Nestle launches Fairtrade coffee

Britain's most boycotted company, Nestle, is to try to claim the moral high ground in the battle for "ethical shopping" by becoming the first multi-national to launch a Fairtrade coffee.

In a controversial link-up with the Fairtrade Foundation, the Swiss food giant announced it will become the first of the big four coffee roasters to agree a "fair price" for farmers thrown into poverty by a glut of coffee on international markets.

The move by Nestle, the world's biggest food and drink company, has caused a row among aid and trade workers over whether multi-nationals with controversial records should be given the "Fairtrade" seal of approval.

Under Fairtrade rules, farmers and growers of everything from tea to pineapples are paid a "fair price" guaranteed higher than that paid on the world markets.

But despite Nestle's adoption of Fairtrade, the company will still buy almost all of its coffee at the prevailing, low world price.

The price of coffee has slumped so much in the past six years that the 25 million coffee smallholders around the world are on the edge of survival, many too poor to afford medicine or to send their children to school.

An independent poll last month showed Nestle is the most boycotted product in Britain because of its globally criticised "aggressive" marketing of baby milk in Africa.

Campaigners and charities claimed yesterday that the company was seeking to present itself to increasingly informed consumers in a better light and to manoeuvre itself into the booming Fairtrade market.

Partners' Blend will sell for £2.69 ($6.83) a 100g tin, £40p ($1) more than Nescafe Gold Blend.

Consumers wondering whether to buy it will become participants in the growing politicisation of shopping.

Do they buy Fairtrade bananas that give the farmers a better deal or organic bananas that are better for the environment and for themselves, or do they buy the cheapest supermarket bananas that are priced low to take custom from smaller shops?

Then there is the issue of "food miles" - the harmful air pollution generated by jets flying in fresh produce from across the globe to feed the all-year-round demand for out-of-season fruit and vegetables.

The arabica beans for Partners' Blend will come from five co-operatives of small farmers in El Salvador and Ethiopia.

Instead of receiving the market price of about 25p a kg, they will get 33p a kg - though that is still only a tiny fraction of the shop price.

Patti Rundall, from Baby Milk Action, which co-ordinates the international Nestle boycott, damned Fairtrade for agreeing to the deal.

"To give a Fairtrade mark to a company whose baby food trade systematically violates child rights on such a massive scale, makes an absolute mockery of what the public believes the mark stands for."

- INDEPENDENT