Does fairtrade go far enough

[Ida Horner]

in helping farmers in developing countries? I have been invited either to speak or partiicipate in a few events during fair trade fortnight www.ethnicsupplies.co.uk/events.

I would like to solicit views of members here as to your thoughts on this topic.

[Mark Trotter]

Hi Ida

I won't hide my disappointment with FairTrade it should be labelled Fare Trade because of the price local growers and farmers pay for the markets they are directed to. In essence the aim was great the execution was diluted by the structure created. Great opportunity missed.

[Ida Horner]

Yes, I am minded to agree with you. A more fairer or equitable system would be one that considered the value of coffee for isntance after value addition.

Another thing that troubles me with this is the use of trafficked women on cocoa farms as well as children but then label such a product as Fair Trade!

[Mark Trotter]

Hi Ida

I hadn't realised that the human trafficking issue affected this aspect. I will have a good look at some of the free trade models that suit this style operation but essentially Fair Trade has become Fare Trade the cost is so prohibitive it achieves little.

[shannon Sut.]

I think that large organizations take advantage of Fair Trade. I have written a paper about Starbucks and where there product comes from and it just makes me sick that the farmers that work so hard and get paid pennies for a product that will be sold in the US for $4 to $5.

[Ida Horner]

I have explored the issues you raise in both my blogs and have reacehd the conclusion that whilst Fair Trade does enough to raise awareness it odesn't go far enough in terms of maximising income for the farmers. The mssing link as I see it is the fact that most of these products are exported out of teh developing countries as raw materials, value is added in western world and this is where most of teh profit remains too.

A more equitable way in my opnion would see value added at source and the profits maximised at source.

Here is a link to both my blogs


http://ethnicsupplies.wordpress.com/2009/02/24/how-much-do-folk-in-...

http://ethnicsupplies.blogspot.com/

[Amanda Holder]

I agree here. Fair trade only helps a small number of farmers who are lucky enough to qualify for it, the majority of farmers who really need assistance are missing out. Fair trade is still practiced because we have not acknowledged that the reasons for doing fair trade are outdated. From a producer’s perspective, Fair trade targets relatively well-off farmers in countries that are more than less developed so the process of fair trade only instills social immobility. From a consumer perspective, Fair Trade cannot be trusted because the majority of the produce sold by Fair trade farmers goes to non-fair trade goods so why pay into this unfair and morally suspect system. Moreover, consumers should realize that most of the premium price that they pay just goes to the middleman. The logistics of business and any retailer transactions leave producers with just about 10% of the premium price that consumers are paying. So it turns out that Fair trade is not so fair after all.
It is time that we re-evaluate why we still “Fair trade”… How does it affect poor landowners who cannot obtain Fair trade certification or laborers who will never reap the benefits of Fair trade. Why haven’t we replaced this outdated trading for free trade?

[Ida Horner]

Hi Amanda,

Many thanks for your thoughts on this. I met someone recently who articualted this very well. A well recongised brand ahs emerged and FT has spent a lot of money on building it the person said. It seems to me therefore that there is no going back and developing other and more equittable models may be the way forward.

Certainly if the product is good enough and the farmer should not have to pay for a certificate to say so, as normally that is money that the farmer can ill afford