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Fair Trade criteria
There are, broadly speaking, two sets of Fair Trade criteria; one intended for organizations and some others for different products.
criteria for organizations
Most NGOs stick to what IFAT prescribes as a sound set of rules for those who want to exhibit their certification label. IFAT criteria are fully explained in their website, but can be resumed like this:
- Creating opportunities for economically disadvantaged producers
- Transparency and accountability: transparent management and commercial relations
- Capacity building: develop producers’ independence, improving their skills and their access to markets
- Promoting Fair Trade
- Payment of a fair price: one that has been agreed through dialogue and participation, covering not only the costs of production but also financing and taking into account the principle of equal pay for equal work by women and men
- Gender Equity
- Working conditions: safe and healthy working environment for producers
- Child Labour: respect to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, ensuring that the participation of children in production processes (if any) does not adversely affect their well-being
- Respect for the environment
- Trade Relations: concern for the social, economic and environmental well-being of producers
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| A Fair Trade meeting. Photo by Kirkjan |
IFAT grants a label to NGOs complying with this, so they can show everyone that they are truly Fair Trade organizations.
criteria for products
As for product certification, there is a common set of standards for producers and traders and a specific set of rules adapted to each product (coffee, bananas, chocolate ...).
Generic standards include social, economic and development sections and product criteria carry the specifics about quality: fruit size, processing method, etc. There is also a difference when the producer is a hired laborer or part of a registered cooperative.
You may find the details of all standards at FLO website, as it is they who own them. From time to time, FLO updates this standards, including the minimum price, one of the controversial issues.
Products that have gained a certification label can be sold either at World Shops or at common retailers. On the other hand, products without a standard Fair Trade criteria (i.e., crafts, clothes, furniture...) do not show any certification label and are sold usually only at World Shops, by IFAT certified NGOs.
