Photo: Maria Centeno
Where does my coffee come from? How fair-trade coffee arrives in Germany
Photo: María Centeno
By: María Gracia Centeno
Shora Azarnoush is a French Literature graduate from Iran. After coming to Germany, she decided that all her morning coffee should be made of freshly ground fairtrade coffee beans. Although the budget of a foreign student can be quite tight, it does not stop her Shora Azarnoush from helping people in other parts is a proud of the world. But how can a 30-yearfair-trade consumer old foreign student help the world become a “fairer” place? Azarnoush knows why fair trade is important. In commerce, fair trade is the practice of supporting producers in the developing world when buying their products. Its goal is to ensure fair prices and favourable working conditions. What Azarnoush may not know, however, is that the fair-trade label on her morning coffee beans also represents a review process that consists of several steps.
Fairtrade Deutschland explains the process The blue and green logo stamped on several fair-trade products belongs to Fairtrade International, a federation with a global reach. In Germany, the main organisations that collaborate with it are the certification agencies Flo-CERT GmbH and TransFair e.V., also known as Fairtrade Deutschland.
Flo-CERT and Fairtrade International collaborate on the promotion of fairness at the start of the production chain. They do that by sending auditors to farms and small cooperatives in Africa and South America to confirm the fulfilment of specific criteria such as the democratic participation of workers in all cooperatives and no worker exploitation of any kind. The auditors also try to ensure that there is no excess in the use of chemicals, fertilisers, water and other resources, as well as no child labour within the production chain.
What if child labour is discovered? TransFair considers child labour on the fields a grave
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Instead of cancelling contracts with farmers without providing a proper explanation, Fairtrade International and FloCERT workers stay at farms where child labour is detected and try to explain to the land workers, together with local authorities and children organisations, why this practice is unacceptable. Following months of guidance and efforts to get children back to school, new audits are performed. A farm is granted access to the fair trade alliance only if it proves that it has eliminated child labour for good. If the farm is found to be complying with the rules, then FloCERT presents a certification, which allows it to export products under their logo. These certifications remain valid as long as Fairtrade International’s routine audits detect no shortcomings in the production process. However, not every establishment can carry the Fairtrade International logo on their products. German shops and supermarket chains that want to sell their own brands with this logo on them must first have to contact TransFair to sign a licence contract. This happens under one condition: paying an annual fee on time. If the seller misses the deadline, it may lose its fairtrade licence. Is that fair? TransFair considers this method to be the only way to achieve fair working conditions and salaries in fields far away. In addition, this monetary contribution pays for the counselling of companies interested in selling fair-trade products in the future, for example when questions regarding the fair-trade process and licence fees are answered. Young consumers like Azarnoush can also ask questions and receive up-to-date information from TransFair at local fairs and exhibitions. Thus, future partners and consumers are informed about the importance of supporting fair trade.
The consumers´ motivation to support fair trade
Having coffee at CONTIGO CONTIGO is a coffee shop where people can come and chat over a cup of coffee. Students, doctors and representatives from different organizations are the common patrons at this colourful place. Those who first visit CONTIGO may not be aware that the shop follows fair trade practices and the shop owners are ok with that. They believe customers here can be carefree about how they’re getting their coffee, because CONTIGO has made sure it has been done fairly. If you want to know more about this shop and its products, visit their website at: www.contigo.de.
made to her social life. The most important one is the thorough avoidance of cafés, where the origin of the coffee beans is unknown to her.
According to Fairtrade Deutschland, 70% of the “It is not only the feeling of supporting fairness, because I German population recognise the Fairtrade logo and know this only makes a small contribution to the about 90% of these citizens firmly believe that the fairworld´s well-being, but still it is good to know that trade sign is a guarantee that workers in foreign people working under hard conditions get at countries receive a fair pay and enjoy fair least a slightly bigger share of the final income,” working conditions. Azarnoush is also Azarnoush said. In fact, she does consider her one of them, and although she does not favourite fair-trade coffee “not cheap” and try to convince her family and friends for her to keep buying a kilogramme of to support this cause, she believes that fair-trade Cuban coffee every month, more people will contribute in new ways Photo: María Centeno some adjustments had to be to fair trade. Supporting fair trade feels and tastes good
Photo: María Centeno
human rights violation. According to it, the lack of information is at the root of the emergence of child labour. From the point of view of farm workers in developing countries having children involved in the collecting phase seems completely natural and have never thought of changing this process.
More than 30 years ago, religious and student groups in Germany started working against poverty in developing countries. Through several campaigns they suggested companies to pay fair prices to cultivators, when buying raw materials from foreign farms. This initiative would result in the creation of a well-known organization called: “Weltladen”. Under its roof, more than 700 specialized fair-trade shops work in 12 German cities. Each of them does quality audits in the farms to confirm fair-trade standards, imports and sells fair-trade products directly from South America and Africa - without the help of Fairtrade International. One of these independent shops is located in Bonn, its name is: CONTIGO.