Recently many people go to a café to chat with friends or spend their time. Considering the coffee and café boom, we might think coffee farmers’ incomes in developing countries would be increasing. However, it turned out that not even 1% of the coffee revenues returned to them, and the actual people making a profit are big coffee shops which sell coffee to customers. While these cafés which have an unfair profit structure are overflowing, the cafés which sell coffee at fair prices are being built. They are fair trade cafés. -Ed.
 

 
Fair trade coffee is kind
   A fair trade café, as we can guess from its name, brews coffee with fair trade coffee beans and sells it.
   Most coffee beans are cultivated by the poor tenant farmers in developing countries. Large companies or middlemen make excessive profits by buying the coffee beans at low prices and selling them at higher prices to customers. That’s why the tenants are still poor and their workforces are exploited. In addition, the price of coffee is very sensitive to the situation of the coffee crops. Therefore, most poor coffee farms are in unfair subordinate relationships with large companies in developed countries, saying they are helping them, but actually they are investing for their procurement of coffee.
  Against this unfair structure, fair trade started in Europe, which was intended to trade coffee at fair prices and return the profit to the coffee farms. This was the start of fair trade coffee. The fair trade coffee appeared with the purpose to help coffee farmers by the direct trade between farmers and customers, the minimum support price and a long-term deal. Therefore, fair trade cafés sell the fair coffee, which was bought at a proper price from the farmers in developing countries, exiting the situation where not 1% of the coffee profit is returned to the farmers. Fair trade coffee is against exploiting children’s workforces and cultivating low-grade Robusta coffee, and they only deal in organic coffee.
   In 1988, when the price of coffee sharply fell, Max Havelaar, which is an organization that buys coffee beans with fair prices, was founded in the Netherlands. Max Havelaar has been recognized as the first fair trade coffee. In 1997, FLO(Fairtrade Labelling Organizations) was founded, and as fair trade mark system was implemented in 2002, strict fair trade between producers and sellers began in earnest. In Korea, ‘Beautiful Store’ released ‘A present from the Himalayas’ in 2012, which was the first case of fair trade coffee, and ‘Beautiful Cafe’ which belongs to ‘Beautiful Store’ was the first fair trade café.
 
Fair trade cafés are different
   “It was not that long ago when fair trades started and fair trade cafés appeared in Korea. That’s why many people don’t seem like they visit the café just because the café uses fair trade coffee beans, except for some customers who are interested in fair trade. They visit fair trade cafés because they just want to go to a café,” said Park Mi-sung, the director of the fair trade café Tripti. However, as the societal concern about fair trade is increasing, the rate of customers who visit fair trade cafés is also increasing though the rate is low. In addition, once a customer visits a fair trade care, the customer keeps visiting there. It suggests that fair trade cafés are attractive in a different way from normal cafés.
   Yun Hyo-sik(27, Incheon), who visits fair trade cafés often these days, talked about what made him like fair trade cafés, “Recently, I visited fair trade cafés on business. However, I also was interested in fair trade and wanted to visit fair trade cafés. Fair trade cafés, which provide fair prices to farmers, are heart-warming just by their existence. In addition, fair trade coffee is cheap compared to other brand coffees although people expect fair trade coffee is more expensive than others. Americano starts from 1,800 won or 2,000 won at fair trade cafés, while it costs 3,900 won on average at franchised cafés. Other kinds of coffee at fair trade cafés also cost from 2,500 won to 3,900 won, which is also cheap. I like the taste there more than that of other normal cafés, and the quality is better.”
 
The future of fair trade cafés would be bright if you change your mind
   Fair trade coffee farmers attain more profits than other normal coffee farmers, but they also pay many production costs. For instance, it takes management fees, inspection expenses, certification fees and many other fees to produce organic crops. Therefore, fair trade cafés may not be helpful for coffee farmers’ living in developing countries because there are many more requirements and it takes much time to produce coffee beans.
   Park Mi-sung talked about the reality of fair trade, “We think from our points of view. Buying cars, making roads and building houses might not mean happiness for them. Korean people judge and decide way too quickly. Fair trade started not so long ago. We have to take time and think of what happiness is for them and what the differences are between their cultures and environments and ours. After that, we can understand that we are not helping them but working with them together. We shouldn’t think that we are helping them because we drink fair trade coffee. If we are full of the feeling of superiority over them, fair trade can’t be successful. We should think that we are moving on with them. Growing up together is right. If we think in another way, we should thank them because they are helping us by providing healthy coffee. However, we rarely think in this way. We always think we are helping them by buying their coffee. I think that’s why some people say the future of fair trade is dark. If we change our minds and attitudes, the future of the fair trade cafés will become bright.”  
   Because it hasn’t been long since free trade cafés appeared in Korea, it’s way too early to determine what the cafés are and what their futures will be. Instead of judging and determining about them, we should keep in mind that we are developing with people in developing countries and have the culture of fair trade cafés established in Korea.
 

By Seo Hwan-hui

hh32@cbnu.ac.kr