What Is Fair Trade?
Fair Trade is an international movement that was initiated in the 1940s and 1950s to address the issues of exploitation and oppression caused by the unfair power balance in conventional world trade. It seeks to build equitable trading partnerships between international consumers and producers in developing regions by providing a fair price for the goods to help cover the cost of production and enable them to invest in social, environmental and business improvements. Fair Trade practices provide healthy and safe working conditions for the producers and enable them to learn more about markets and marketing and help them maintain their traditional lifestyles with dignity.
Fair Trade involves the following principles:
- Payment of a fair price
- Creating equal opportunities for economically disadvantaged producers
- Providing transparency and accountability in trade practices
- Capacity building
- Gender equity
- Offering employees opportunities for advancement
- Engaging in environmentally sustainable practices
- Building long-term trade relationships between buyers and producers
- Providing healthy and safe working conditions
- Providing financial and technical assistance to producers whenever possible
- Prohibiting the use of forced labour and exploitative child labour
The Fair Trade Foundation, which is a member of Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO), licenses the Fairtrade Mark in the UK. The Fairtrade Mark is a certification label granted to products sourced from third world producers that meet internationally recognised standards of fair trade. Fair trade standards are specified for a variety of commodities from the developing world, including tea, cocoa, sugar and fresh fruits.
Sales of Fair-trade certified goods have grown by 40% during the last year, thanks to an ever-increasing consumer awareness and demand. Gone are the days when people had to trek kilometres to an off-the-beaten-track shop only to buy fair trade fresh fruits. Nowadays one only needs to visit the High Street or visit an online store!
In case you're wondering if the quality of fairly traded products is comparable to other commercial products, then you can rest assured as in a number of cases the quality is, in fact, higher because fair traders factor in the environmental cost of production. In the case of coffee, for example, fairly traded coffee is often organic and shade grown, which results in a higher quality coffee.
Regarding the pricing, fair trade products generally do not cost more than other traditionally sourced goods because the large percentage taken by middle people is removed from the equation. The cost remains the same as traditionally traded goods; however, the distribution of the cost of the product varies.