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Fair Trade News An Added Ingredient: Social Change  (By Dayna Smith For The Washington Post) By Dave McIntyre
Wednesday, January 28, 2009;
Page F05
Vinophiles face a large number of choices and questions every time we buy a bottle of wine. Cabernet or merlot? Chardonnay: barrel fermented or unoaked? Imported or domestic? California or local? (Okay, maybe not that last choice, but I can wish, can't I?) Were the grapes farmed organically? What is the carbon footprint of this massive bottle? No wonder we spend so much time in wine stores. Add one more factor to consider: fair-trade certification. We've seen "fair trade certified" labels crop up on coffee, tea, chocolate and other agricultural products in the past few years as a feel-good reassurance that the developing-world workers who toiled to give us a more delicious way of life were paid a fair wage under reasonably tolerable working conditions. TransFair USA, the California-based nonprofit group that certifies fair-trade products for sale in the United States, is now bestowing the label on wines from Argentina and South Africa at selected retailers. Americans spent more than $1 billion on fair-trade-certified products in 2007, according to TransFair USA and the Fairtrade Labelling Organization (FLO), the German-based international body that certifies farms for fair-trade practices. TransFair USA says U.S. sales in the past eight years have returned more than $100 million in additional revenue to farmers around the world. Fair-trade certification is intended to ensure that the economic benefits of the world's growing thirst for wine are shared with vineyard workers. It's not Cesar Chavez-style activism, but it has similar goals, driven by consumers who are willing to seek out products carrying the certification. "The grocery cart is the most important vehicle for social change," said Anthony Marek, spokesman for TransFair USA. "After commuting to and from our jobs each day, most of us don't have time to attend a city council meeting or write a letter to our congressman. But we have to eat, and whether at a restaurant or while shopping at a grocery store, our choices can make a difference." The international fair-trade movement began in the late 1980s after the worldwide price of coffee plummeted, driving family farms in coffee-growing countries out of business. Fair trade evolved as a means of guaranteeing farmers a minimum price for their crops in hard times. Farms are certified by the FLO provided they use sustainable or organic farming practices and implement favorable working conditions for employees (no child labor, no forced overtime, no harassment, for example). Certified farms also receive a premium price for their product, with the understanding that the extra revenue be used to build the business or improve working and living conditions for employees. TransFair USA is the U.S. member organization of the FLO. It ensures that importers and distributors making fair-trade claims for their products are indeed purchasing those products from FLO-certified farms. TransFair's label is the consumer's reassurance that the item was produced through the fair-trade system. Of course, consumers won't respond to the certification unless the wines are good. And frankly, for now the quality is uneven. The five labels marketed under TransFair USA's certification range in price from $10 to $12 and are meant for easy everyday drinking. Three of those labels are imported by St. Paul, Minn.-based Prestige Wine Group, which markets exclusive-label wines for retailers across the country. The company became interested in fair-trade wines when buyers for Whole Foods Market expressed an interest in the certification, according to company spokesman Marcus Carrigan. Prestige secured marketing rights to the Fairhills label, which has sold in the United Kingdom for the past three years and is now available at Whole Foods and other stores. It also created the Wandering Grape label exclusively for Target; both labels use wines from Argentina and South Africa. Prestige worked with Sam's Club to create an exclusive label called Neu Direction with a malbec from Argentina. The wines of these labels from Argentina are more successful than those from South Africa. Other wines bearing the fair-trade certification come from Stellar Winery in South Africa, imported by Triton Exports of Dallas. These are labeled as Stellar Organics or Live-a-Little and are certified organic and produced without added sulfites. The Stellar Organics Pinotage and Live-a-Little Really Ravishing Red are the best in this line: juicy, fun reds that would shine at parties or casual dinners. They're new to the market and not available in the Washington area yet, but worth keeping an eye out for. Fair-trade certification probably won't transform the wine industry, at least not in the high-end wines. The model is aimed at small farms and cooperatives that tend to produce inexpensive wines for everyday drinking. But it's an interesting and laudable concept, much like hybrid cars at the beginning of this decade. Today, the Prius is everywhere. With good marketing -- and good sourcing of wines -- fair-trade certification may one day dominate supermarket wine shelves.
Dave McIntyre can be reached through his Web site, http:/ |
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