We are deeply indebted for the experience and insights of the One Cup at a Time case study authors and other contributors, including Josefina Aranda, Edith Cervantes, Alma Amalia Gonzalez, Sarah Lyon, Maria Elena Martinez, Ernesto Méndez, Ron Nigh, Victor Pérezgrovas, and Franz VanderHoff. We also gratefully acknowledge the ongoing support of the Ford Foundation, which funded the research on which this article builds. Nevertheless, this article's authors are responsible for errors of fact or interpretation.
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Research Article
Keeping trade fair: governance challenges in the fair trade coffee initiative†
Article first published online: 28 JUN 2005
DOI: 10.1002/sd.278
Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment
Issue
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Sustainable Development
Special Issue: Fair Trade, Business and Sustainable Development
Volume 13, Issue 3, pages 199–208, July 2005
Additional Information
How to Cite
Taylor, P. L., Murray, D. L. and Raynolds, L. T. (2005), Keeping trade fair: governance challenges in the fair trade coffee initiative. Sustainable Development, 13: 199–208. doi: 10.1002/sd.278
- †
Publication History
- Issue published online: 28 JUN 2005
- Article first published online: 28 JUN 2005
- Manuscript Accepted: 10 MAR 2005
- Manuscript Revised: 1 DEC 2004
- Manuscript Received: 10 NOV 2004
- Abstract
- References
- Cited By
Keywords:
- fair trade;
- Latin America;
- certification;
- coffee;
- governance;
- farmer cooperatives;
- alternative trade;
- commodity chain analysis
Abstract
Fair trade has gained attention as an innovative market-based mechanism for addressing social and environmental problems exacerbated by conventional global markets. Yet such initiatives are also regulatory mechanisms that establish voluntary alternative arrangements for governing production, commercialization and consumption of global commodities. Based on a recent study of fair trade coffee experiences in Latin America, this paper explores the changes that fair trade represents in governance of the coffee commodity chain. It argues that fair trade coffee governance is shaped both by formal organizational arrangements for coordination and control and, less formally, by the social and political relations embedded in fair trade's commodity chain. Fair trade's alternative governance arrangements represent one of the initiative's major accomplishments but also pose some of its most significant challenges for the future. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.