Cost of coffee.indd - RISC

Shoppers have welcomed the switch. Within six months of launch, Co-op brand chocolate,
all Fairtrade, was up by 21 per cent, while conventional, non-Fairtrade brands grew by just
three per cent, despite heavyweight advertising and promotional campaigns by the chocolate
manufacturers. Shoppers have switched allegiance to the extent that Fairtrade growth has outperformed
non-Fairtrade growth by a factor of seven.
If the same happens in coffee as is happening in chocolate, the roasters will have to sit up and
take notice.
roasting the roasters
As well as bringing grower and consumer benefits, the result of the Co-op initiative will be
to draw a sharp distinction on supermarket shelves between the Fairtrade brands (ours and
others) and the non-Fairtrade brands (those of the roasters).
This distinction will at first be most obvious on Co-op shelves, where one in four coffee
products will be Fairtrade, but we hope other retailers will follow our lead, because together we
can make a greater impact where it matters – at the point of consumer choice.
Advertising, in-store signage, merchandising and labelling will all draw shoppers’ attention to
the range of Fairtrade coffee on offer and the crisis affecting growers.
If enough consumers switch to Fairtrade, the roasters will no longer be able to ignore it
and hope it will go away. With one in four coffee products sold in the Co-op sourced under
Fairtrade, the roasters will no longer be able to dismiss Fairtrade as ‘niche’.
Instead they will be obliged to take their heads out of the sand and confront it.
Providing coffee with the independent guarantee of the FAIRTRADE Mark will show that they
really do care about the lot of their suppliers.
source: www.co-op.co.uk
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