Policy

24.09.2007

New Coffee Code on the Wrong Track

Fair trade organisations Gepa, dwp and El Puente and the organic agricultural association Naturland have criticisms to make of the 4C initiative

Wuppertal/Graefelfing/Ravensburg/Nordstemmen. A voluntary code of conduct, the Common Code for the Coffee Community (4C), which was presented last Friday is, in the eyes of Gepa – The Fair Trade Company, the fair trade organisations dwp and El Puente, (the import and wholesale organisations of the “Forum Fairer Handel”) and the organic agricultural association Naturland, not the right answer to the problems facing coffee growers. Low level standards are a marketing instrument employed by the coffee industry, for which involvement with 4C entails making no commitments at all towards the world’s coffee growers, estimated at 25 million. As the fair trade organisations and the Naturland Association see it, there is a danger that the consumer may be deceived as to its purpose, given the lack of evident distinction between 4C coffee and fair trade coffee. Moreover, coffee bearing reference to “4C” may partially be conventional coffee.