Jap2Scrap

I've just bought a 500ml 'Orange Juice drink from JP Juices' under the fairtrade banner. Usually I'd settle for a coke or similar but as they only had Lilt I thought what the hell and went for the OJ.

£1.40!!!!! for 500ml... Jesus, no wonder it makes sure that local suppliers get a fair cut! It goes no way to reappropriating the profits in a fair way, it just whacks a load extra on top for the farmers.

Oh and it wasn't particularly nice anyway, reconstituted long-life stuff...

Anyone regularly buy fairtrade produce to 'do their bit' for the overseas farmers and is it all priced thus?

Ubik

I buy the tea, no idea what it costs TBH.

King RA

I bought a fairtrade melon once. Looked bigger than the normal ones.

King RA

...on second thoughts it was a mango

Belmondo

Agree with that 100%. When you see the wholesale price of stuff like chocolate it would be very possible to double the suppliers rate (which I doubt these 'fair trade' idiots do) sell it for the same as the competitors, make slightly less profit and everyones happy. But no! They play the fair trade (better than you) card and increase the price by at least 30%. Most of them are cynical ******* out to maximise their own profit.

Ubik

Unlike Tesco's or any of the other supermarkets out there. I supply the supermarkets, I know what a bunch of ***** they really are. Believe me - pretty damn nasty to their suppliers!

People selling Fairtrade products have running costs too, the difference is that they fufill their aim of returning a greater share of the money to the supplier overseas. If you find the extra expense offensive then don't buy the stuff. (I can't comment if its more expensive or not as I don't tend to look)

Not been able to find figures on the UK site, they must be buried somewhere but I dont have time to find them yet.

http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/about_sales.htm

Theres a brief run down an American site though.

http://www.fairtradefederation.com/ab_facts.html

richardg

there was a suggestion this afternoon in our office that we ditch lavazza, nescafe gold blend, whoever makes the tea and whoever makes the earl grey tea in favour of fair trade stuff - apparently there will be a taste test next week at some point and we will be asked to comment...

Ubik

Sounds like my ideal day....drinking tea. Mind you sleeping might be a problem with all that caffene!

richardg

we have reclining chairs

Turbohot

Tell you what, the day supermarkets start buying more off the Fair Trade producers rather than subsidised farmers and big shot exploiting companies like Del Monte,Kraft,Nescafe etc, the fair trade goods prices will drop.At the moment its not happening but some thoughtful people are still buying fair trade-if not everything,at least something,Just to make a difference.There are some other thoughtful people who are constantly putting pressure on the government and supermarkets to buy more and more fair Trade products from the producers and sell them.

Fair trade is food for thought.You need to think about your pocket too but always remember those people who are toiling bl@@dy hard to produce food products for you,are far worse off.So,even if once in a while you could buy something fairly traded,you will make a difference!
Not just in third world but also help your own butchers and milkmen who have been beaten by the supermarkets.

Matt P

We buy pretty much exclusively Fair Trade and organic produce. Our food bill did not rise dramatically (less than 10%) when we made the switch, partly because in researching the subject a realisation dawned that we didn't actually need to eat probably 25% of what we did. The food quality is better, we eat less and more healthily, and if you can do the research that we did and live with yourself for buying the mass-produced, inhumanely (in terms of people and planet) tat that most of the country buy then carry right on.

Just remember if something seems cheap, somebody somewhere is paying for it.

BTW, we're not tree-huggers by any stretch of the imagination. I do drive a scooby after all...

Turbohot

So do i!

Jap2Scrap

I applaud your motives, I really do, but based on the few products we have available to us at work I struggle to see how your bill only rose by 10% unless it was completely due to you chopping 25% off of your total amount. Snack bars (like nutrigrain type things) are 60p rather than 40p, drinks (as I found today) are £1.40 rather than an average 90p/£1 and the Fairtrade bananas are 70p each! My original post doesn't bemoan the objective of Fairtrade produce, rather the way the objective is achieved. There should be legislation in place making sure that the profit sharing on imported goods reflects the costs of the producer as well as the importer, rather than a big name company (and JP are big in juices) just adding extra on to pass back preying on the bleeding hearts with a conscience and spare money (or the willingness to cut back their food intake).

Also I'm not sure you can justify "The food quality is better, .......... and more healthily." The orange juice I had today was not pure, it was made from concentrates and was of lesser quality and poorer taste than many mass-produced juices.

OTOH I'm all for it in principle.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

I was swayed by the idea of Fair Trade, so bought some coffee.

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought Fair Trade was to give MORE to the farmers etc, by CUTTING OUT THE MIDDLE MAN?

My coffee was dearer, and not as good as Douwe Egberts or Carte Noir.

I'm damned if I'll pay MORE for less quality!

TBH, the people marketing this stuff are on a loser if they think they are going to get Thatcher's generation to buy, or even to TRY their stuff, without offering an incentive. it needs to be a bit CHEAPER.

Alcazar