Starbucks and Fair Trade Coffee
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Q1: What ethical responses can Starbucks make?
In our opinion, Starbucks should accept the fair trade movement, because it has corporate social responsibility to help coffee growers to fight global poverty and increase their welfare. Since Starbucks success is linked to the outcome of thousands of farmers who grow the coffee and supply to Starbuck, therefore it has duty to help farmers improving coffee quality and to invest in loan programs for coffee-growing communities. It is not just the right thing to do so, but it aligns with Starbucks long-term goal. In addition, Starbucks should help to sustain coffee farmers and strengthen their communities; so that they can ensure a healthy supply of high-quality coffee for future. Thus, promoting Fair Trade Certified coffee is one of approaches to improve the lives of coffee farmers and their families. Moreover, Starbucks should continue its efforts with TransFair USA in helping coffee farmers and their families through support of CARE, Conservation International and other similar organizations. Apart from that, Starbucks should form a comprehensive strategy to support sustainable coffee production, so that it can achieve its goal of sourcing coffees of the highest quality that support a sustainable social, ecological and economic model for the production and trade of coffee.
Q2: Suppose you were representing TransFair USA, and someone suggest to you that you were in face an unnecessary middleman; how would you respond?
If I were representing TransFair USA, I will first explain to him or her that this organization is not held for profit. Instead, the main objective is to help the trade farmers and farm workers to cope with the poverty. In other word, it is the only organization providing independent, third-party certification of Fair Trade products that promotes mutually-beneficial relationships between farmers and coffee companies, and guarantees that farmers who produce Fair Trade Certified products have received a decent living wage. Besides that, Fair Trade Certified coffee empowers small-scale farmers organized in cooperatives to invest in their farms and communities, protect the environment and develop the business skills necessary to compete in the global marketplace. Although the organization collects some fee for certifying a fair trade product, but this income is used to cover expenditure in monitoring and licensing growers. Without this income, they could not carry out their duties appropriately; and it will limit the functions and expansion of organization in future. Moreover, the organization needs this income to pay its staffs, traveling, inspecting the operation and quality of coffee, preventing forced child labor, disseminating the latest information and other expenses which are related to the fair trade matters. So, they are not act as middleman whose main objective is to gain as much profit