It can give a child an education, and grow a community or a business. Fairtrade is a tool for a better life for farmers, workers and their families. A world in which all producers can enjoy secure and sustainable livelihoods, fulfill their potential and decide on their future. To connect disadvantaged producers and consumers, promote fairer trading conditions and empower producers to combat poverty, strengthen their position and take more control over their lives.
Find out how you can help make a difference with Fairtrade Australia and New Zealand. What is Fairtrade? Home What is Fairtrade? What is Fairtrade? Why does Fairtrade mean sustainable trade? Find answers to some of the questions that are frequently asked about Fairtrade. You may also like Buying Fairtrade. Farmers and workers.
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This picture shows a coffee cup with a heart latte art design divided into sections to visualise the amount of money paid to coffee producers. This infographic shows a flow diagram of the stages involved in getting started with Faitrade. Access to basic services like clean water education and health care. Additionally, Fair Trade USA includes collective bargaining and Fair Trade social premiums in addition to Fair wages in their model, which set this organization apart from many other certifiers.
Fair Trade premiums are amounts in addition to wages that go to a social fund that the producer community must then determine how to allocate. Fairtrade America. Fairtrade America is a non-profit organization associated with the international Fairtrade system. They work directly with companies, consumers, and campaigners to secure a better deal for farmers and workers by representing the global Fairtrade movement in America.
Fairtrade is the world's largest and most recognized fair trade system, and consists of three producer networks, Fairtrade International, 32 Fairtrade organizations, and FLOCERT, the independent certification body for Fairtrade. Based on transparency, respect, and dialogue, Fairtrade is a trading partnership that works to make international trade fairer.
Fairtrade secures the rights of and offers better trading conditions to marginalized farmers and works in the Global South, thus contributing to sustainable development. Fairtrade America's four key areas of activity include:. Fairtrade America does not certify any products themselves; instead, they license the use of the FAIRTRADE Mark , which appears on a product as assurance for consumers that the product meets the internationally agreed Fairtrade Standards.
The Fairtrade International standards:. The Fairtrade Minimum Price : applies to most Fairtrade products, and acts as a safety net for farmers and workers when prices fall below a sustainable level. The minimum price aims to cover the costs of sustainable production and is established by Fairtrade International through an intensive consultation process with producers, traders and other stakeholders. On top of the purchase price for the raw product, producer organizations receive a Fairtrade Premium for sales on Fairtrade terms.
This amount is paid directly to the producer organization whose members decide how to best invest it to improve their community, business or local environment. For farmers, the Fairtrade Premium can mean improving their business or productivity, helping them transition to organic production, supporting local schools or improving healthcare. Workers will often invest in better housing for community members, access to education and much more.
We believe that farmers and workers know best what their communities need, which is why Fairtrade gives farmers and workers the ability to invest the premium as they see fit. Fair Trade Federation. These members are companies that have made a full commitment to fair trading practices — each and every business decision is made with the well-being of artisans and farmers in mind.
This commitment runs deep and represents a high bar of fair trade. By using standards set by FLO and the World Fair Trade Organization, the Federation ensures that its members are upholding fair trading practices through their verification process. The Fair Trade Federation traces its roots to the late s when individual alternative trade organizations began holding yearly conferences for groups working in fair trade.
Since then, FTF has focused on supporting fully committed businesses in order to expand markets for artisans and farmers around the world. We at Gallant offer Fair Trade cotton reusable produce bags and mesh produce bags. Fair Trade is an approach to business and to development based on dialogue, transparency, and respect that seeks to create greater equity in the international trading system. Fair trade supports farmers and craftspeople in developing countries who are socially and economically marginalized.
These producers often face steep hurdles in finding markets and customers for their goods. Develop Transparent and Accountable Relationships. World Fair Trade Organization. The World Fair Trade Organization is a membership organisation of over Fair Trade enterprises and the organizations that support them.
Creating a Global network of Fair Trade organizations. It contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of, marginalized producers and workers — especially in the South. Principle Three: Fair Trading Practices and cultural identity. We hope that this helps give you a better understanding of the breadth and depth of the Fair Trade ecosystem.
Contact us with any questions you have about how these organizations interact with each other or if you have specific questions about Fair Trade in your country! If you are in need of private label fair trade certified bags , don't hesitate to reach out.
Why Fair Trade: Supply Chain breakdown. By now, you have heard the stories and read articles about the benefits of Fair Trade, how important it is to farmer welfare and the key motivators propelling conscious capitalism. What isn't always clear to consumers however, for reasons that can include lack of information, access to reliable sources or data that truly demonstrates the reality on the ground, is how commodity supply chains work and why they are so detrimental to farmer welfare.
A commodity is a raw material or agricultural product that can be bought and sold and whose price is very often determined on the New York Stock Exchange by traders thousands of miles away from where they are grown.
Popular commodity items include coffee, tea, sugar, cocoa, bananas and cotton, amongst many other items. These agricultural products are typically grown by farmers for a very low price and sold to a network of players along the pipeline before they get to you. The need for Fair Trade comes in along two different spots in the supply chain: at the market level prices farmers receive for their goods, and after the goods leave the farmers to get to consumers, providing traceability and fair pay.
Direct Trade and Fair Trade. Since the early s, there has been a growing debate over the merits of direct and Fair Trade products as well as heated debates over which system works better. Both are economic models aiming to reduce inequalities in commodity supply chains and shorten the distance between producer and consumer. Both also aim to improve farmer livelihood and traceability along the value chains from farm to shopping bag. But do you know the difference between the models?
Or what the major criticisms of each model are? According to ethicalcoffee. Direct trade proponents say their model is the best because they build mutually beneficial and respectful relationships with individual producers or cooperatives in the coffee-producing countries. Some roasters do it because they are dissatisfied with the third-party certification programs, while others want to have more control over aspects ranging from the quality of the coffee, to social issues, or environmental concerns.
As we have explained before, Fair Trade is a "trading partnership", based on dialogue, transparency and respect, that seeks greater equity in international trade. This is done through intensive site visits and audits to ensure that Fair Trade farms and factories adhere to predetermined international standards created by Fair Trade labeling organizations that take into account child and slave labor, sanitary conditions on farms and factories.
Despite the documented differences, there is still a lot of confusion regarding the difference between these two systems and how they benefit or harm farmers. Have you ever thought about the person that made the clothing you're wearing?
How about the communities that weave, dye and package the bags you carry, the sweater that keeps you warm or the blanket that wraps you up before you fall asleep at night? Many fair trade cotton farmers work with sustainable production methods to help keep the natural environment thriving for generations to come. The people who make our clothing have families, homes, assets and communities to take care of. They work hard to ensure the products we purchase are beautiful, well made and functional.
By purchasing Fair Trade products, you are ensuring that the worker is receiving a fair wage and isn't getting undercut by the long supply chain of importers, exporters, processors, brokers, and retailers before getting to you.
With Fair Trade, you support a fair price for products that are set by the international Fair Trade Labeling Organization. That way, you don't undercut the little guy and you can rest assured the item you purchased is doing good for someone's life. When you buy fair trade products such as fair trade bags and clothing, you help the workers, organizations, and communities involved in the production to receive a fair wage.
This is direct support against commodities practices that leave workers without the minimum salary required to have basic food, shelter, medical care, and education.
A choice for Fair Trade means a choice for empowered workers who can support their families. When you buy from a fair-trade producer, you also invest a small amount of your money in that local community via a fair trade premium. Whereas many cotton producers live on conventional plantations with child labor, no basic amenities like housing or bathrooms, and awful living conditions, Gallant's fair trade cotton operatives provide a fair price for farmer's cotton while reinvesting revenues back into local businesses and community development initiatives including housing, healthcare, education, leadership training, and women's programs.
Fair Trade bypasses "middlemen" and challenges big business. It is a way of working with communities to ensure that they have a say in the products they are creating and that we as consumers aren't taking advantage of their resources or skills. Fair Trade businesses value the knowledge inherent in local communities and leverage that to create beautiful goods that are meaningful, handcrafted, and sustainably sourced.
We create long-lasting partnerships and invest in our communities, instead of conventional extractive supply chains that destroy the communities and inhabitants they source from. Fair Trade v. Free Trade. At Gallant International, we see ourselves as change-makers fighting the global battle against inequality and injustice in supply chains. We do this by disseminating information into the global marketplace in hopes of educating consumers who want to make more conscious decisions on a daily basis.
As we shape the conversations around Fair Trade, we often encounter tough topics that can be confusing to grasp and hard to find veritable sources on, like the benefits and drawbacks of direct trade, the proven data that Fair Trade is making a difference or how to measure impact in the global economy. Today, we're going to tackle an even tougher debate: the differences and advantages of fair trade and free trade.
What is the existing literature and what arguments do each side purport? Are they enemies or can both systems coexist together? If you'll give us a moment of your time, we are going to provide a simple explanation of the difference between the two trading systems in a synthesized format that will leave you feeling like you have a better understanding of the global purchasing ecosystem as a whole and hopefully leave you inspired as to how you can take part in improving it.
Free trade promotes innovation because, along with goods and services, the flow of trade circulates new ideas. Free trade at its heart is a movement pushing for trade liberalization, which is the opening of markets to all players with no preferential treatment, and a removal of tariffs, subsidies and quotas. This means that governments don't restrict imports from, or exports to, other countries. Before we continue, it's important you understand some terms.
A quota is the max amount of product that can come into one country from another. This is done to balance the flow of goods and to protect domestic industries that can't compete with international firms and keep prices of product at a reasonable level.
A subsidy is kind of like free money or a tax break that a government gives to a domestic firm or industry in order to make it competitive in the global marketplace. For example, US cotton farmers get subsidies cash, land, seed, equipment, etc.
This helps American farmers and allows them to charge very low prices per pound of cotton, whereas a small cotton coop in Ghana can't compete because their government did not give them any help, so they need to charge more for their cotton in order to do basic things like eating, paying rent and sending their kids to school. This is done in order to protect domestic firms and give them a competitive advantage over the competition, which is very helpful when the foreign country has some kind of advantage that allows it to produce products at scale, for example China with electronics or the United States with wheat or cotton.
Advocates of free trade think that there should be no more tariffs, subsidies or quotas because there are no more country lines or preference for domestic versus international companies and no special preference for anyone. Trade is trade, period. The benefits of this line of thinking are economies of scale and market innovation, which means more options for consumers, and market competition, which means lower prices consumers have to pay. However, with mass competition comes with a lot of negative side effects as well, such as the race to the bottom in order to find the cheapest supply chains, widened wage gaps, awful working conditions, loss of local industries, monoculture and mass unemployment.
With no taxes and no controls in place to protect smaller companies, larger monolithic firms can dominate the market, then demand whatever they want of their workers.
The consumer benefits, but this comes at the cost of worker and environmental welfare. The issue with these agreements comes when American jobs are threatened by international competition and politicians and economists begin to argue over the causes of income disparities and stagnating job markets. Free trade, while an interesting idea at its core, is a system that can be easily manipulated by a few large players at the results of the economies, jobs and environments of others, and is a similar experiment to lots of children trading cards at school.
Some kids have more cards than others, some have better hands than others and some have no cards at all. Without supervision and monitoring from a recognized authority, like the World Trade Organization, the opportunities for certain students to take advantage of the system whether through partnerships with their friends, their own skills or unfair advantages afforded to them because of their economic backgrounds become increasingly evident and the winners and losers are decided even before the game is up.
It contributes to sustainable development by offering workers better trading conditions and companies better quality products and increased environmental performance. It proves that greater justice in world trade is possible. It highlights the need for change in the rules and practice of conventional trade and shows how a successful business can also put people first. It is a tangible contribution to the fight against poverty, climate change and economic crisis.
Fair Trade, contrary to popular belief, isn't the opposite of free trade. Because of its small scale, Fair Trade isn't subject to the same problems that plague countries trying to export their raw goods at massive levels.
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