BY MICHAEL BURKE
Journal Times
Monday, December 24, 2007 8:44 PM CST

RACINE COUNTY — There was a time in America when buying coffee was simple. It came in a big can at the grocery store, you made it in a percolator, or you found it sitting on a burner at the gas station.

And it tasted terrible — at least by today’s standards.

Then along came a little company in Seattle called Starbucks, and the coffee world began to change.

“I don’t think the specialty coffee industry would be as strong as it is if not for Starbucks,” said Scott Kee, purchasing and distribution manager for Minneapolis-based Dunn Bros. Coffee. “Being in the Midwest, we say they’re the snowplow. They’re taking this basic beverage that started to catch on after World War II. They said, ‘There’s a better beverage ... and you will love it.’ ”

Some feel there’s a way to take the “better beverage” — specialty coffee — and make it even more distinctive. Fair Trade labels appear on some coffee brands to certify that coffee growers were paid adequately for their product. It also guarantees the crop was grown sustainably and safely for those involved.

Fair Trade requires a company to sign a legal agreement with Transfair USA, said Ward Fowler, one of the owners of Milwaukee-based Alterra Coffee Roasters. By paying a few cents more per pound, the license holder gets to use the Fair Trade mark.

Those extra pennies pay Transfair to track and vouch for the chain of custody of the coffee from grower to customer.

“The feeling is ... the smart consumer would want some objective measure that it was fairly traded,” much like the certified-organic label, Fowler explained.

Base price

The Fair Trade label sets a minimum price for the grower of $1.26 per pound. With the devalued U.S. dollar, that will be raised next year to $1.35 for Fair Trade and $1.55 for Fair Trade organic, Kee said.

Fair Trade certification has existed since 1946, said Carmen Iezzi, executive director of Washington, D.C.-based Fair Trade Federation.

“Fair Trade coffee in particular has certainly risen in the national consciousness,” Iezzi said.

She noted that the Fair Trade label can be, and is, applied to more products than just coffee, including chocolate, rice, wine, tea and sugar. Coffee is the largest Fair Trade commodity, however. It is the second-largest global commodity, after oil.

According to the Specialty Coffee Association of America, specialty coffee — as opposed to commercial grade — now makes up about 15 percent of all coffee by volume, or pounds sold. Because it costs more than commercial grade, it brings about 30 percent in total coffee revenues. Fair Trade coffees constitute about 5 percent of all coffee in volume.

The percentage is much higher for Alterra, about 40 percent, Fowler said. But he said that, even with the non-Fair Trade coffees, Alterra has a “high level of confidence” that they’re sustainably grown and the farmers are well-paid.

It turns out that, with coffees, the old saying “You get what you pay for,” is usually true.

Specialty, Fair Trade Similar

“If you buy (the best) of the specialty-coffee market, that is in somewhat short supply and relatively high demand,” Fowler said. “I think there is a connection between how much is paid for the coffee and how much money goes to the grower.”

“Fair Trade is a good thing, but not Fair Trade doesn’t necessarily mean bad,” said Neal Wilson, coffee roaster at Wilson’s Coffee & Tea, 3306 Washington Ave. in Racine.

All farmers who sell to specialty coffee buyers compete first on quality, he said. “Fair Trade does very well lately, but it’s not a quality component. So we think it makes more sense to pay a premium price to the growers.”

Wilson said the coffee house usually pays well over the Fair Trade floor price.

A coffee expert would only pay high prices for excellent coffee — and all the best is grown at high elevations, usually above 5,000 feet above sea level.

At those elevations, the farms are small, the methods almost always organic, and the labor careful and by hand, the coffee experts say.

Wilson said pesticides are not good for coffee trees, and the best growers shun them.

Chuck Allison, senior manager and roast master at Dunn Bros. Coffee, 245 Main St., said the coffee shop usually carries about five Fair Trade coffees among a dozen it sells. The reason is pretty simple.

“Because we look for quality standards that meet certain levels,” Allison said. “Fair Trade coffees deliver that standard all the time.”

Like Wilson, he said that Dunn Bros. usually — or possibly always — buys its coffees for at least the Fair Trade price.

And many customers ask for Fair Trade coffee, Allison said. “We can give them what they want.”

Mocha Lisa, 2825 4 1/2 Mile Road, has been offering Fair Trade coffees since the shop opened, said owner Susan Kennedy-Torine. She said she sells all coffee for the same price, $9.95 per pound regardless of her cost.

“I just make less on the organics than a regular coffee.”

Kennedy-Torine doesn’t have the sense that many Racine area people are yet “onto” Fair Trade, but she offers it anyway.

“I’m a people person,” she said. “I am helping the growers by purchasing their product. It makes me feel good to know that I’m giving back down the line.”

How Fair Trade Works

Here is how the Fair Trade Federation explains it.

Fair Trade is a system of exchange that seeks to create greater equity and partnership in the international trading system by:

Providing fair wages in the local context.

Supporting safe, healthy, and participatory workplaces.

Supplying financial and technical support to build capacity.

Ensuring environmental sustainability.

Respecting cultural identity.

Offering public accountability and transparency.

Building direct and long-term relationships.

Educating consumers.

Fair Trade Federation members foster partnerships with producers, because they know these connections are a highly effective way to help producers help themselves.