Fair coffee: what the labels check and what the back of the pack tells you

Fairtrade guarantees coffee farmers a minimum price and a premium, Rainforest Alliance mainly checks farming and the protection of the surrounding environment, and organic labels regulate pesticides and fertilisers. None of these labels says anything about taste or about what exactly was paid for the beans in your bag. Four details on the back of the pack reveal that.

So if you want to know what you are drinking, you need both: a rough understanding of what the major labels check, and a look at the information no label covers. At Good-Natured we roast our coffee in Dresden, and we ask ourselves exactly these questions too.

“For the labourer is worthy of his hire.”
Luke 10:7 (King James Version)

1. What does the Fairtrade label mean for coffee?

Fairtrade starts where coffee farmers are most vulnerable: the price. Green Arabica is traded on the stock exchange, and the price fluctuates heavily. For a family that harvests once a year, that is existential.

The label therefore uses two instruments. A minimum price that applies when the world market price falls below it, and an additional premium whose use the cooperative decides on jointly, typically for schools, water supply or processing equipment.

The limit: Fairtrade says nothing about quality. And a cooperative can be certified without being able to sell its entire harvest on Fairtrade terms. If demand is lacking, the rest is sold conventionally at the market price.

2. What does Rainforest Alliance check?

The focus is on the farm as an ecosystem: protecting forest, soil and water, handling of pesticides, biodiversity, plus requirements for working conditions.

The limit: It is primarily an environmental and management standard, not a pricing tool. There is no guaranteed minimum price of the kind Fairtrade offers.

3. What does the organic label say about coffee?

Organic, whether the EU label or an association label, regulates cultivation: no synthetic pesticides or mineral fertilisers, rules on soil and processing. It says nothing about prices, wages or working conditions.

That is not a flaw but a division of labour. Organic and a social label are not mutually exclusive, and the combination says more than any single label.

4. What labels fundamentally cannot do

A label checks a standard, not an outcome. It confirms that certain requirements were met at the time of the audit. How much of it reaches a particular family is written on no pack.

Certification costs money. Very small cooperatives often cannot afford the audits. A missing label is therefore first of all missing information, not automatically a bad sign. Conversely, a label does not replace the question of who bought the coffee.

If you are looking for coffee from small projects, our Fair Coffee collection has two blends whose journey can be told in full.

5. How do you spot good coffee on the shelf?

Turn the pack over. Four details together say more than any logo on the front, and if all four are missing, that is a statement in itself.

1. A named origin. Not “South America” or “highlands”, but country, region and ideally project, cooperative or farm. Whoever states this knows what they bought.

2. Roast date rather than best-before date. The most important number on the whole pack. Coffee needs a few days' rest after roasting and is at its best for a few weeks after that. A best-before date twelve months away only tells you how long the manufacturer guarantees shelf life.

3. Variety and processing. Whether washed, natural or honey-processed has a strong influence on flavour. Whoever states it bought deliberately.

4. Who roasted it and where. An address instead of a packer code. Small roasters write it down because they stand by it.

6. The question that achieves more than any label

It is not “Is it fair?” but: Who bought this coffee, and how did it get here? A small roaster will usually answer quickly.

For our own coffee, the answer is this: the beans come via the coffee project Bongabee from Nkambe in Cameroon, where they grow at 800 to 1,400 metres and are tended by Wilson Tanto's family. From the farm they go directly to Germany without intermediaries, so that fair payment is possible. Bongabee is a member of Fair Band. The coffee is gently drum-roasted in Dresden.

Coffee is not a Christian product in the narrow sense. But at Good-Natured we want to live out Christian love for our neighbour where things are produced, too: in a project that supports a family on the ground, and in a trade route without intermediaries. We ask the same question about cotton; why that changes the price is explained in Why fair fashion costs more.

Conclusion

Fairtrade secures prices, Rainforest Alliance the farming, organic the chemicals, and direct trade without proof nothing at all. None of them covers everything, and none says anything about taste. The four details on the back do both. You will find our two blends in Good-Natured's Fair Coffee collection.

How to prepare the coffee afterwards is covered in How to brew coffee properly, and how to turn a bag into a real gift in Giving coffee as a gift.