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To me the main issue is that it forces a middle men and auditor in all parts of the business, when nowadays we can get away with smaller structures and independ

To me the main issue is that it forces a middle men and auditor in all parts of the business, when nowadays we can get away with smaller structures and independent producers directly accessing end(ish)-consumers. For coffee, that can mean an Colombian farm directly making a deal with a small London roaster. It was unrealistic 20~30 years ago, but this kind of match making is doable now, and a farm that gets access to the market in that way won't bother to pay and keep intricates records of absolutely everything they do for a third party organization that brings to them nothing to the table. Another example of this is producers using the Fair Trade label to pass the lower quality goods at a guaranteed price ,and in parallel negociate higher prices for the more luxurious goods [0]. In that example the producer wins so I'd see it as a decent situation, but the brand perception getting hit might be problematic long term. All in all, I think there's a movement to provide the transparency at the small scale level: a coffee roaster can showcase which independents farm makes their specialty coffee, and the farm negociate deals against a small set of small roasters instead of a giant conglomerate or the whole international market, making it more balanced as they can come up with a decent arrangement that benefits both. That will never work for Starbucks or Nespresso, but for specialty coffee it seems to be a good model. [0] https://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_problem_with_fair_trade_coffee https://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_problem_with_fair_trade_...

h0l0cube 2y ago
That alternative sounds great, I just couldn't trust it without third-party audits. If Fairtrade International transitions to being plainly an auditing company rather than a facilitator, that's fine, as long as a standard is maintained and verified, and the mark continues to mean tangible human rights improvements. I get this is hard to do at scale, but it comes down to whatever is the least worst option. There's a similar issue with free range eggs. At enough scale it becomes harder to verify that indeed the chickens are being kept in humane conditions. But at least for domestic production there can be some legal ramifications depending on the governments advertising/trade laws, and it's much easier for whistleblowers and activists to counter attempts at deception.

h0l0cube 2y ago

That alternative sounds great, I just couldn't trust it without third-party audits. If Fairtrade International transitions to being plainly an auditing company rather than a facilitator, that's fine, as long as a standard is maintained and verified, and the mark continues to mean tangible human rights improvements. I get this is hard to do at scale, but it comes down to whatever is the least worst option. There's a similar issue with free range eggs. At enough scale it becomes harder to verify that indeed the chickens are being kept in humane conditions. But at least for domestic production there can be some legal ramifications depending on the governments advertising/trade laws, and it's much easier for whistleblowers and activists to counter attempts at deception.