/TKen
Get the latest top stories on Telegram: https://f24.my/TGen