Mainstreaming Fair Trade Coffee: From Partnership to Traceability

Laura T. Raynolds

World Development, 2009, vol. 37, issue 6, pages 1083-1093

Abstract: Summary This article analyzes the recent growth of Fair Trade and the mainstreaming of this previously alternative arena. Focusing on coffee, I identify a continuum of buyers ranging from "mission-driven" enterprises that uphold alternative ideas and practices based on social, ecological, and place-based commitments, to "quality-driven" firms that selectively foster Fair Trade conventions to ensure reliable supplies of excellent coffee, to "market-driven" corporations that largely pursue commercial/industrial conventions rooted in price competition and product regulation. Using a commodity network approach, my analysis illuminates the impacts of diverse buyer relations on producer groups and how relations are in some cases shifting from partnership to traceability.

Keywords: Fair; Trade; coffee; commodity; networks; certification; Latin; America (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009

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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:37:y:2009:i:6:p:1083-1093

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