Starbucks is the Largest Purchaser of Fair Trade Coffee

Full of rich bodied flavor and great respect for the farmers who grew it.

Café Estima is 100% Fair Trade Certified coffee. Its name means "respect", and its goal is to do good things for the farmers growing it. This is a full-bodied, well-balanced coffee with great versatility. From Latin America and East Africa, this coffee shows just how delicious it can be to turn beliefs into action.

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[crystalclarification]

But not ALL of your beans are Fair Trade. All the coffee you sell in Costco and a lot of the bags in your stores don't have the Fair Trade label, why? Without that label, I have to assume it is not fair trade. If I'm wrong, please point me in the direction that I can find more information about where you get your coffee from. Thanks.

[CariadSian]

During the video, did anyone else just see thousands of cups stacking up...the same way they do in garbage cans/ landfills around the world?

Right, they are recyclable...after about 80 years they begin to break down....

Hey Starbucks, why not encourage your consumers to bring their own reusable cups by giving them a 5 cent discount, a special recyclable punch card for a free drink after 20 or 50 punches if you wish, or how about a high five, or God knows what.

[MK7896]

Only six percent of all coffee beans Starbucks sells are Fair trade.

[Hannah Warren]

They are only the largest Fair Trade purchaser because they buy so much coffee worldwide! Don't be fooled into thinking Starbucks is this amazing company. I commend them on having ONE Fair Trade certified blend, but - oh wait! - they're discontinuing it. Thanks for nothing, Starbucks.

[Hannah Warren]

You're absolutely right - they only have ONE Fair Trade certified brand of coffee - the Cafe Estima. Which I have actually heard (from a Starbucks employee) that they are discontinuing. They have their own fair trade certification system, so why don't they just take the step and become ALL Fair Trade certified instead of only living up to the standards they want to??

[proletarian48]

Fuck Starbucks, Fuck World Trade, Fuck Capitalism! Happy World, Happy Planet!

[Alex Williams]

Yep. People can definitely agree with the ideals of Fairtrade, but it seems to fail in practice. After looking at the aggregate results of Fairtrade, it appears to me that it has done more harm than good. I would encourage everyone to look at the widespread results of Fairtrade and to look at the arguments against it (the article Unfair Trade by Marc Sidwell is a good place to start).

[Alex Williams]

Yes. I just wrote an ethics paper on Fairtrade coffee and was a bit surprised to discover how lousy Fairtrade has been in distributing aid to farmers. Most of the cases that I ran into demonstrated that "fair trade" farmers were no better if not worse off than regular coffee producers. At this point, the costs of meeting the Fairtrade standards appear to be too high for fair trade to actually be beneficial.

[billgatenbrad]

I don't believe it until I see it on the package and so far I haven't seen it on the package. I'm sure some of it is but not all of it.

[CariadSian]

That's wonderful - thanks for telling me - I have never once seen them advertise this fact.

[jieeeee]

Starbucks does give consumers who bring in their reusable cups a 10 cent discount.