Just Us Coffee: Small Business with a Conscience
Small businesses appear to be closer to their community roots and the hearts and minds of customers than their large corporate counterparts. Some of today’s small businesses take their philosophies even further by adopting a fair trade mission. While fair trade may have been a novel idea ten years ago, today it is becoming much more fashionable. In April the town of Wolfville decided to put its money where its mouth is by becoming Canada’s first fair trade town. Wolfville joins the ranks of just a handful of towns around the world by becoming fair trade certified.
A Nova Scotia leader in fair trade business is the Just Us Coffee Roasters Co-op in Grand Pre. Just Us is the first fair trade coffee roaster in Canada. The company distributes coffee, sugar, chocolate and tea, all of which are certified to be grown organically and to meet fair trade standards. Fair trade designations are also available for the production and sale of rice, vanilla, flowers and fruit.
Fair trade advocates believe that large corporate interests are at odds with those of local small businesses and agricultural concerns, and that global trade agreements and business conditions lead to unhealthy workplaces and a distribution of income that favours wealthier nations and corporations. Local farmers and producers may see little income from their labour. In some cases, children are used slave labour. Fair trade focuses on allowing small business owners, many in poverty-stricken nations, to receive fair prices for their products, while ensuring that children are not exploited and workers receive fair wages. Financial assistance is often provided to local businesses so that they can afford to produce and market their products. Environmentally friendly production methods are also encouraged. Intermediaries may be eliminated, or shorter distribution channels used, to ensure that more of the profit goes to local producers.
Fair trade certification for North American products is available from Transfair USA and Transfair Canada, which are members of Fairtrade Labeling Organizations, based in Germany. The FLO manages a registry of fair trade producers and importers. Products must be traceable from production through the channel of distribution. The organizations provide qualifying products and towns with Fair Trade Certification labels and designations. This certification attests that workers receive fair wages, work in safe workplaces free of abuse and exploitation, and that environmentally friendly production practices are used. Fair trade seems to be a natural mix with the missions of many small and micro businesses, whose profit goals are tempered with the social obligation to engage in ethical investment and ethical business practices. However, fair trade products cost more than regular consumer goods, which leads some entrepreneurs to wonder if it is actually feasible to go the fair trade route.
The fair trade certification is growing in popularity and recognition worldwide. This growth is fed by a growing market of ethical consumers who are looking for ways to make the world a better place to live by directing their consumer dollars in appropriate ways to achieve such goals. Generations X and Y, the children of baby boomers, see the world differently than their parents and grandparents did. They have a global view of the world and their place in it. More of today’s young adults have achieved higher levels of education than those of previous generations, and technology has made the world into a smaller and more transparent place.
Today’s consumers are more likely to believe that they have control over their destiny, and that they have the ability to empower others to do the same through targeted economic support and sustainable development. Consumerism is changing in ways that focus more on the greater good than on shareholder wealth. This shift in philosophy brings with it market niches where the goals of small business are twofold: to meet consumers’ needs while also making a contribution to the greater good. Fair trade fits well with the philosophy of these emerging target markets. Fair trade certification is growing in reputation and recognition worldwide. In nations where it is better established, certification has become a sought-after label for both producers and consumers. Wolfville made the decision on moral and ethical grounds to become a fair trade town. This move required considerable political and economic leadership. Small businesses are in an excellent position to carry the fair trade mandate forward and to target market niches of ethical consumers.
(Used with the permission of Karen Blotnicky. This article appeared in the Chronicle Herald on November 18, 2007. Karen Blotnicky is president of TMC The Marketing Clinic and a professor at Mount Saint Vincent University) |
