Alternative trade networks and the coffee system

Every day 1.5 billion cups of coffee are drunk somewhere in the world – quite a few of them in this house – but few of us in the North know much about the 25 million families that grow and produce this valuable bean.

After reading a new book called Confronting The Coffee Crisis I feel better informed not just about the negative aspects of the story – but also motivated to explore practically the potential of emerging alternative trade networks to change the bigger picture in profound ways.

[For full review, click here.]

In Buginyana, a village high on Mount Elgon, I was taken to see a brand new coffee store. Sure, it was built with the social premium – but far more impressive was the room next door, where flip charts explained not just prices but the role of the co-op, the importer, the brand, the retailer, the consumer and even the media in the supply chain. According to Nimrod Wambette, chairman of the Gumutindo Coffee Co-operative, six out of 10 farmers on the mountain now understand these matters – an empowerment that goes way beyond money. This is the empowerment of ideas, albeit enshrined in brick.

Over 1500 kids and their parents visited Royal Holloway’s Science Open Day this weekend. As part of Fairtrade Fortnight, Dorothea Kleine and Maria-Jose Montero organised the Fair Tracing section ot the event: Kids could vote which of the photos taken of or by our producer partners in India and Chile they found most interesting.

Two internet terminals allowed visitors to test out the Fair Tracing demo, typing in the barcodes from a bottle of Los Robles wine and a bag of Indian coffee. Our partners from Nokia had supplied us with a Nokia N95 which proved a great hit with kids trying out the barcode scanning feature on the Fairtrade chocolate bars we provided…and on the Ribena and Coca Cola bottles they had brought with them.

Maria-Jose had put together four short video-clips from our visit to producers in Chile which we showed in our very own Fair Tracing cinema. In the midst of all the buzz, we managed to have interesting conversations with people about their attitudes to Fair Trade, their own buying behaviour and what they thought of the project. Many expressed a desire to buy ethically but were skeptical about ethical labels and claims, including the FLO Fairtrade label. The issue of where information was coming from was key and there was great interest in the possibilities for alternative information dissemination Fair Tracing offered. Meanwhile, kids were learning about Fair Trade in school and asked for it at home. We gave away lots of free Fairtrade chocolate - in return for over 150 filled-out voting sheets telling us more about what potential consumers would like to see in terms of photo and video material on the Fair Tracing system.

This year, the University of Bradford is holding a “Fairtrade Fortnight” beginning from 25 February to 7 March that will include a public debate on “Fairtrade and Trade Justice”, a screening of the documentary “Coca Cola: Drinking the World Dry”, a presentation of the play “Dreams of an African Child”, storytelling events and special Chololate and Nut days.

Ann Light (human-computer interaction specialist), Dorothea Kleine (economic geographer, project manager) and Macarena Vivent (ICT4D specialist, project director Chile) from the Fair Tracing Team have just completed an intensive round of fieldwork with our producer partners, the co-operative Los Robles in Chile. We visited the vineyards and the winery production facilities, interviewed workers, vintners, employees and management and conducted focus groups and participatory design workshops. Here are some photos: 

Observing the work in the vineyards…

Interviewing vintners and workers…

Holding focus groups with workers (finding out about their perspective on the wine value chain, on consumers, on Fairtrade, and on technology) ….

Conducting a participatory design workshop with the co-operative’s employees (conceptualising the value chain, mapping information flows and processes, identifying current data formats and technology in use etc.)…

Meeting volunteers, technophiles and creative students to discuss local content creation..

…and agreeing on next steps with the Directores (representatives of the members of the co-operative) and the General Manager of Los Robles, Francisco Della Maggiora Silva (in the picture with Macarena, Ann and Dorothea).   

Los Robles were very friendly hosts – they even raised a flag for each of us on our multinational research team! (But despite Ann’s extensive efforts of persuasion the Union Jack refused to unfurl properly for our photo…)

Yes, there was lots of very good wine. But we also raised a glass of typical Chilean “Mote con huesillos” (yummy peach syrup with dried peach and boiled wheat) in Curicó’s famous Café Montero in honour of Maria Montero, our valiant Research Assistant who stayed in London to hold the fort while we were away on our fieldwork visit to Chile. Cheers, Cote!

As fairtracing project, we were also there. We had the agreement from the Fairtrade Wine Comittee to hand out questionnaires and thanks to the help of Joy from Ehrmanns we finally reached very enthusiastic visitors that filled out the questionnaire and agreed to be interviewed in the near future. A good start for our work with consumers!.

Currently, there is an increasing demand for Fairtrade certified wine in the UK. According to the FLO, total UK Fairtrade sales exceeded £290m in 2006, running at annual growth rates of 40% for the past five years. Wine is one of the fastest growing categories of Fairtrade goods in the UK and general wine volumes increased by 116.7% in 2006 compared to 2005. The UK is by far the biggest market for Fairtrade wine, and looks due to continue increasing.

In order to highlight the quality of wines in this sector, the Fairtrade Wine Committee, also organised an Award during the tasting including 48 wines from the three countries where Fairtrade-accredited wines are produced. Chile was the big winner with wines picking up the two top prizes. Equality Fairtrade Sauvignon Blanc, from Chile’s Maule Valley, scooped the honor of Best White, and the Co-op’s Fairtrade Chilean Carmenère from Los Robles cooperative in Curicó was voted Best Red of the competition. Congratulations to our partner Los Robles!