Consumers can make better choices than Fairtrade coffee

By: Alex Singleton
Telegraph Blogs (UK)

The Fairtrade scheme reached its high water mark last year. Yesterday brought the beginning of Fairtrade Fortnight - the annual drum beating for Fairtrade products - but, so far, it has been a remarkably subdued affair.

The recession means that many consumers, worried about their jobs, are looking to make economies, and are less willing to pay attention to campaigns telling them to pay a more.

Meanwhile, the market is delivering higher prices on its own. Global prices for coffee, which declined from an average of $1.09 per pound in 1998 to just $0.48 in 2002, averaged $1.09 again this year. Productivity gains in some poor countries increased the supply of coffee on the market, and it took time for enough producers to switch out of coffee.

As a result, the Fairtrade scheme's aim of fighting low coffee prices for the minority of producers on its scheme seems rather irrelevant.

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