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Finding the best bargains in fair trade foods
If only a small portion of your grocery budget to go toward fair trade products, what are the most economic choices?
Mon, Oct 15 2012 at 4:52 PM
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Related Topics:

Sustainability, Fair Trade
coffee beans

Photo: Shutterstock

When most of us go to the grocery store, we have a budget — and we need to stick to it. As much as we’d like to purchase only sustainable products by choosing foods that are local or organic or those that have been certified by third parties as better for the environment, our better for our health, or better for the producers, often our budget makes it necessary to prioritize.
 
One of those third-party certifications that I pay attention to is fair trade. Products that carry fair trade certification are sourced from farms where the workers are paid fair wages for their work and working conditions are safe. Because the farmers and their workers are paid more for what they grow, the end products made with fair trade certified ingredients tend to cost more. For people shopping with little wiggle room in their budget, it isn’t always possible to buy everything fair trade.
 
This weekend I did a little comparison shopping at my local Wegmans, looking at a few common items to see what the difference is between the fair trade certified versions and conventional versions. Here’s what I found.
 
Sugar
The fair trade certified option I found was Wholesome Sweeteners Fair Trade Organic Sugar. The largest size, which was the most economical, was $2.50 per pound (lb.) in a 32-ounce bag. The conventional Domino sugar, in a 64-ounce bag, was $69.8/lb. The fair trade certified sugar costs 258 percent more than the conventional.
 
Honey
Wholesome Sweeteners Fair Trade Organic Honey was $7.99/lb. The same sized bottle of Sue Bee Honey was $3.89/lb. The fair trade honey cost 105 percent more than the conventional honey.
 
Chocolate chips
Sunspire Fair Trade Organic Chocolate Chips cost $8.87/lb. in a 9-ounce package. The Wegmans brand of chocolate chips cost $2.25/lb. for a 12-ounce package. The fair trade chocolate chips cost 294 percent more than conventional chocolate chips.
 
Coffee
Lacas Organic, Fair Trade Dark Roast Mexican Coffee was $10.39/lb. for a 12-ounce package. Lacas’ regular coffee is $8.39/lb. for the same size. The fair trade coffee costs 24 percent more than conventional coffee.
 
When you do the math, it’s easy to see which product will give you the most bang for your fair trade buck. The price of this particular brand of fair trade coffee is only 24 percent more than the non-fair trade option. If your budget is tight, but you still wanted to support fair trade producers, coffee would be a choice that would allow you to contribute a little bit to helping farmers and workers while not ruining your grocery budget.
 
 

The opinions expressed by MNN Bloggers and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of MNN.com. While we have reviewed their content to make sure it complies with our Terms and Conditions, MNN is not responsible for the accuracy of any of their information.

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Comments: 3
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starbuck
Starbuck Oct 18 2012 at 2:22 AM
My ability to retain actual quotable facts is abysmal. My previous comment on this article is undeniable proof. So, I decided to dive in and find the article I read about tainted honey. Here are two links. The first is from Grist and the second from Food Safety News, the source of the information provided in the Grist article. Grist gives a general idea of the problem. FSN goes into much more detail. Grist:http://grist.org/food-safety/2011-08-18-honey-laundering-tainted-counter... Food Safety News:
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http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/08/honey-laundering/
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tarrant's picture
Tarrant Oct 18 2012 at 8:26 AM

Thanks Starbuck for finding references. I remember we had a story about the honey at some point as well--but I don't remember how in depth it was at all.

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starbuck
Starbuck Oct 17 2012 at 4:42 AM
Coffee is definitely worth the price and we drink so much of it that it seems only right. But honey is worth the premium as well, mainly because there's a better chance it's really honey in the bottle. I actually prefer to buy honey from the relatively small American producers so I know where it's coming from. US companies ( the names you recognize) are not allowed to import honey from certain other countries (china may be one) because of tainted product and product that contains almost anything
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but honey with a little added honey flavor. They get around this by purchasing the banned honey from a third country which has in fact imported it from the banned countries. I guess you could call it "honey laundering." Fair trade is an important issue and I really wish it were less of a thorny thicket. I go back and forth with my buying. You can really get yourself tangled up if you get too many of these goals going at once - buy local, buy organic, buy fair trade . . . have to construct Venn diagrams to do your grocery shopping. Then you're too worn out to shop. This can result in a cart full of frozen God knows what from God knows where!
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