What is Fair Trade?

Fair Trade is an alternative trade movement whose main goal is to empower economically disadvantaged artisans from developing nations. Fair Trade is a link between artisans and buyers from wealthier countries, which aims to establish mutually fair and long-lasting trade relations by following certain ethical criteria:

Opportunities for Economically Disadvantaged Artisans
Fair Trade is a strategy for poverty alleviation and sustainable development. Its purpose is to create opportunities for artisans who have been economically disadvantaged or marginalized by the existing conventional trading system.

Working Conditions
Fair Trade means a safe and healthy working environment for artisans, and respect for both the U.N. Convention of the Rights of the Child and the local laws and social norms. The participation of children in the workplace must not adversely affect their well-being, security, educational requirements and recreational needs.

Gender Equity
Fair Trade ensures that women’s work is properly valued and rewarded. Women must always receive sufficient wages for their contribution to the production process, and they also ought to have access to empowering positions within their organization.

Payment of a Fair Price
Fair Trade organizations will pay fair prices for the goods they carry. A fair price in the regional or local context is one that has been agreed on through dialogue with and participation of the artisans. A fair price is a result of transparent management and commercial relations. Fair traders guarantee prompt payments to their partners and, whenever possible and applicable, they help artisans access pre-harvest or pre-production financing.

Environmental Responsibility
Fair Trade actively encourages conscientious environmental practices and the application of responsible methods of production.

Capacity Building
Fair Trade develops artisans’ financial independence by fostering stable relationships that provide continuous training opportunities targeting every aspect of business development, like marketing, management skills and market outsourcing.

Since its inception almost half a century ago in the Netherlands, Fair Trade has expanded to include more than 200 members from 55 countries in all five continents, according to the International Fair Trade Association (IFAT). Fair Trade ensures that at the very least 25 to 30 percent of the net profits go back to the artisans themselves, after peripheral costs such as shipping for exports have been factored in. In spite of the growing popularity of this alternative trade movement, Fair Trade goods only account for about .01 percent of $3.6 trillion of all globally exchanged products.