What is fair trade ?

As the Fair Trade movement states it : “Fair Trade is a trading partnership, based on dialogue, transparency and respect, that seeks greater equity in the 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."

Fair Trade organisations (backed by consumers) are actively engaged in producer support, awareness raising and campaigns to change the rules and practices of the conventional international trade.

The essence of Fair Trade

Fair Trade’s strategic intent is :

to work deliberately with marginalized producers and workers in order to help them to move from a position of vulnerability to security and economic self-sufficiency ;

to empower producers and workers as stakeholders in their own organisation ;

to play a wider role in the global arena to achieve greater equity in the international trade. [1]

Fair trade is therefore simultaneously a trading business and a development process.
Its two main objectives are to improve the position of small, marginalized producers in the South and, in the long term, to modify the functioning of international trade by mobilising consumers in the North.

[1] FINE, October 2001. FINE is an informal umbrella network established in 1998 in which representatives of the Fair Trade networks listed below meet to share information and coordinate activities.
FLO-I: Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International.
IFAT: International Federation for Alternative Trade;
NEWS!: Network of European World Shops.
EFAT: European Fair Trade Association