Fair chain

Fair Chain aims to establish a fairer distribution of returns in a production chain. For many products, this distribution is crooked, leaving the farmer or the exporting country a fraction of the retail price. Fair Chain goes beyond fair trade, which mainly wants to guarantee farmers a fair price. Moyee, a Dutch-Ethiopean coffee company, (2012) is an organization to apply the chain concept in the coffee production chain by roasting, mixing and packaging beans in the country of origin, instead of in Europe or the United States as it is normally done. The aim of Fair Chain is therefore to leave more added value in the producing country. This way to operate fits into the idea of creating shared value, which means that in Moyee's case economic and social interests go hand in hand:

• it pays a large premium on the local price for beans
• it roasts locally, in a joint venture with local partners who invest in improving the agricultural and living conditions
• profits are used to fund social projects that the fair chain principle reinforcing.

Escoffee in Ecuador and Azahar Coffee in Colombia were the first initiatives to implement the fairchain principle.

References

• Schalekamp, M. (2012) Max Havelaar, 2.0, NRC Handelsblad. 30 November 2012,
• Porter, M.E. en Kramer M.R. (2011) "Creating Shared Value", Harvard Business Review, January 2011