Introduction of a House Resolution urging the government to purchase fair trade certified coffee Print
Wednesday, 17 July 2002 00:00
Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a group of my colleagues to introduce a resolution recommending the use of fair trade coffee by the Congress, the Judicial Branch, and the Executive Branch. This resolution requires very little effort from us and yet would promote efforts to assure a decent standard of living to poor coffee farmers around the world.

Small Coffee farmers in Latin America, Africa and Asia consistently do not receive a living wage for their coffee. In fact, many farmers receive an amount that is less than the cost of production. Millions of small farmers earn only 5-10% of the final retail price of their coffee due to the interference of coffee middlemen who take a huge cut from the sales. This creates a cycle of debt and poverty in the lives of the farmers. These farmers must constantly borrow money from the coffee middlemen to stay afloat, and yet they can never make enough money to support their families, let alone get out of debt.

As a major purchaser of coffee, the U. S. has a responsibility to ensure that the producers of that coffee are adequately compensated for their work. And as the Congress, we can do our part to ensure that we pay a fair price for the coffee that is purchased for our own use. Starbuck’s has successfully brought fair trade coffee to their shops. In addition, Starbucks currently brews it for retail sale and makes the beans available for purchase. The use of fair trade coffee is already being implemented in some of the House of Representatives cafeterias, but we need to do more.

Transfair USA is a non-profit U. S. based organization that certifies coffee is “fair trade” by placing a seal upon all the bags that qualify. In order to determine if the coffee is fair trade, representatives visit the farms in the countries in which the coffee is grown in addition to monitoring the sale and distribution within the U. S. The criteria for fair trade coffee are as follows: 1) Coffee importers agree to purchase from the small farmers included on the international trade register; 2) farmers are guaranteed a minimum “fair trade price” of $1.26 per pound for their coffee; 3) coffee importers provide a certain amount of credit to farmers against future sales to help the farmers stay out of debt to coffee middlemen; 4) importers and roasters agree to develop long-term relationships with producer groups that cut out the coffee middlemen.

Fair trade coffee has been sold since 1988 in Europe, which has imported 30 million pounds this year, as compared to the 7 million pounds imported by the U. S. Fair trade coffee currently represents 5% of the Swiss and Dutch markets. It is time for the U. S. to show that we are interested in supporting the 800,000 small coffee farmers that currently benefit from the fair trade relationship.

The story of Blanca Rosa Molina provides testament to the benefits of fair trade coffee. She has been working in the Nicaraguan coffee industry since she was a little girl. The money she received from fair trade coffee allowed her to receive an education and provide for her family. In her own words, “I always give thanks to fair trade coffee because if it hadn’t been for fair trade, I wouldn’t have sold my coffee. I wouldn’t have been able to pay for my studies.” Blanca now holds an undergraduate degree in engineering and a graduate degree in rural development and sustainable agriculture. With stories like this, the choice as to purchase fair trade coffee is an obvious one.

Fair trade coffee is no more expensive than gourmet coffee, but provides so many benefits to the producers that it is hard to justify not buying it. There is also still plenty of coffee to go around. 165-170 million pounds of fair trade coffee are being produced each year, but only 35 million pounds have been sold worldwide. There is a strong supply of fair trade coffee; all that is currently needed are purchasers like the House of Representatives.

The Resolution we are introducing today recommends that Congress, the Judicial Branch and the Executive Branch exclusively purchase fair trade coffee for all of their offices and events. It sends an important message about the willingness of our Federal Government to aid farmers in other countries by supporting family farms and in turn promoting better labor practices world-wide.
 

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