Wednesday, February 26, 2024

Certified Coffee in Australia

How To Go Green: 3 Tips For Buying Certified Coffee In Australia

The International Trade Center notes that ‘coffee is the world’s most important agricultural crop in terms of trade volumes; it is exported by 60 countries and is one of the few major commodities grown predominantly by smallholder farmers’. Due to the rise in environmentally responsible coffee, it is possible to actually lower your carbon footprint and ‘go green’ by looking out for ‘certified’ coffee. Certification schemes aim to prevent farmers from using ‘slash and burn’ techniques that level rainforests for the purpose of clearing land and growing coffee beans. Here are three tips for buying ‘greener’ coffee in Australia.

 

 

Use A Green Business Directory


It’s easy to pick up certified coffee such as Fair Trade-branded coffee in your local supermarket or grocery store. According the Queensland government’s Office of Fair Trading, however, certified coffee is often sold at a significant mark-up. In other words, you can end up spending significantly more for store-bought coffee just because of its certification label. To avoid this, you could use a green business directory to help you find which stores sell certified coffee at a fair price. In Australia, the Greenfinder Green Business Directory has ‘the most comprehensive selection of green, eco, sustainable, Fair Trade and environmentally friendly companies, products and services’. Use this or similar eco directories to find stores that give you a good deal on certified brands of coffee.

 

 

Look For A Trusted, Certified Coffee Logo


According to an International Trade Center publication Trends in the Trade of Certified Coffees, the quantity of certified coffee sold in Australia has ‘increased rapidly at 50 percent per year in recent years’. The ITC notes that finding certified coffee is as easy as looking for logos, even on brand name coffee products. For instance, Rainforest Alliance has a memorable green frog on its logo, prominently displayed on the label of any coffee containing certified beans. The ITC points out that the commitment of multinational companies such as Nestle to ‘certify 80 percent of its coffee with the Rainforest Alliance by 2013’ has contributed to much of the growth of certified coffee brands. If you are already buying brand-name coffee such as Nestle, you may already be drinking certified coffee.

 

 

Shop Online
             According to data from the Sustainable Agriculture Network, the bestdeals on certified coffee are to be found online. Buying certified coffee ensures that your money helps ‘stave off deforestation, protect the habitats of birds, preserve the livelihood of coffee farmers and encourage social equity and economic viability for workers’ according to the SAN. The cheapest way to do all this and more is to buy coffee online. Be sure to look for coffee websites who offer certified brands of coffee such as Rainforest Alliance coffee.

 

 

Conclusion
                                      Buying certified coffee can help the world but it doesn’t have to cost the earth. These three tips should help anyone find certified coffee in Australia for the right price. Whether you are buying coffee for yourself, for a business or for your family, following these tips should help you find the greenest brands at the most reasonable prices. What do you think of our tips? What did we miss? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

Author Bio:    Danny Richards, the author of this article, is an employee at MyCuppa.com.au, online suppliers of fine coffee beans in Australia. In his spare time, Danny loves reading and is a massive fan of Stephen King.

 

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  •  License: Creative Commons image source
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