Kopi, Cooperatives, and Compliance: A Case Study of Fair Trade in Aceh, Indonesia

<p>A development initiative at its core, fair trade endeavors to provide better trading conditions for disadvantaged producers in the world market system, such as smallholder coffee farmers, who face a volatile market and prices that have yet to recover from a deep price crisis in the early 2000s. With the onset of labeling and certification, fair trade entered the mainstream by the late 1990s, and has continued to demonstrate strong growth in sales. Moreover, new producer organizations are becoming certified in an expanding number of countries, and fair trade coffee is expanding beyond its traditionally dominant productive center in Latin America. To explore how fair trade is established, and interacts with, new producer contexts, a case study was performed with five fair trade certified coffee cooperatives in Aceh, Indonesia, all of whom have gained certification within the last 10 years, was performed. This thesis sought to understand the particularities behind how fair trade reached Aceh, what factors influenced its implementation, and how coffee producers experience their participation in the fair trade movement. Further, particular attention was paid to the practice and formation of the cooperatives’ structures and policies; fair trade requires that coffee farmers are organized into democratically owned and governed cooperatives, an institution relatively unpracticed in Indonesia.</p>

Kopi, Cooperatives, and Compliance: A Case Study of Fair Trade in Aceh, Indonesia

<p>A development initiative at its core, fair trade endeavors to provide better trading conditions for disadvantaged producers in the world market system, such as smallholder coffee farmers, who face a volatile market and prices that have yet to recover from a deep price crisis in the early 2000s. With the onset of labeling and certification, fair trade entered the mainstream by the late 1990s, and has continued to demonstrate strong growth in sales. Moreover, new producer organizations are becoming certified in an expanding number of countries, and fair trade coffee is expanding beyond its traditionally dominant productive center in Latin America. To explore how fair trade is established, and interacts with, new producer contexts, a case study was performed with five fair trade certified coffee cooperatives in Aceh, Indonesia, all of whom have gained certification within the last 10 years, was performed. This thesis sought to understand the particularities behind how fair trade reached Aceh, what factors influenced its implementation, and how coffee producers experience their participation in the fair trade movement. Further, particular attention was paid to the practice and formation of the cooperatives’ structures and policies; fair trade requires that coffee farmers are organized into democratically owned and governed cooperatives, an institution relatively unpracticed in Indonesia.</p>

Reputation and Trust Within the Fair Trade Movement in Brazil

This article illustrates the trust relationships among the members of the Brazilian Association of Fairtrade Farmers Organizations (BRFair), which is a second-level network of coffee-producing cooperatives. Representatives of 19 cooperatives were interviewed in 2018 to verify their opinions about the other associations regarding several aspects. Through software specific for social network analysis, the direction and level of trust among the various cooperatives were measured. One cooperative is recognized as the most active and trustworthy, while the other ones are followers and perform peripheric roles. Several improvements are possible, including improvement in the performance of this second-level network and strengthening of its bargaining role with the other actors of the value chain.

THE INNOVATION OF THE FAIR TRADE MOVEMENT TO FOSTER SUSTAINABILITY AIMS

Grande parte da conscientização da sociedade em relação aos objetivos de desenvolvimento sustentável foi fomentada pelos programas das Nações Unidas (ONU), organizações não-governamentais e movimentos sociais que eles inspiraram. Dentro do fluxo de mudanças sociais ocorridas após a Segunda Guerra Mundial, a iniciativa de comércio justo inovou como movimento social, oferecendo um modelo de comércio internacional para fazer a diferença na vida dos produtores. As principais organizações de comércio justo trouxeram valores de responsabilidade social ao abordar metas como o alívio da pobreza; redução das desigualdades de mercado Norte-Sul; proteção do meio ambiente; condições justas de trabalho; promoção do consumo e produção responsáveis; e segurança alimentar. Atendendo a esses objetivos, o movimento de comércio justo pode ser alinhado aos Objetivos de Desenvolvimento Sustentável (ODS) estabelecidos pela ONU em 2015; e com as três dimensões da sustentabilidade. Essas sinergias podem ser demonstradas nos relatórios de responsabilidade social e sustentabilidade das organizações de comércio justo. Os materiais e métodos deste artigo incluíram uma revisão dos relatórios de responsabilidade social corporativa e sustentabilidade das principais organizações de comércio justo desde 2000 até a presente data. Os resultados mostram uma consistência entre os termos comuns aos objetivos relatados sobre o comércio justo e os ODS. Uma análise comparativa indica o espectro de tópicos de sustentabilidade abordados progressivamente pelo movimento de comércio justo desde pelo menos o ano 2000. Esta revisão pode contribuir para orientar políticas governamentais e empresas com foco social para promover metas de sustentabilidade por meio de inovações nos sistemas alimentares, contribuindo para uma agricultura sustentável e o desenvolvimento rural.

Violence for a Good Cause? The Role of Violent Tactics in West German Solidarity Campaigns for Better Working and Living Conditions in the Global South in the 1980s

Taking up Frank Trentmann's suggestion of ‘widening the historical frame’ in which we analyse the fair trade movement, this article explores the entangled history of violent and peaceful tactics in two transnational solidarity campaigns in West Germany the 1980s: the German anti-Apartheid movement and a campaign for women workers in a South Korean garment factory. Both campaigns had the aim to improve the living and working conditions of producers in the Global South and were characterised by a complex interplay of peaceful and militant tactics ranging from boycott calls to arson attacks and bombings. Although more research into the impact of violent protest is needed, the two case studies suggest that the use of violent protest tactics can contribute towards the success of protest movements if it attracts considerable media attention, the targeted companies face significant social and political pressure and the cumulative disruption costs clearly exceed the concession costs.

Consuming Anti-Consumerism: The German Fairtrade Movement and the Ambivalent Legacy of ‘1968’

The article explores the influence of ‘1968’ on the West German fair trade movement. It argues that 1968 constituted an ambivalent legacy for the perception of mass consumerism: while the 1960s student movement radically criticised modern consumer society, it also put new emphasis on consumer products as markers of individual identity. The article analyses this relationship by focusing on the design, representation and advertising of fair trade products by the German fair trade organation GEPA. The first two case studies examine the politicisation of fair trade products in its early campaigns in the 1970s and the subsequent attempts to use everyday products like coffee, tea and honey to educate consumers about their individual lifestyles. The third case study looks at the GEPA's first mail-order catalogues and asks how the GEPA tried to transform an icon of modern mass consumerism into a tool to communicate its fair trade approach.