CEC study sheds new light on consumer appetite for shade coffee

One in five coffee drinkers in North America is 'very interested' in purchasing shade coffee, according to a study sponsored by the Montreal-based Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). "If this consumer interest can be translated into consumer preference, then we could see the market doing something very good for the environment," says the CEC's Executive Director, Janine Ferretti.

Shade coffee, so-named because it is grown under the canopy of tropical forests, is considered environmentally preferable to coffee grown on land where the forest has been cut down and important wildlife habitat lost. Many Mexican shade coffee farmers rely entirely on natural predators common to an intact ecosystem, rather than chemical pesticides, to control pests.

The CEC, established under the NAFTA environmental side accord, focuses particularly on the environmental implications of trade liberalization among the three NAFTA member countries. "Here's an area where trade could help save forests that are crucial in North American ecological terms, and help sustain the livelihoods of peasant farmers who live there, so naturally we're interested," says Ferretti. "Twenty percent of a multi-billion dollar industry could really make a difference."

Ferretti released the continent-wide market study today at an event at Café Rico, a coffee shop in the Plateau area of downtown Montreal that specializes in roasting and selling 'fairly traded' coffee. The survey of some 2,500 people in Canada, Mexico and the United States is the largest and most extensive consumer study on the subject of shade coffee ever conducted.

She also took the opportunity to announce the awarding of grants to two community-based projects, in Montreal and in Mexico, to nurture the development of the shade coffee market. The CEC, through its North American Fund for Environmental Cooperation (NAFEC), is contributing US$38,000 to Equiterre, a Montreal-based NGO that will encourage importers, roasters, retailers and consumers to purchase fairly-traded and environmentally sound coffee from Mexico. In Mexico, the NGO Conservation International will receive US$35,000 to help traditional shade coffee farmers in the Chiapas region develop the means to participate in the international market.

"Our best work is when we're involved at both the community and continental levels," says Ferretti. "Both perspectives are needed if you want to do something that is actually sustainable. In this case, these two NAFEC projects not only reinforce our work in shade coffee, but offer some concrete responses to questions of general concern to us regarding how to promote trade in green goods and services."

The CEC announced 25 NAFEC grants today, totaling US$1million of which the shade coffee projects are but two of the recipients (for complete list of NAFEC grants announced today, please see CEC press release, "25 Environmental Projects receive $1 million from CEC," or http://www.cec.org.

The CEC is planning a conference in Mexico early in the new year at which participants in every stage of the coffee production, marketing, distribution and retail process will gather to identify blockages in bringing shade coffee to market and possible solutions.

For more information, call Charles Dickson at the CEC in Montreal (514) 350-4308, e-mail cdickson@ccemtl.org

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