Does Papanicholas use Fair Trade Certified coffees?
The Fair Trade issue is relatively complex, in that many parties are involved, and there continue to be many differing perspectives as to the organizations value throughout the entire supply chain. The Papanicholas Coffee perspective is as follows. First, the average price that we pay for our coffee is well above the prescribed “fair trade” price. Second, we have developed very strict standards related to quality control and testing for the green coffee that we purchase. Subscribing to Fair Trade would potentially limit our ability to secure the finest coffees from around the world, by restricting our purchases to Fair Trade authorized growers. Lastly, we believe strongly in a solid economic model of supply and demand. Over the past year, our average price per pound has increased because the supply of quality (as defined by Papanicholas) green coffee is tightening. However, there is a large supply of inferior quality coffee on the market, which is priced at very low levels.
