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Fair TradeMark Canada licences the use of the TransFair International seal in Canada to commercial suppliers of coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar and honey who meet TransFair's conditions for the purchase of these products.
This is a new initiative in Canada. However, in Europe, where the TransFair, Max Havelaar and Fairtrade Foundation labels have captured 1-5% of a number of national coffee markets, fair trade certification has multiplied sales of coffee from small farmers tenfold since their introduction in Holland in 1987. In 1995, fair trade sales of over 11,000 metric tonnes of green coffee beans were licensed through over 130 commercial roasters and importers. A significant part of these sales also took place through alternative trading organizations (ATOs) like Oxfam-Canada's Bridgehead Inc., while commercial roasters used their own working capital and market networks to put the fair trade label into 35,000 European supermarkets.
This significant expansion in fair trade sales has benefitted hundreds of thousands of small farmers belonging to over 300 coffee co-operatives on our international register of producers in Latin America and Africa.
As a not-for-profit company but not a charity, Fair TradeMark Canada has the following organizational members: the United Church of Canada, the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace, World Vision of Canada, the Canadian Autoworkers Social Justice Fund, the Steelworkers Humanity Fund, Inter Pares, CUSO, Horizons of Friendship and the Hunger Project in Canada.
Income will come from a licence fee on green bean sales and projections show that we could be self-financing on reaching about $10 million per year in sales, or around 1% of the Canadian coffee market.
Surveys show that 60-80% of consumers say they will pay a premium for environmentally friendly and fairly traded products. Actual experience in Europe shows that up to 5% of consumers will actually buy fairly traded products at a premium if three conditions are met:
To convince the coffee industry in Canada that a market exists for products with the TransFair label, we have joined the Coffee Association of Canada and have made licensing proposals to major Canadian supermarkets and coffee brands, as well as to a number of small to medium roasters and specialty coffee companies. Some have shown interest and have responded with further questions. One brand has said they do not believe enough consumers know about or would buy such a product. Several small roasters and cafes have indicated that they are very interested in taking a licence.
Up to 80% of consumers say they'll pay more for a "green" or fairly traded product. In practice, only 1-5% actually do when offered the opportunity. Our job is to help companies find this 5% and to expand this "niche" market.
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