The nation's largest food and beverage company announced Tuesday that it had agreed to buy coffee whose growers meet certain social and environmental standards, as certified by the Rainforest Alliance, a conservation group.
But the decision did not mollify groups pushing for large companies to sell coffee certified as "fair trade," which its advocates say has higher social and economic standards for its growers than the standards agreed to by Kraft.
"We appreciate efforts on the part of industry to help coffee farmers," said spokeswoman Haven Bourque of Trans Fair USA, an Oakland, Calif.-based nonprofit that certifies fair-trade coffee. "But we have to be aware that the farmers need the strictest standards in order to make a difference in their daily lives."
Valerie Orth, fair-trade organizer at Global Exchange, a San Francisco-based human rights organization, said fair-trade advocates still want big coffee companies such as Kraft and Nestle to follow the lead of Procter & Gamble. P&G last month began selling a line of fair-trade coffee called Mountain Moonlight as part of its gourmet Millstone line.
Kraft spokeswoman Patricia Riso on Wednesday declined to address whether the company might buy fair-trade coffee in the future, but said: "We just don't think it's a long-term meaningful solution."
"Fair trade does offer another choice for consumers, but we don't believe it is the only way to benefit coffee farmers," she said. "Fair trade is a niche market based on the guaranteed minimum price. The Rainforest Alliance is bringing the concept of sustainability into the mainstream."
The partnership comes with an increasing number of U.S. coffee sellers responding to activists' calls about the coffee industry. In addition to Procter & Gamble, Starbucks Coffee Co. and Sara Lee Corp. also sell fair-trade coffee.
An initial report about Kraft's announcement Tuesday incorrectly linked it to fair-trade coffee.
In the first year of the new program, Kraft will buy 5 million pounds of coffee beans from farms in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Central America that are approved by the Rainforest Alliance.
Kraft's coffee brands include Maxwell House and Jacobs.
Kraft shares fell 33 cents to $29.67 Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange.
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