It's Fair Trade Month- Join the Live Discussion
Oct 07, 2009
by Katie Seawell		   RSS

Hi!

My name is Katie Seawell, and I’m the director of marketing for Starbucks™ Shared Planet™.

Starbucks™ Shared Planet™ is our commitment to doing business in ways that are good to each other and the planet.

Coffee is a major global industry that involves more than 25 million people. As the largest roaster and retailer of specialty coffee, Starbucks believes we have a responsibility to treat farmers fairly, reduce our impact on the environment and be a good neighbor in the communities in which we operate.

This October we’re celebrating Fair Trade Month in the U.S. with one of our key partners, TransFair USA. Last year, Starbucks became the largest purchaser of Fair Trade Certified™ coffee in the world. This is a milestone we all can be proud of. But, the work has just begun. We are continuing to partner with Fair Trade to help identify even more areas where we can make a positive impact with the farmers who grow our coffee to help us make the best coffee we can.

To find out more, join a live discussion between Dub Hay, our senior vice president of coffee and tea, and Paul Rice, president and CEO of Transfair USA on Oct. 12th at 11 a.m. Pacific.

What questions do you have now? Tell us.

10 comments Social Responsibility


Melody
10/7/2009 4:59 PM

I have a question.

Hello Katie. My name is Melody and I spend A LOT of hours researching information about Starbucks for some profiles/sites that I maintain as a hobby.

In any event, I know that  Café Estima Blend coffee was launched by Starbucks on October 10, 2005.

www.starbucks.com/.../csrCoffee.asp

I'd like to know if Starbucks has anything special planned this upcoming October 10th to help commemorate this?

Thanks!

Suite2100
10/8/2009 2:20 PM

Without knowing more about the details of your supply chain it is hard to know what to ask. I suppose I would be curious about what the most negative+persistent problem you face to improve in the fair trade effort overall.

otherdiscovery
10/8/2009 5:29 PM

Hi Katie,

I am particularly interested in how Starbucks views their partnership arrangement  with FLO and  fairtrade.

In the spirit of "transparency, dialogue and respect",  I was wondering if you would be willing to share some details what you see as the purpose of your partnership with FLO and fairtrade, what expectations Starbucks have of FLO and fairtrade in your partnership and what expectations FLO and fairtrade have of Starbucks.

Thanks for your commitment!

Scott

@camspi
10/8/2009 9:57 PM

With the introduction of Fair Trade espresso is the UK, does Starbucks plan on expanding Fair Trade espresso to the US and other countries? If so, when?

What does Fair Trade think of Starbucks' Coffee And Farmer Equity (C.A.F.E.) Practices?

What needs to happen for Fair Trade practices to expand and become more relevant for not only Starbucks but the entire coffee industry?

abby0689
10/11/2009 7:40 PM

Hi Katie! It is great to see how Starbucks is doing their part to help our planet. The relationship with TransFair USA is a great start.

mguiste
10/12/2009 11:10 AM

It is live, right now...

www.ustream.tv/.../fair-trade-certified

@camspi...hope you are listening, they just answered your question.

@camspi
10/12/2009 2:40 PM

That's awesome! Thanks for having this dialogue.

Katie Seawell
10/15/2009 9:53 AM

Hi everyone- sorry for the delayed responses! Thank you all for your great questions!

Melody13-Starbucks did not plan anything special on Oct. 10th as it relates to Café Estima.   Our focus this month for celebrating our partnership with Fair Trade was to have a live, interactive dialogue between Dub Hay, senior vice president of coffee and tea, at Starbucks and Paul Rice, ceo and president, TransFair USA.   You can see it here.

__

Suite2100 - Historically one of the challenges we’ve had with Fair Trade is the quality of the coffee.  That said, over the past couple of years Fair Trade coffee farmers have made great strides in improving the quality of the coffee and that’s why you’re beginning to see Starbucks Coffee purchase more and more Fair Trade.  In FY 2009 we doubled our volume of Fair Trade coffee to 40 mm pounds.

Another key challenge is that Starbucks buys coffee from all over the world from different types of farms:  small farms, co-operatives and estates.   Our criteria is the highest quality of coffee that is ethically sourced and responsibly grown.  In Fair Trade’s current coffee system, only cooperatives are listed on the Fairtrade registry.  .   This is not true for other Fair Trade product like bananas.  If Fair Trade can open up the coffee category to medium  farmers and estates, it will open up more quality coffee that we can purchase.

__

otherdiscovery - Leaders from both organizations met in November of 2008.  At that time Howard Schultz stated that Fair Trade will be an integral part of the goal to achieve 100% ethically sourced coffee by 2015, and Rob Cameron stated that a partnership with Starbucks was a critical component of achieving the desired outcome of FLO’s recent strategic review—broadening the scope and deepening the impact of Fair Trade.  . While broad understanding of and buy-in to the ultimate goal of cooperation may take some time to develop, both organisations feel strongly that we share a common interest in improving the lives of coffee farmers and their communities.  

Fair Trade and Starbucks want to work together for a variety of reasons.  

The Fair Trade organizations recognize Starbucks’ genuine commitment to make positive impact in the developing world. In addition to paying small coffee farmers an above-market price for their coffee, Starbucks will fund community-elected programs and projects such as educational scholarships, medical clinics, basic infrastructure enhancements and quality improvement initiatives. In addition, by offering Fair Trade Certified™ coffee in thousands of stores, Starbucks is helping to raise consumer awareness of Fair Trade.  This, in turn, gives more small farmers in developing countries the opportunity to participate in the Fair Trade system and receive its benefits.

When a company big or small commits to Fair Trade Certified™, the Fair Trade mission is substantially furthered.  More consumers will be empowered to make ethical decisions about the products they purchase, and, most importantly more farmers will have the opportunity to lift themselves out of poverty through participation in the Fair Trade Certified™ system.  

__

@campsi - Yes.  We plan to launch Fair Trade Espresso in Europe, Middle East and Africain Spring ’10.  We do not currently have a hard date for converting US Espresso to Fair Trade.  

I won’t speak for Fair Trade directly.  However, in a live chat between Paul Rice, ceo and president of TransFair USA, and Dub Hay, senior vice president of tea and coffee at Starbucks, Paul stated that he thought C.A.F.E. Practices is forging new ground in terms of creating a comprehensive sustainability model for farmers that includes, quality, economic, social and environmental considerations.  See video here. ..

Fair Trade and Starbucks will continue to provide technical assistance to farmers to improve coffee quality.  Our hope is that Fair Trade will consider opening up its coffee system to include small farms that aren’t in cooperatives and larger estates.   This will open up more coffee volume that meets Starbucks quality standards.  

Katie Seawell
10/16/2009 11:03 AM

The rebroadcast of the live chat between Paul Rice, ceo and president of TransFair USA, and Dub Hay, senior vice president of tea and coffee at Starbucks is located at: www.ustream.tv/.../fair-trade-certified.

Suite2100
10/20/2009 11:03 AM

Katie -  thanks for addressing my questions. Your points make sense - and I would think that if anyone could influence FairTrade to open up beyond cooperatives Starbucks can. As a consumer I would rather see you work with a variety of types of Fair Trade folks both large and small. The quality issue I think Starbucks could also influence by sharing what your "best quality" producers do/know with "up and coming" producers that you would like to have on board.  


Sign In to make a comment.

Ideas so far

PRODUCT IDEAS

EXPERIENCE IDEAS

INVOLVEMENT IDEAS

Popular Tags

Archives

Subscribe to our RSS feed.Subscribe
to our RSS feed.