Great news for coffee lovers who want to see their money support the growers and communities that harvest the beans that make their morning java...
Starbucks is featuring Fair Trade Certified Café Estima in more than 10,000 participating locations around the world.
Now in a newly-designed and easy-to-spot bright orange package labeled "From farmers, for Farmers," Estima coffee is part of Starbucks' Bold Coffee Portfolio — a daily offering of Tall (12 oz) brewed coffee for $1.50, allowing customers to try different bold coffee each week.
Those who participate each week for the duration of the eight-week Bold Coffee Portfolio experience will receive a free one-pound bag of whole bean coffee at the end of their tasting journey.
Since 2000, Starbucks has purchased 110 million pounds of Fair Trade coffee beans, making the Seattle-based company the largest buyer of fair trade coffee in the world.
Fair Trade Premiums totally nearly $9 million have allowed communities around the globe to fund programs and scholarships for children and adolescents; to empower and provide resources to educators; to provide health care; and to improve the farming process via providing access, invest in, and learn about sustainable agriculture practices.
According to one source, Fair Trade certified sales in 2008 amounted to approximately US $4.08 billion worldwide, and sales are further expected to grow significantly in the coming years. According to the Just-Food Global Market Review from several years ago, Fair Trade sales were projected to reach US$ 9 billion in 2012 and US$ 20-25 billion by 2020.
The FLO (Fairtrade Labelling Organizations) International Fair Trade certification system focuses on exports from developing countries to developed nations, and today covers a growing range of products, including tea, wine, cocoa, as well as bananas, oranges, shortbread, honey, cotton, juices, nuts and oil seeds, quinoa, rice, sugar and other spices.
Certainly, the exposure Fair Trade coffee has seen in stores like Starbucks, with a presence in more than 55 countries around the world, has made given the certification its own sort of advertising to consumers. Starbucks are thriving in large American cities, on both the east and west coasts. Coffee drinkers in the Big Apple need only walk two or three blocks in any direction for the tell-tale green lights and black and white twin-tailed siren to be visible on the next street corner. Most regular customers are not only familiar with but enthusiastic about the option of Fair Trade coffee at Starbucks and other chain coffee retailers and some purchase coffee from these stores for this reason.
While Fair Trade has been the subject of criticism from both ends of the political spectrum since its gaining momentum in the late 90s and continuing today, companies like Starbucks are exposing consumers to more than just coffee that they might not have otherwise ordered on their morning commute... Fair Trade allows buyers to identify a label, a product, and the company that carries and promotes it as consumer choice.
The concept of Fair Trade certification encourages consumers to think about the communities from which their beverages come, and the conditions by which the growers and pickers live and work as a result of lack of resources.
And Starbucks' global presence allows coffee enthusiasts from Seoul to Dubai to Manhattan's Lower East Side to put a percentage of their money toward a less-fortunate community, in a place they may never visit, to support the continuing of sustainable farming and importation of their coveted cup o' Joe.
Brigid
Editor's Note: This past March, Starbucks' The Big Picture project was instituted in New York City with a day in which thousands of people traded their paper cups for reusable mugs. On April 15, Starbucks locations around the globe gave consumers who brought in reusable mugs a free Tall coffee.
The company's incentive for reusable mugs isn't just on account of this year's Earth Day, celebrated tomorrow. Starbucks has been giving customers who bring in a reusable travel mug a ten cent discount since 1985; the company is passionate about fulfilling their environmental stewardship as they remain focused on reaching their long-term goal of 100% reusable or recyclable cups by 2015.
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