Since more than a month now the market prices on bulk-coffee has been above the Fair Trade price! (check these links: http://www.ico.org/prices/pr.htm http://www.fairtrade.net/fileadmin/user_upload/content/12_12_07_FLO_Standards_announcement_-_Anuncio_de_la__Unidad_de_Criterios_de_FLO.pdf)
We are supporting the basic idea behind Fair Trade - to give the farmer a "minimum wage" - but these facts does also show some of the rigidity such a large system has!
What will be the consequences of the higher market price versus FT-price? It might just be a temporary situation caused by market speculation. But questions pops up like will the FairTrade farmers sell at better prices to the ordinary market and thereby creating FT-supply deficiencies? Will the big roasters be forced to pay prices better than FT for all their coffee and not just for a symbolic amount of Fair Trade Coffee for marketing (in the long run I doubt it considering the underlying power relations)?
Our Direct Trade prices are based on quality and are therefore all above both the Fair Trade price and the currently high bulk-market prices.
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