The Challenges of Marketing Fair Trade - Wynne, Sandy

No one can argue that Fair Trade imports, especially coffee, are experiencing
strong growth with the introduction of large scale players. There is opposition, though, to
“TFUSA’s market-led approach and the increasing role of plantations and dominant
corporations in Fair Trade” (Raynolds et al. 2007, p.64). The Fair Trade movement, from
the beginning, has focused on helping the small scale farmers, not plantations. The
definition of small scale references farms with no hired help, only family members. The
inclusion of plantations, for some, means TFUSA is selling out the Fair Trade movement.
While increasing sales for Fair Trade certified products is an objective of the Fair
Trade movement, it is not the only objective. Other objectives include influencing
corporate practices to be more socially responsible and pressuring international trade
policies to distribute benefits more equitably to the poor in the developing world. Rather
than offering an alternative to what Karl Marx referred to as “the commodity fetishism of
commercial retail” by exposing the supply chain of commodities, TFUSA’s concentration
of collaboration with MNCs may dilute the other long term goals of the Fair Trade
movement (Low 2006 and Fridell 2007 p.4). This emphasis on sales at the expense of an
advocacy role is also selling out for some activists.
Although TFUSA has created a business model to dramatically increase sales
with the entry in mainstream channels, there is little evidence to show that TFUSA’s
model is changing corporate practices or influencing trade policies. Wal-Mart now sells a
Fair Trade coffee but is still about low cost goods. Starbucks sells Fair Trade coffee but
only one, and that happened only with strong public pressure. Starbucks does not
promote or advertise its only Fair Trade Certified coffee, Café Estima Blend. While
both Dunkin Donuts (nationwide) and McDonald’s (in the Northeast) sell a Fair Trade
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