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benefits of fair trade

Find out more:
What Is Fair Trade? - How To Support Fair Trade Organizations

Learn how fair trade can relate directly to
you as a consumer.

What are the benefits of fair trade? Fair trade, or “alternative trade” as it is sometimes called, is a rural economic initiative that works with the poor where they live and work. It is a movement that includes artisans that have been traditionally marginalized and exploited in developing countries of the world. Fair Trade takes the producers wares to the mainstream market, minimizing the fees of intermediaries.

Fair Trade criteria adheres to a strict accrediting protocol relating to pay, work conditions and the like, and subsequently offers other benefits such as training to ensure skills development which enhances the ability for maintaining a living wage for goods. Additionally, Fair Trade generates a network of services that can include health care and education as well as ensuring the preservation of cultural traditions and natural environments. Fair trade overcomes some gender limitations in its education of people in different areas of commerce.

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Over a million people in the USA buy Fair Trade goods, which include such items as, food, furniture, home décor & jewelry. The Fair Trade movement is about social justice, economic opportunity, fair wages for commodity production, increasing understanding and a more leveled playing field between Fair Trade artisans and the developed world.

The increasingly common vernacular of Fair Trade continues to grow by leaps and bounds as a result of more exposure in the retail market. Sales of Fair Trade items have doubled between 2001 and 2005 and are reported to be experiencing an annual 20% growth.

The social aspects of Fair Trade present challenges to agreement and concensus among Fair Trade proponents on how best to help the artisans. However, philosophical disagreements do not erode the potent core of the Fair Trade ideology and movement, which is finding sound economic opportunity for produced goods thus, improving the quality of life for artisans and their families.

See for yourself the benefits of fair trade.

What is the MOST SIGNIFICANT difference between
these two coin purses?
$0.38
$2.00

  • One costs $1.62 more than the other.
  • One was purchased in the market in Guatemala and one from a fair trade cooperative.
  • One helps Guatemalans break out of the continuous cycle of poverty and the other keeps them in it.

HINTS:

  • The weaving of either coin purse requires two hours.
  • The sewing of either coin purse requires ten minutes.
  • Bringing the product to market and/or finding a buyer requires additional time.
  • Both coin purses require $0.30 in materials.

BACKGROUND:

The coin purse on the left sells for $.38 in the market. That price leaves only $.08 to compensate all the people who helped to produce and bring the coin purse to market, but only after transportation, energy and sewing machine costs are covered. What will $.08 buy in Guatemala? Only 2 plain corn tortillas, without beans, without anything. Only the tortillas. Not enough to sustain a child for one meal. It seems incredible that anyone would work so hard for so little benefit. But competition in Guatemala is fierce. Artisans and middlemen are poor and desperate. They know they have to sell at the lowest price possible or someone else will. Thus, they are trapped in the cycle of poverty.

The purpose of cooperatives is to band artisans together to set prices in order to begin to compensate those who bring the product to market with a reasonable wage. As you can see from the breakdown, the wages are still modest but they can provide the basic necessities that mean the difference between a malnourished, chronically ill family and a healthy family.

Find out more:
What Is Fair Trade? - How To Support Fair Trade Organizations


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