Fair Trade: possibilidades de empoderamento de cafeicultores familiares no sul de Minas Gerais

Abstract

This study applies the concepts of the New Institutional Economics and Economic Sociology to explain the rise of the Fair Trade Market (FTM), specifically that connected to the family-farming of coffee for fair trade marketing chains. The aim was to assess the extent to which FTM can actually empower small-scale family farmers of coffee and their organizations. Specifically, this work studies the experience of a cooperative in southern Minas Gerais state, that is certified by the FTM and operates in the international market. The results from the survey point out that only the cognitive aspects showed significant differences, thus providing evidence of the notion of reality in which the farmer lives, that is, as an individual. The results from the focus group work reinforced the role of the FTM in the local organizational environment, in the light of networking by the actors involved. The conclusion reached is that the FTM tends to move toward maturity, a process that was consolidated with the incorporation of certification based on formal rules such as quality guarantees and traceability. This paper points to the need for further investigation, incorporating more profound study of the economic-financial conditions of the participants as well as on consumers, at the final link of the chain.