Tea and Coffee Certification Schemes 

The Fairtrade standard is unique for its focus on pricing.

Volatile prices are very destructive for poor farmers, as it means they cannot know at the time of planting crops what the price will be at harvest, and they cannot insure themselves against risk, unlike bigger players. 

Fairtrade has a minimum price that must be paid when the market price falls below it, as a safety net. It also has a fixed premium that must be paid on top of the market price. The premium is to be spent on community projects and, in the case of cooperatives, how it is spent is supposed to be decided democratically.

A Fairtrade producer must also show that it is meeting certain social standards, such as working conditions that exceed legal minimum standards, and environmental standards including soil and water quality, managing pests, avoiding the use of harmful chemicals, managing waste, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and protecting biodiversity.

Rainforest Alliance is a different fair trade certification scheme.

Rainforest Alliance is focused on helping farmers grow their businesses and become more profitable and resilient through training in farm management, financial literacy, and market access. 

It doesn’t have any fixed pricing structures but does pay a premium, previously called a Sustainability Differential, over and above the market price, though its premium is much lower than the Fairtrade premium. However, training and auditing against higher standards, if it works, should naturally cause prices to rise, due to improvements in productivity and quality.

The Rainforest Alliance has also improved its environmental criteria to build climate resilience and protect ecosystem health. Certified farms must report on indicators such as number of shade trees, and amounts of fertiliser, water, fossil fuels, and electricity used.

However, in terms of tackling poverty, any scheme that relies on auditing rather than better pricing is on shaky ground. Many studies have cast doubt on how rigorous the policing of all these schemes really is. 

Fairtrade certification, with its minimum prices and higher premiums, is generally considered the stronger label.

Fair for Life launched in Switzerland in 2006. It has received praise for its comprehensive social and environmental requirements. It certifies the whole supply chain, so includes blenders and packers as well as farmers. 

It also certifies in developed countries, which Fairtrade does not.

And it is very transparent, publishing a summary of all of its assessments on its website.

However, it is like Rainforest Alliance in that it doesn’t have fixed prices. It does have a premium, but these are negotiated between buyer and seller. It says that the premium is at least 5% on top of the market price for non-organic, and at least 10% on top for organic.

For a crop to be marketed as organic in Europe, it must be grown using organic production methods according to European legislation, which prioritise techniques such as crop rotation, biological crop protection, green manuring, and composting, and it cannot use synthetic pesticides or fertilisers. The growing and processing sites are audited at least once a year.

The Soil Association standard does also contain a few lines on workers’ rights, saying that the employer should not use forced or child labour, although this isn’t the focus.
 

Bird Friendly

Bird Friendly is a certification created by the Smithsonian in the US, an institution created by the US government in the 19th century.

Bird Friendly coffees are organic and shade-grown, meaning the coffee is planted under a canopy of trees, rather than grown on full-sun monocultures which generally give higher yields but exert a heavy cost on biodiversity. 

For more on how shade-grown works, see our coffee guide.

Starbucks C.A.F.E.Practices

Starbucks has its own, in-house coffee label, called C.A.F.E. Practices (Coffee And Farmer Equity Practices). 

It is similar to Rainforest Alliance in that it just polices production, there is no price regulation, although it claims to pay premium prices for premium produce. 

The scheme has been criticised. In particular, slave labour has been found on Brazilian plantations certified to Starbucks’ C.A.F.E. Practices standards – with a lawsuit being filed against Starbucks just this year.

Ethical Consumer considers corporate, in-house certification schemes to generally be weaker than those run but independent third-party organisations. More companies opting for in-house schemes also confuses consumers and devalues the concept of certifications as a whole.

The Ethical Tea Partnership

The Ethical Tea Partnership (now called ETP) is an industry group that was set up in 1997. It used to work as a certification scheme and conduct audits, but it has, in recent years, shifted direction and instead says that it aims to “address the tea sector’s most pressing issues, under three interconnected themes: economics, equality and the environment." 

There are currently 38 members, which can be "any company that packs, trades, or retails tea".  

Current members include Booths, Finlays, Fortnum & Mason, Lavazza, Lidl, Sainsbury's, Starbucks, Tata (Tetley, Teapigs, and Good Earth), Taylors of Harrogate (Taylors, and Yorkshire Tea), Tesco, Twinings, Typhoo, Whittard, and Yogi.