Content area
Full text
With its sales tumbling, Nescafe is plotting an ethical brand initiative. Claire Murphy examines the controversy
News that Nestle is planning to enter the fair trade coffee market (Marketing, 6 May) is causing ripples through the food industry this week.
Fairtrade Foundation deputy director Ian Bretman says he was taken aback by the news. Despite various informal links with the food multinational, the Foundation had received no approach from Nestle indicating that the company planned a brand that effectively self-certifies itself as fairly traded.
'We would be most disappointed if Nestle chose to do this, because it would undermine consumer confidence in fair trade products. After 10 years of operating the Fairtrade mark we have worked hard to build credibility with consumers as an independent system of endorsement that they can trust. Nestle's decision could lead to a free-for-all, with firms setting up their own schemes.'
Questions remain over the exact nature of the standards Nestle plans to apply to the coffee. The Fairtrade Foundation insists that coffee bearing its mark (principally the Cafedirect and Percol brands) must have been bought from growers at $1.26 (71p) a pound, twice the market rate. Nestle is still making no comment on its plans.
Faltering profits
It is not hard to detect the motives behind the company's thinking. The UK instant coffee...