Martin Hill - Director of Commercial Relations, Fairtrade Foundation spoke at the European Coffee Symposium in Vienna on 9th October. He said, repeatedly, angrily and forcefully, that all the Fairtrade Premium was passed on to farmers at farm gate - not just to the cooperative exporter. This in spite of all the evidence that the cooperatives have high compliance costs, including paying inspection fees to Fairtrade, and that they may not recover any of this money. Certainly they cannot recover all of it.
He also said that Fairtrade helped farmers increase their yields and improve quality. How much would it cost to run a meaningful agricultural advisory service covering a million farmers scattered over 30 countries? Far more than the tiny amount Fairtrade claims to get to the Third World. And how would they pay for it if all the money goes, untouched, through to farm gate?
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