Fruits of Labour

Students decide that Fairtrade produce will still have a home at Warwick

With 1155 voting in favour of the Fairtrade motion against, with only 488 rejecting it - and 191 abstentions - there is clear student support in favour of expanding the Union's Fairtrade policy.

The new motion requires that future Fresher t-shirts and all Union Staff and Officer Uniforms are sourced from Fairtrade cotton where this is financially viable. Fairtrade vending machines will be installed if this is workable, and Fairtrade options increased in current vending machines if not.

Bottled water will be sourced from an ethical, pro-development company such as ‘One’, and ‘Ubuntu’ Fairtrade cola made available as an alternative in all Student Union outlets. Locally sourced and organic fruit and fruit juices will be provided where possible.

So what is Fairtrade? The Fairtrade Foundation describes it as trade which promotes “better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world.”

Minimum social, economic and environmental requirements must be met for producers to be certified. Under a Fairtrade licence, companies must pay producers whichever is the higher of either a minimum price covering the costs of sustainable production, or the market price.

The price of Fairtrade goods also encompasses a premium paid to social, environmental or economic developmental projects within the local region. However, controversy has arisen over the difficulty of ensuring that Fairtrade standards are actually met.

A Financial Times investigation demonstrated that workers in Peru were still regularly paid below their country’s minimum wage, partly because it is impossible for year-round monitoring to take place in remote, rural regions.

It is also impossible to gauge the extent to which uncertified produce is falsely sold as certified.

Many economists argue that Fairtrade simply encourages producers to enter markets which are already over-supplied, driving down prices for all producers and increasing the dependence of Fairtrade producers on Western charitable whim.

Responding to criticisms made by the Adam Smith Institute, the Fairtrade Foundation argues that Fairtrade initiatives introduce competition into many markets for the first time. They also provide sufficient funds for farmers to invest in diversification projects which would otherwise prove too risky an investment.

However, there a danger that we being too self-congratulatory about those few extra pennies going to workers, rather than lobbying for more fundamental changes to trade policy.

With companies such as Nestle keen to cash in on the Fairtrade market, the concern is that their enthusiasm for Fairtrade will dry up as soon as consumers lose interest. Perhaps more to the point, providing only one Fairtrade coffee product rather than adjusting all products to meet Fairtrade standards is hardly in the spirit of the campaign.

An alternative approach was taken by Kraft foods, whose Kenco Pure range of instant coffees are made entirely from beans sourced from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms. This requires that farms meet standards varying from ecosystem, wildlife and water conservation to fair treatment and good working conditions for workers.

However, there is no guarantee of a minimum wage or price, encouraging some critics to argue that the Rainforest Alliance label provides nothing more than a cheap avenue for companies to tap into the ethical market.

Quite another question is how much of the extra costs actually trickle down to the production level. Even accounting for minimum prices and premiums, there is no reason for Fairtrade products to be priced so much higher than their less ethical competitors.

The hope is that as consumer demand rises, more companies will enter the market, increasing competition and forcing the profit margins back down. Better still would be for companies to start competing over the ‘fairness’ of their Fairtrade goods.

Perhaps this way we might see some real debate over how best to resolve issues surrounding the poverty trap, and consumers made better aware of the alternative approaches which can be taken.

For this reason, if for no other, the Student Union’s commitment as a consumer of Fairtrade produce is seen by many as a step in the right direction.