Why buy… Fair trade? 

What is it?

Fair trade is basically a way of helping farmers in developing countries.

Fair trade certification is awarded to products that match a number of ethical criteria. Those that match the criteria are awarded the fair trade label which they can use on their packaging. 

The pioneer in this field was Fairtrade, but the last decade or so has seen other fair trade schemes be set up.

Importantly, with Fairtrade the companies are all independently audited so you can trust that those who gain the label really deserve it and that those working on farms directly benefit.

With some newer schemes, particularly those set up by companies themselves, there may be less rigorous monitoring and auditing.

A note on terminology

Fair trade is not a protected term, meaning that there is no set legal definition. (Compare this to, for example, organic, which can only be used in very strict circumstances.) 

Fairtrade (one word and capital F) is used to describe the labelling system and certification process regulated by Fairtrade International. All other variants e.g. fair trade or fair-trade, refer to the theory of fair trade rather than a specific scheme.

So any company can call their products fair trade, based on their own definition of fair trade. 

Four main benefits of fair trade

The benefits buying fair trade produce can be broken down into 4 areas.

1.  Fairer trade 

Perhaps most importantly fair trade offers a minimum price to producers for their produce.

With the Fairtrade certification scheme, if prices in the global market drop below this level farmers selling to Fairtrade distributors or companies can be sure they still get a fair price for their bananas and won't slip into poverty or make a loss on each box sold.

2. Environment

Most fair trade schemes include provision for looking after the environment as well as workers. 

For example, within the Fairtrade standards there are a number of criteria that farmers must adhere to which relate to the environment. These include: 

• To source water sustainably and reduce water use as much as they can over time.
• To not use any GMOs
• To minimise the use of potentially hazardous chemical fertilizers and pesticides

3. Workers' rights

Fair trade standards also contain criteria on the rights of workers. These generally include the right to:

• freedom of association
• collective bargaining
• non discrimination

4. Social 

Many fair trade schemes will also seek to direct profits to improving the local community where something is grown or manufactured. 

For example, with the Fairtrade certification scheme, the price paid by consumers contains a 'premium'. This is an amount of money on top of the price of the product. This 'premium' is used for investment in local projects and infrastructure such as better sanitation, schools and local medical facilities.

How we cover fair trade

Because Ethical Consumer consider fair trade to be so important in driving change around the world we award more points in our scoring system to products that carry fair trade labels. 

However, not all fair trade certification schemes are equally robust, and we currently rate Fairtrade the highest. Our article on fair trade food has more details.

Read more about our scoring system.

Where to buy fair trade items?

Supermarkets have some fair trade items, but you can often find more in independent wholefood shops, Oxfam, and also ethical online food retailers.