The Future of Fair Trade is Hazy
Fair Trade Discussion at Santropol Coffee
For the last few days I was in Montreal. While I was there I visited our coffee roasting friends at Santropol Coffee. They have a relatively small coffee roasting operation, but are doing phenomenal work in their community. While I was there meeting with James Solkin (Director of Business Development)we spoke about many topics, but for the most part it was about the upcoming year and the world of Fair Trade.
Future of Fair Trade
Currently, the standard of Fair Trade is being questioned. In many ways, the Fair Trade world is going to be split down the middle. I don’t want to go into too much detail, but James at Santropol Coffee mentioned a great article. It is a snapshot of the Fair Trade world today and a look to its future. Merling Preza who is president of CLAC/Small Producers Symbol (www.tusimbolo.org) and a key member of PRODECOOP, Nicaragua, is quoted in this article. Fair Trade Proving Anything But in Growing $6 Billion Market
Response from Fair Trade Canada
When we posted this on the Just Us! Coffee Facebook page, we received the following response from Fair Trade Canada:
“Just some quick notes to say (1) the Burkina Faso cotton story has been debunked, (2) the cocoa situation was mischaracterized, (3) same with the soccer balls. Also, Fairtrade International wrote a… strangely titled response to this article as well: http://www.fairtrade.net/
What do you think?