Fairtrade

Fairtrade is an organised social movement and market-based approach that aims to help producers in developing countries and promote sustainability. The Fairtrade movement advocates the payment of a higher price to producers as well as social and environmental standards in areas related to the production of a wide variety of goods. Fairtrade focuses in particular on exports from developing countries to developed countries, most notably handicrafts, coffee, cocoa, sugar, tea, bananas, honey, cotton, wine, fresh fruit, chocolate and flowers.

Fairtrade's strategic intent is to work with marginalized producers and workers in order to help them move towards economic self-sufficiency and stability. It also aims to allow them to become greater stakeholders in their own organizations as well as play a wider role in international trade.

In 2008, Fairtrade certified sales amounted to approximately £2.5 billion worldwide, a 22% year-to-year increase. While this represents a tiny fraction of world trade in physical merchandise, fairtrade products generally account for 1-20% of all sales in their product categories in Europe and North America. In June 2008, it was estimated that over 7.5 million producers and their families were benefiting from fairtrade funded infrastructure, technical assistance and community development projects.

Definition of Fairtrade

Although no universally accepted definition of Fairtrade exists, Fairtrade labeling organisations most commonly refer to a definition developed by FINE, an informal association of four international fairtrade networks (Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International, World Fairtrade Organization, Network of European Worldshops and European Fairtrade Association).

Fairtrade is a trading partnership, based on dialogue, transparency and respect, that seeks greater equity in international trade. It contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of, marginalized producers and workers – especially in the South. Fairtrade Organizations, backed by consumers, are engaged actively in supporting producers, awareness raising and in campaigning for changes in the rules and practice of conventional international trade.

Fairtrade advocates typically espouse a number of guidelines. The movement intends to provide market access to otherwise marginalised producers, connecting them to customers and allowing access with fewer middlemen. It aims to provide higher wages than typically paid to producers in typical trading relationships, with the hope of allowing them to achieve greater financial stability, improve their general well-being and allow future investments. The movement stresses information sharing and planning logistically, as well as helping producers develop knowledge, skills and resources to improve their lives. Fairtrade advocates also seek to raise awareness of the movement's philosophies among first world consumers. Fairtrade products are traded and marketed either by an "integrated supply chain" whereby products are imported and/or distributed by fairtrade organizations (commonly referred to as alternative trading organizations) or by "product certification" whereby products complying with fairtrade specifications are certified indicating that they have been produced, traded, processed and packaged in accordance with the standards.

Fairtrade today

For a product to carry either the International Fairtrade Certification Mark or the Fairtrade Certified Mark, it must come from FLO-CERT inspected and certified producer organizations. The crops must be grown and harvested in accordance with the international Fairtrade standards set by FLO International. The supply chain must also have been monitored by FLO-CERT, to ensure the integrity of labelled products.

In 2007, both Scottish and Welsh governments were actively attempting to become the "world's first fairtrade country". In Wales, the campaign to make Wales the world’s first Fairtrade country was launched in 2004 by the [National Assembly for Wales]. In June 2008 Wales became the worlds first Fairtrade nation. In Scotland, then-First Minister Jack McConnell pledged that Scotland will aim to become a "Fairtrade Nation".

In June 2007, a parliamentary committee published the report Fairtrade and Development, criticising the government for "failing to adequately support fairtrade despite having said it wanted to help poor countries trade their way out of poverty". The MPs, led by Malcolm Bruce, said the Department for International Development "had not kept pace with growing support for fairtrade among the public and retailers".

The committee report examined several ethical trading schemes and concluded that fairtrade was "gold standard in terms of trading relations with producers". It called for greater support both domestically and internationally of fairtrade organisations and recommended making a senior official responsible for fairtrade within the government. The report also suggested to commission research on the feasibility of a labelling scheme which will force all retailers to show how much they paid farmers and workers in the developing world for each particular product.

Common justifications for fairtrade

Implicit and often explicit in fairtrade is a criticism of the current organization of international trade as being unfair. Fairtrade advocates argue in favor of the need for fairtrade by mentioning the microeconomic market failures of the current system and the commodity crisis and its impact on developing country producers. According to Fairtrade umbrella organisations FLO International and WFTO: "Fairtrade is, fundamentally, a response to the failure of conventional trade to deliver sustainable livelihoods and development opportunities to people in the poorest countries of the world. Poverty and hardship limit people’s choices while market forces tend to further marginalise and exclude them. This makes them vulnerable to exploitation, whether as farmers and artisans in family-based production units or as hired workers within larger businesses.”

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