Fair Trade Premium: Yes or No?

I have yet to go out of my way to purchase fair trade tea in a grocery store, or any major chain for that matter. I have however gone out of my way (and paid a premium) to purchase directly from, and support smaller tea companies that work with the farmers to ensure what (in my head) is actually fairly traded tea and related commodities.

A premium on a branded tea? No

The farmer should be paid a fair price and the buyer should be forced to do that before selling it to us. Now as many largs companies pay them the bare minimum then they create this choice for us to pay more to ensure the farmer gets a reasonable price which they should be getting anyway.

We as consumers then feel involved morally and believe we should pay that bit extra so we are subsidizing those companies to allow them to pay as little as possible.

I like to buy from small independent companies or tea merchants where possible.

If the brand sells fair trade while also selling a lot of products that are knowingly unethically sourced, I’d be pretty dubious. Either the company is doing the right thing (or trying to) or not, doing the right thing with 0.2% of their product whilst knowingly doing the wrong thing with 99.8% is a huge cop out and something that I find pretty insulting. If I find out that a brand is particularly bad when it comes to worker’s conditions or wages I’ll boycott them completely.

I also agree that not all fair trade marked products are really doing what they claim. I’d also argue that a lot of products that don’t carry the marketing are doing a lot for the communities involved in their production but as end consumers it is often invisible to us. It isn’t so black and white.

JustJames, thanks for sharing this information. This is a touchy topic that I have dedicated my work as a food scientist/international development worker. I have lived in rural farming communities in Africa, Caribbean, and Japan and have learned that the Fair Trade system is broken as are other certification systems like USDA Organic. I have started a company that is dedicated to transparency in the tea industry where the consumer (www.tealet.com). We pay the prices the farmers ask, no negotiations. Unfortunately when you purchase is high quality small batches costs are REALLY high. It is impossible for retailers to compete with the rest of the tea market because their prices must be at least 3x in order to be profitable.
On a positive note, my company has resonated with a segment of the market that understands this and is willing to pay the higher prices.
It’s a win-win, the growers get paid a better price and the consumer gets better quality tea. The market is changing and it won’t be long until more transparency will be demanded and consumers will change their perspective of what percentage of their income they will spend on sustainable products.