Fair Trade coffee grew 91 percent in 2003

TransFair USA, an Oakland-based nonprofit that certifies so-called fair trade coffee imports into the United States, said Monday that it certified 18.7 million pounds of such coffee in 2003, a 91 percent increase from 9.8 million pounds the year before. The 2003 figure represents 0.7 percent of the 2.8 billion pounds of coffee imported into the U.S. that year, but 3.5 percent of the 535 million pounds of specialty coffee imported, according to Lloyd Gray of TransFair.

The organization also said it had signed agreements during the year with mainstream companies like Dunkin' Donuts and Procter & Gamble to sell fair trade coffee, an indication of growing demand.

Fair trade-certified coffee, which costs nearly twice as much per pound as uncertified coffee, is an attempt to pay more money to poor coffee farmers without foreign aid. Fair trade advocates say their environmentally conscious customers will pay more for coffee if they believe it will help such farmers preserve their farms and earn better wages.

Steve Hahm, owner of two NaS Coffee shops in San Francisco, said he pays even more for his café's fair trade coffee because it is also certified organic. He can afford it, he said, because many of his customers want it and are willing to pay extra.

"Economically it's not a good thing to do," Hahm said. "But we see it as not just a business decision but as a community decision. Some customers do look for fair trade."

Oregon and California are probably the states with the highest customer awareness of and demand for Fair Trade coffee, Hahm said. In San Francisco, the Mission District has many such customers. "Marin is also very strong," he said.

Hahm said the fair trade growth numbers were good news for his business. "It means that what we're doing is catching on," he said.