Caribou Coffee to Launch New Organic and Fair Trade Coffee Brands

21/05/07 The No. 2 premium coffee company in the United States will launch new organic and fair trade products next week, while a watchdog group will certify other blends as sustainable, a Caribou Coffee Co. Inc. spokesperson said on Wednesday.

"Six of our permanent coffees will be bearing the Rainforest Alliance seal, including the content disclaimer telling consumers what percent of each of the blends' components is composed of Rainforest Alliance-certified product," said Chad Trewick, senior director of Coffee and Tea for Caribou Coffee.

Rainforest Alliance certification balances economic, environmental and social impacts of business.

Caribou Coffee on Monday will sell two new brands, Essential Organic Blend and Fair Trade Peru coffees, both as brewed cups in its stores and in one-pound whole-bean bags. The single-origin fair trade coffee will rotate from different origin countries, said Kathy Hollenhorst, senior vice president of marketing.

Fair trade certification is different to Rainforest Alliance in that it was founded on the principle of a minimum price for the producer.

Minneapolis-based Caribou Coffee has been working with Rainforest Alliance for five years and projected that more than 35 percent of its 2007 bean purchases will be certified, or 2.5 million to 3 million pounds.

The company wants to have half its coffee certified by the end of 2008. Nearly 5 million pounds of Caribou's coffee will be certified by the end of 2010 if the company stays on the same trend line that it's currently on, Hollenhorst said.

"We pay a premium for the certified coffee. We have not passed that along to our retail customers," he said.

Consumers have been showing greater interest in where and how their coffee is produced, creating a growing market for sustainable products. From a business perspective, the certification program benefits coffee quality, Trewick said.

But while more consumers demand sustainable products, many don't know the details of the programs they promote through purchases so Caribou Coffee will also launch an educational campaign on Monday.

"While sustainability and doing the right thing is important to coffee consumers, it isn't something that's their main driver in how they choose coffee shops, and part of it's a lack of education so we're starting an education campaign to do our part to help explain what sustainability is and who are the players," Hollenhorst said.

Caribou, which has 475 outlets, 450 of them in the United States, is one of several companies to boost its offering of coffee products certified by the Rainforest Alliance. Other companies that have signed agreements with the group this year include Whole Foods Market Inc. , McDonald's Corp.'s UK outlets, and Holiday Inn.