Fairtrade CEO warns coffee ‘may not be on our shelves forever’ as only 7% of product sold offers fair price to farmers
Despite the nearly 98 million cups of coffee we drink every single day here in the UK, The CEO of charity Fairtrade has warned that the product may not be on our shelves forever. It comes as only 7% of all coffee sold offers a fair price to farmers and allows them to continue to grow coffee beans sustainably.
Transcript
00:00 98 million cups of coffee are drunk in the UK every day.
00:07 And that's actually supporting like, there's 125 million people that depend on coffee for their livelihoods.
00:16 And out of that 98 million cups that we're drinking, I'm having a few of them myself every day,
00:22 actually only 7% is fair trade. And that's why we as the Fair Trade Foundation are campaigning for a fair price.
00:30 We're a nation of coffee lovers here in Britain, with the average person drinking around two cups each and every day.
00:37 But only a tiny percentage of the coffee we buy meets fair trade standards,
00:41 which enable farmers to cover their costs and build resilience against the looming threat of climate change.
00:47 The experts claim these standards are a critical lifeline for coffee farmers worldwide.
00:51 Fair trade means that farmers are earning a fair price.
00:57 So we guarantee that farmers have a safety net, so a fair price.
01:03 If the market price is extremely volatile, then farmers get a minimum price.
01:09 And in addition to that, there's something called the fair trade premium, which coffee farmers get,
01:14 which is an additional sum of money, which supports them to tackle the challenges that they face.
01:21 Things like the climate crisis, which is causing huge problems for farmers,
01:26 as well as supporting their community and families, putting food on the table
01:32 and generally being able to have a better quality of life.
01:35 When it comes to buying fair trade coffee, more than a quarter of people say cost is a deterrent.
01:40 Mike Gidney, CEO of the Fair Trade Foundation, emphasises the urgency of the situation,
01:46 stating it's time to wake up and smell the coffee because it may not be on our shelves forever.
01:51 I was speaking to some UK fruit and veg farmers earlier in the week
01:55 and they were saying how hard things are for farmers here.
01:58 But is that something that's replicated across the world and for coffee farmers as well?
02:03 What are the top concerns for them at the moment?
02:06 Yeah, I mean the cost of living crisis is absolutely global.
02:10 When we talk to coffee farmers, they're worried that there's not going to be a future in coffee.
02:15 If you're growing your coffee beans and you don't even know what price you're going to get for them
02:20 and you're not even able to cover the costs of growing those coffee beans when you actually sell them,
02:26 coffee farmers don't want to be growing coffee.
02:31 A survey found another barrier to buying fair trade was access to products that qualify,
02:35 but the charity reckons you'll be able to find it in more places than you might think.
02:39 Gregg's, Sainsbury's, Co-op, Waitrose, M&S, they're all supplying fair trade coffee.
02:47 But if you go somewhere and you can't see the fair trade mark, speak up, ask for it.
02:52 Because it's so important that we're using that consumer power to ask for fair trade coffee
02:58 so businesses understand we want it because we want to be drinking coffee for many more years to come.