Dublin's Independent Coffee Shops Have a Weird Relationship with Fair Trade

Ireland has a weird relationship with Fairtrade.

Despite having the second highest global awareness of the brand—which works to ensure producers in developing countries are paid fairly—and actually increasing Fairtrade spending by 15 percent between 2012 and 2013, the stats show that Ireland is still not replacing enough everyday items with Fairtrade ones.

Only 8 percent of bananas bought in Ireland are Fairtrade, compared to 35 percent in the UK and 60 percent in Switzerland. Sainsburys and other supermarkets in these countries have committed to stocking 100 percent Fairtrade bananas, while Tesco Ireland's Fairtrade banana sales only amount to 14 percent of the total, explaining the disparity in sales.

It's not like we don't believe in the ability to change the retail sector, either. In fact, 89 percent of Irish people think companies can reduce poverty in the way they do business, which ranks as the highest in the world.

"The companies with the greatest power to harness our spending power to help lift people out of poverty are the retailers," says Peter Gaynor, Executive Director at Fairtrade Ireland. "In Ireland, they seem either blissfully unaware or indifferent to both the opportunity and responsibility to do so."

The reluctance of Irish retailers to stock Fairtrade products may have something to do with the bad headlines it has received recently. In May last year, the SOAS, University of London released a report claiming that workers on Fairtrade farms were actually worse off than their non-Fairtrade counterparts, due in part to lower wages.

While Fairtrade disputed the report, stating that some of the farms reported as non-Fairtrade in the study had actually been certified since 2012, it was still a blow for the organisation's image.

Look at Fairtrade coffee—which amounts to 60 percent of all Irish Fairtrade purchases—and the situation gets even more confusing. From my experience searching for guilt-free coffee in Dublin, buying your non-exploitative latte isn't as simple as finding an indie coffee shop. While Dublin's homegrown coffee scene is booming, these independent cafes seem reluctant to back Fairtrade-certified beans.

"Our beans are not [Fairtrade] certified, but actually above and beyond any certified coffees. Our farmers are paid very, very generously for their work—far above the market rate. Any money that would be spent on Fairtrade certification is spent on reinvesting into the systems and equipment," says Fergus Brown, owner of Roasted Brown coffee shop in the Temple Bar area of Dublin. "All our coffee is high grown coffee, which means better soil, less pesticides, and a naturally organic growing environment. Again, money spent on organic certification is spent on better systems and practices."

No one can argue with Roasted Brown's commitment to organically-sourced coffee beans, but there's still no mention of Fairtrade.

It's hard to tell if Dublin's independent coffee shops are taking an ethical stand against Fairtrade or are, as Gaynor says, "blissfully unaware." Or maybe that friendly, beardy barista making your cappuccino just really doesn't give a fuck about ethical trading.

It's a similar case with other independent coffee shops, some of whom are hesitant to talk about Fairtrade. One cafe I spoke to said that they were "pretty sure" their beans were Fairtrade—they just didn't have the Fairtrade certification to prove it.

Wholesalers, Coffee Angel, who use a similar organic trading system to Roasted Brown to source their beans, say that "ethics and sustainability are crucial to the long-term survival of the specialty coffee industry" and stress that they buy according to taste, not ethics.

"Guilt-based marketing is not a path we wish to take," a representative told me. So basically, all Fairtrade coffee tastes like shit and you're a bleeding heart liberal for drinking it.

The retailer also seems to believe that if the coffee is good enough, the market will take care of income inequalities.

"Continuing education and evolution in consumer taste will ultimately lead to a trust and confidence when making future purchasing decisions," they continued. "That will benefit and sustain all."

You get the sense that because Dublin's independent retailers are doing things on a small scale, the public should intrinsically trust them and their moral judgments when it comes to ethical trading. The Fumbally, a "dog and child-friendly community cafe" in the city, said that while Fairtrade certifications are great, "I feel like they are more for large companies who need to prove that they are doing something right."

The idea that small companies don't need a certification to prove anything is echoed by Has Bean Coffee, the English roastery that supplies Dublin's 3fe coffee shop. They may assure us that the middle men used in the coffee supply process are "good people" and throw around lots of "good" and "nice" in their press releases, but there's no mention of Fairtrade certification.

Of course, it's unlikely that any of Dublin's independent coffee shops are evil-conglomerates-in-the-making out to exploit farmers, but what they do seem to be is naive about the situation. You can go to a farm, or buy beans at an auction and pay specialty prices, but without regulations and a base price, workers are still in perilous positions. Just because something is lux doesn't mean it's made ethically.

Fairtrade is not without its problems, but it seems foolish to assume that smaller companies would be any better at establishing ethical sourcing processes. Until coffee shops realise the solution is not as simple as everyone really liking fancy coffee, Fairtrade seems to be the best option.