Fairtrade - Trade more Fairly

Table of Content

List of Illustrations

List of Abbreviations and Acronyms

1. Introduction

2. History and Definition of Fairtrade
2.1 History of Fairtrade
2.2 What is Fairtrade?
2.2.1 Central Values
2.2.2 Worldwide Involvement
2.2.3 Differences between Bio and Fair

3. Labelling
3.1 The Fairtrade Mark TransFair
3.2 Criteria of Certification

4. Producers

5. Products
5.1 Food and Non-food Products
5.2 Bestsellers
5.3 New Product Range

6. Sales Channels
6.1 International Fairtrade Organisation (IFAT)
6.2 Importers of Fairtrade
6.3 Retailers in Germany
6.4 Sales Figures of Fairtrade in Germany

7. Marketing Image Campaigns

8. Drawback of Fairtrade

9. Future Outlook

Bibliography

List of Illustrations

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List of Abbreviations and Acronyms

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1. Introduction

Some of us have already heard about ethical consumption. When we speak about ethical consumption or ethical behaviour on the one hand, it implies unethical behaviour on the other. Although, in this report, we will not go deeper into the matter of unethical consumption, we will now look at how can we do trade more fairly. Fairtrade is a trading partnership which endeavours respect, dialogue, transparency, and increased more fairness in international trade^[1]. Nevertheless, Fairtrade is becoming more and more popular in the industrialized world. This movement is engaged in debates with political decision-makers in the European institutions for the purpose of making international trade fairer.

2. History and Definition of Fairtrade

2.1 History of Fairtrade

The increasing success of Fairtrade today did not start all that successfully. There are many anecdotes about the history of Fairtrade. One of these stories began with the Alternative Trade Organisations (ATOs). They started the era of Fairtrade with individual companies which made a commitment to working directly with indigenous peoples and to marketing their products directly to end consumers. By cutting out the middlemen, they have been able to pay producers substantially more while offering a competitive product^[2].

The earliest traces of Fairtrade in Europe started in the late 1950s when Oxfam in Great Britain started to sell crafts made by Chinese refugees in Oxfam shops^[3]. Later in 1964 Oxfam started the first Fairtrade organisation and also parallel initiatives were taking place in the Netherlands. Soon in 1967 the importing organisation, the ‘Fairtrade Organisatie’, was established and the first years. All these organisations mostly traded with handcrafts because of their personal contacts with missionaries in the south. In 1969 the first world shop opened in the Netherlands. The crafts provided ‘supplementary income’ for the producers and their families. There are crucial importances to households headed by women who have limited employment opportunities^[4]. In 1973, the Dutch ‘Fairtrade Organisatie’ imported the first fairly traded coffee from cooperatives in Guatemala^[5].

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Illustration 1: Fairtrade Coffee
Source: Stir.org, Australia (2006)

Some of us might remember the alternative shopping philosophy of ‘ Jute statt Plastik ^[6] ’ in that time. A symbol for this era was coffee from Nicaragua. It got drunk to announce and personal political attitude against unfair trading structures^[7]. 30 years ago the taste of fairly traded coffee was not that delicious as today but ecological^[8]. Obviously for some consumers the idea behind Fairtrade was enough to get involved with. At that time the alternative trade has become a concept and hundreds of thousands of coffee farmers have benefit from.

Finally, thousands of coffee farmers have benefited from the trading partnership Fairtrade in coffee and in Europe more and more consumers drink fair coffee. Right now between 25 to 50 % of turnover of northern Fairtrade organisations comes from this product^[9].

Today, the Fairtrade movement is a global movement. More than one million small scale producers are organised in approximately 3,000 grassroots organisations with subsidiaries in more than 50 countries in the South. The products are sold in world shops or Fairtrade shops and supermarkets^[10].

2.2 What is Fairtrade?

What happened that some decades ago there were people that had the strength to fight for a change in the trading? For the reason that millions of landless workers and small farmers did not have what is their right: enough food to feed the family, a place at school for their children and that little extra to invest in sustainable development.

Nevertheless Fairtrade is more than an alternative approach to conventional international trade. Fairtrade is a trading partnership which aims at development for excluded and disadvantaged producers. Fairtrade stands for providing better conditions, by awareness raising and by campaigning^[11].

Furthermore the trading partnership tries to fill the gap of unfair trading conditions. For both sides the farmers in the developing countries and for the consumers in the industrialized world.

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^[1] EUROPEAN FAIRTRADE ORGANISATION (2003)

^[2] EQUAL EXCHANGE (2006)

^[3] GEPA (2004c)

^[4] EUROPEAN FAIRTRADE ORANISATION (2003)

^[5] GEPA (2004c)

^[6] ‘jute not plastic’, LEBENSMITTELPRAXIS (2006), p. 46

^[7] GEPA (2004b)

^[8] MOHRI (2006)

^[9] EUROPEAN FAIRTRADE ORGANISATION (2003)

^[10] IFAT (2006)

^[11] OXFARM (2006)