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Fair Trade producers

Fair Trade producers are the ones for whom Fair Trade was first conceived. It is they to whom you and me support when we purchase any of the products or foods they have carefully crafted or grown.

All we persons need some stability in our lives; Fair Trading NGOs provide this by stablishing a long-term relationship with the producers. It is this long-term support one of the things I like most, as it is headed for sustainability. It's just the opposite of our current corporate economy, in which it is normal to switch between providers only on a price basis. All of the producers are managing to leave poverty behind just by working and we can collaborate with them.

Making winter clothes in Bolivia. Photo from Copade.

Any Fair Trade organization may choose to work with any producer in any country; in fact, some organizations do commerce with disadvantaged communities in developed countries, like minority ethnic groups; you may find some examples at the directory.

On the other hand, to qualify for FLO certification standards (i.e., the Fairtrade ones), producers must live in a developing country; FLO even keeps a list of countries to which they can grant the product certified label.

One of the distinctive features of what is Fair Trade is that producers receive a Fair price for their output. May I remind that on top of that Fair price, producers receive a Premium (an extra amount of money) which usually is fenced for community development projects: a new school, modernizing a processing plant, a retirement pension...

Quite often, Fair Trade producers associate themselves in co-operatives, which, of course, must also comply with the certification criteria, i.e.: be run democratically, promote gender equity, ban child labor, etc.

Some others are employed in large estates (the most common case in tea or banana plantations); these kind of companies also have their own set of requirements, which ask, for example, for union rights or to create a Joint Body of workers and owners. This Joint Body assembles to discuss issues such as what to do with the Premium money.

These co-operatives and companies also gather themselves in larger Producer Networks. There are three large Producer Networks: AFN (African Fairtrade Network), CLAC (Coordinadora Latinoamericana y del Caribe del Comercio Justo) and NAP (Network of Asian Producers). In May 2007 these associations have become co-owners of FLO, which is a great advance: the workers, the ones intended to be helped, now have a say and own the main international Fair Trade certification body.

When you read or hear producers' testimonies of how Fair Trade has impacted their lives, they are always most motivating to keep on with our promotion and support efforts, as all of them say the same: Fair Trade has been a change in their lifes for the better.