Part I: Just Coffee signs on with new fair trade certification

This is Part I of a two part piece on Just Coffee's fair trade policies and certification. Part II is available here.

Top to bottom: Fairtrade International, Fair Trade USA, Small Producers' SymbolWhen Lisa Jacobson serves a cup of coffee at Mermaid Cafe, she completes the fair trade sequence. Farmers in Nicaragua harvested the coffee beans and negotiated a fair price with Just Coffee. Just Coffee then roasted the beans in its sky-blue Wilson Street warehouse and extended its fair trade coffee to local cafés, restaurants, and grocery stores.

But customers will not find the familiar Fair Trade USA logo on a till at Mermaid Cafe, because Just Coffee has rejected this leading third-party certifier in the United States for an alternative certification.

Last March, in search of something that gives small-scale producers more leverage, Just Coffee announced plans to partner with the Foundation of Organized Small Producers and adhere to their Small Producers’ Symbol certification program.

“Fair Trade’s been really good about showing farmers’ faces, but not very good about putting farmers’ voices out there. That’s what this is about – really getting farmers’ voices out there and giving them ownership,” said Matt Earley, co-founder of Just Coffee.

Fairtrade International, the umbrella organization for international certifiers, has been working to standardize fair trade standards since the 1980s. This year, however, the local extension of Fairtrade International (Fair Trade USA) split off, adding tension to an increasingly fractured fair trade system.

Just Coffee took this opportunity to partner with the only farmer-owned initiative available to American roasters. The move is a point of pride for Just Coffee, but it has left some competitors skeptical. In the U.S., the Small Producers’ Symbol does not yet have a trusted reputation like its predecessor, Fairtrade International.

The Small Producers’ Symbol may be new, but Just Coffee has been in business since 2001, when two Madison residents formed a friendship with coffee farmers in Chiapas, Mexico. These farmers were receiving 25 cents per pound for their coffee in the open market. The fair trade minimum price, established to secure farmers a livable wage, was nearly six times that amount. They needed a way to break into the international fair trade market – Earley and Mike Moon and were their guys.

“Madison was a great place to start a business because people already had a fair understanding of what fair trade was about,” said Earley. “We were quickly embraced.”

Just Coffee now purchases coffee beans from 15 farming cooperatives in 11 different countries and roasts them at its distribution center in Madison. All eight worker-owners and six employees at Just Coffee contribute to the decision-making process.

The roaster started out as a break-even venture and has since grown into a profitable local business, selling wholesale to buyers from coast to coast, with a concentration in the Midwest. In Wisconsin, 44 cafés and restaurants serve Just Coffee products and an additional 48 stores stock their shelves with its coffee. Madison is home to roughly half of these in-state locations.

To celebrate the launch of its new fair trade certification initiative with its Guatemalan CCDA coffee, Just Coffee hosted a discussion of the Small Producers’ Symbol program for community members on October 17th.  Just Coffee expects to be adding the new fair trade certification label to other coffee bags as more co-op partner farms sign up for certification through the Small Producers’ Symbol certification program. 

Familiar with Just Coffee’s fair trade practices, Sadie Schnitzler Scherchan, café manager of Madison Sourdough, explains their model to inquiring customers. “It’s important to the community – especially the Madison community – that we sell ethical and responsibly chosen products,” she said.

Where other Madison coffee vendors fall on the fair trade spectrum

Freshly harvested coffee, Photo credit: Just CoffeeFair trade certification is traditionally reserved for small, democratically run farming cooperatives, where the farmers own the land. This collective ownership helps ensure responsible labor practices are met and gives farmers leverage in negotiating beyond a fair trade minimum price for their product.

“Fair trade [includes] things beyond a minimum price, like … long term relationships, cooperative business practice, and community development,” said Earley. “This is where mainstream roasters cannot compete and where the depth of our relationships gives us a big advantage.”

Cooperative status grants small co-op coffee farms exclusive access to the popular fair trade market. Since splitting from the international group, however, Fair Trade USA chose to allow large estate farms into the fair trade market, a move many feel will open the fair trade system to abuse. 

Vicky Pauschert of Fairtrade International said, “Opening the Fairtrade system to plantations with large coffee volumes could threaten small producer organizations that cannot operate on the same scale.”

According to Fairtrade International’s reports, 70 percent of the world’s coffee comes from farmers who own less than 24 acres of land.

While many Midwestern fair trade coffee roasters have lost faith in Fair Trade USA, they have come up with varying certification alternatives. Mark Ballering, founder of Steep & Brew coffee company, chose to stick with the parent organization by working through Fairtrade Canada after Fair Trade USA broke ties with Fairtrade International

“At the end of the day, [Fairtrade International] is well run, well established, and works for everyone,” he said. “When there is [Fairtrade International] certification available, why do something different?”

Peace Coffee is taking a hybrid approach to fair trade certification, adding its own layer of online transparency to Fair Trade USA certification. Commenting on her competition, Peace Coffee representative Lee Wallace said all the tension surrounding Fair Trade USA can be distracting, but Just Coffee has stayed grounded in what is best for its farmers.

“We thought [Fair Trade USA] took this big business friendly approach that favored large roasters not doing very much – doing the minimum,” said Earley. “We wanted to change the coffee industry, and we wanted to change the way that business was done. In order to do that, we had to go out and educate people as to what we call a 100 percent fair trade model.”