ZIN-member Thomas Dietz investigates the effectiveness of voluntary sustainability standards in the coffee industry as part of the research project TRANSSUSTAIN. Now he explains some results of the project in the article “Fairtrade? Bio? Für viele Kaffeebauern sind die Siegel ein Unglück” by Marius Hasenheit, which was published on 13th August 2018 in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

The article highlights the situation of coffee farms, which are currently forced to go into debt or abandon their farms due to the low world market price of coffee beans. In order to improve working and wage conditions, some farmers found local initiatives or cooperations and sell the coffee directly to the European gastronomy thereby avoiding the market price. However, direct access can only come from personal contacts, which is why these local initiatives are rare in the global coffee industry. Another way to earn more money from coffee production is to certify the coffee as fulfilling ecological or social standards.

However, Thomas Dietz is “skeptical, whether standards can help to advance sustainability and food supply.” (FAZ, 13. 08. 2018, edition 186); own translation) The examination of both certified and conventional coffee farms in Honduras, Colombia and Costa Rica has shown that mostly sustainably producing farms are certified and the conversion of conventional coffee farms is not promoted. In addition, certified coffee is sold at higher prices, but the reduced use of pesticides and their biological alternatives cause crop failures and low harvests. Dietz also criticizes that the control by the cooperatives is not very effective and violations of their requirements would not be adequately punished. He rather calls for “more regulations by governments, more money from industry and pressure from civil society” (ibid.; own translation) to transform the coffee sector sustainably and to improve the situation of farmers.

Source: Marius Hasenheit (2018): “Fairtradae? Bio? Für viele Kaffeebauern sind die Siegel ein Unglück”, IN: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, edition 186, S. 22.