What Is Fair Trade?   


Fair Trade

As we walk in the banana farms and dilapidated coffee farms around our area, knowing the exploitation around these products in the world, seeing people who are getting less than 10% of what they got four years ago for their coffee being unable to go to hospital and feed their children with proper and sufficient proteins--many of whom die slowly in the quiet darkness of their homes, we know trade is a human rights issue.

Rev. Fidon R. Mwombeki, Evangelical Lutheran Church , Tanzania

What Is Fair Trade?


Fair Trade is an equitable and fair partnership between marketers and producers, within the country of origin as well as between nations. A fair trade partnership provides equitable prices for labor and products. In order to be awarded fair trade certification, the following criteria must be used by marketers and producers [1] :

  • Paying a fair wage in the local context
  • Offering employees opportunities for advancement
  • Providing equal employment opportunities for all people, particularly the most disadvantaged
  • Engaging in environmentally sustainable practices
  • Being open to public accountability
  • Building long-term trade relationships
  • Providing healthy and safe working conditions within the local context
  • Providing financial and technical assistance to producers whenever possible


        Fair Trade registration is permitted only to democratically-organized producer associations or plantations with independent, democratic unions who must uphold basic International Labor Organization (ILO) conventions. The Fair Trade Labelling Organization is the worldwide fair trade standard setting and certification organization and the certifying agent for Fair Trade in the United States is TransFair USA; consumers may look for the Fair Trade Certified™ label on the products they buy, guaranteeing adherence to the fair trade criteria and ILO standards.

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What Products Are Available Through Fair Trade?

       In the United States , fair trade products include coffee, tea, cocoa, chocolate, fruit (bananas, mangoes, and pineapples), baking chocolate, soccer balls, and artisan crafts. Currently, the University of Minnesota is working with local harvesting cooperatives in Mexico and Guatemala , and with the Council on Environmental Collaboration to introduce fairly traded palms to the US market, for floral and church use.

 

In the European market there are more than 130 products are available, including handicrafts, coffee, tea, fresh fruit, chocolate, cocoa, juice, sports balls, sugar and honey products. Fairly traded products come from over 40 countries in Africa , Asia , and the Americas , representing close to a million farm and artisan families. [2]

 

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Why Are These Products Important?

Commodity prices have enormous impact on the lives of millions of farm families around the globe. Unstable or falling commodity prices are felt most at the level of the farm, where small scale producers have few, if any safety nets to ensure the health and security of their families. For example, coffee is the second most heavily traded commodity in the world. It is the primary source of income for most small scale coffee producers. The farmers who grow the coffee earn, on average, less than $1 dollar per day. Even when world coffee prices were high, the manner in which coffee was traded meant that most farmers' incomes were so low that they and their families lived in poverty. When world coffee prices are low, as they are today, farmers' incomes plummet even further. Selling coffee on the fair trade market ensures the survival of farm families and communities.

 

The artisans involved in fair trade are among most marginalized people in a society. Struggling with economic, cultural, gender, or religious discrimination, the artisans strive to produce their traditional or contemporary crafts by hand, using environmentally harvested or recycled materials. These art works, often made at home, or in small workshops, are made from local materials, with designs based on traditional, cultural, heritage. These artisans are increasingly forced to compete against factories in China who use their designs without remuneration, or against global giants such as Disney or Pier One. Without fair trade, these artisans, primarily women, indigenous people, the handicapped, or the elderly, would have virtually no access to markets outside their home country.

 

Finally, fair trade criteria help ensure not only the economic survival of millions of artisans and farmers around the world, it helps to protect the land, water, and wildlife on which all life depends. The fair trade premium, pre-harvest credit, and technical assistance allow farmers and artisans to protect the land, engage in sustainable harvest, and plan for future, sustainable land use.

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What Can Be Done?

People of faith across the United States are acting in solidarity with small farmers around the world by purchasing and consuming fair trade certified products, and asking their houses of worship to do the same. More than 10,000 churches, temples, and mosques in the U.S. are using, and promoting, fairly traded products. You can become part of a growing movement by asking your local grocery stores, favorite restaurants and other places of business to also carry fair trade products. See Co-op America's Supermarket Campaign outreach materials for organizing ideas.

What Other Sources Of Information Are There?

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What Faith Groups Have Fair Trade Projects?

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[1] Criteria from the Fair Trade Federation, 1612 K Street NW, Suite 600 Washington DC 20006 , www.fairtradefederation.com

[2] Fair Trade Labelling Organization, Kaiser-Friedrich-Strasse 13 D - 53113 Bonn , www.fairtrade.net