Coffee Industry Tries Fair Trade Reforms

By George Dwyer
Voice of America
Washington, DC
22 March 2006

Small farmers make up three-fifths of the world's 25 million coffee producers, but typically they receive the smallest portion of the industry's profits. That is slowly beginning to change as a profit distribution scheme known as "Fair Trade" is finding wider acceptance across the industry.

Coffee is the world's second-most traded commodity, generating a greater level of income than any other unfinished product except petroleum. But the distribution of that income has become the focus of increasing concern in recent years.

"Traditionally coffee has had positive economic benefits primarily at the consuming side, and the producing side has often been left behind," says Rick Rhinehart, head of operations at the Groundwork Coffee Company in Los Angeles. They import from growers around the world, and use a policy called Fair Trade to try to end income disparities, especially for coffee growers.

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