Fair-trade goods gaining attention

Sarah Scarborough says fair trade shouldn't be on the fringe any more. Phil Walter / Getty Images

Now her fair-trade coffees and teas are stocked in 1500 supermarkets across Australasia, Sarah Scarborough is proving business can "do well by doing good".

The Finnish American, 30, is forging a new path for fair trade in mainstream commerce with her Scarborough Fair range, set to expand into chocolate this year.

And coming to New Zealand two years ago was where it all began because, by teaming up with local food marketing company Lighthouse Ventures, she has transformed her one-woman tea business run from a basement in Alaska to what she hopes will be a global brand dedicated to fair-trade products.

Now, Scarborough feels as though her whole life path has converged in the young company.

An interest in sustainability since her teens led her to complete a bachelors degree in sustainable agriculture before moving into her first job managing a 0.8ha certified organic farm in California.

While many of her friends were taking jobs in the corporate world, Scarborough decided she wanted to travel and see different cultures.

That led her to visit spice growers in Costa Rica, coffee farmers in Panama and tea pickers in Sri Lanka. where she saw first hand the positive impacts of fair-trade certification on tea and coffee growing communities in the Third World.

"It guarantees them a better deal," she said. And better healthcare, education and so on flow from that.

The company had its origins at her home town in Montana in 2002 when, while working in a Nepalese tea house, Scarborough started making home-brewed chai and started packaging the dried teas to sell to cafes and natural-food stores.

That concept grew into Fair Trade Teas, a business dedicated to promoting fair-trade initiatives world-wide.

Although it wasn't profitable she knew she was on to something.

"Fair Trade Teas was a big dream, but I didn't have the A to Z to get there."

The people who did were Parnell-based Lighthouse Ventures which, after seeing her website, invited Scarborough out to New Zealand where she spent a month researching fair trade.

Lighthouse - former Woolworths New Zealand chief executive Andrew Davidson, Bruce Patton, who helped establish the Progressive Enterprise house brand Signature Range, and former Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand chief Mike Hutcheson - are now the main shareholders.

Since launching in May, Scarborough Fair coffee and teas are stocked on the shelves of 1500 supermarkets across Australasia. Locally, these include Progressive Enterprises' Foodtown, Countdown and Woolworths supermarkets.

Scarborough knew high volumes would be the key to the brand making a difference and, therefore, the products had to be mainstream.

Relying on people's altruism was not enough - taste, quality and affordability were important.

The tea retails for $3.99 for a box of 50 wrapped teabags. Keeping it affordable means the company takes a lower margin and Scarborough argues that no other brand is 100 per cent dedicated to fair trade at a mainstream price.

Scarborough is betting the same consumer appetite that has seen fair-trade goods taken under the wing of American and British companies such as Wal-Mart, Tesco and Sainsbury's will drive similar growth to that seen internationally - about 50 per cent year-on-year - for fair-trade products here.

Fair-trade brands account for 15 per cent of the roast and ground coffee market in the UK.

Here, Scarborough is aiming to capture at least a 5 per cent slice of Australasia's $1.1 billion tea and coffee market within three to five years.

"Fair trade needs to happen. It doesn't need to be on the fringe any more or something that's scary. It's just smart business."

Developing the company has been a huge learning curve and Scarborough realises it takes more than good intentions to change things and her dream needed to be based on a solid business structure.

"Private business is the most powerful instigator of change that I have found. Governments don't have as much control or power as businesses do."

It is intended the Scarborough Fair brand will be an umbrella brand for many other products.

A range of chocolate will be launched next, which Scarborough hopes will be made here along with the coffee, and there are also plans to extend the green-tea range.

Lighthouse is taking care of the nuts and bolts of the business and so Scarborough, as the face of the brand, has been free to travel and cultivate relationships with the growers. The next step is breaking into new export markets such as Asia and the US.