Fairtrade International

Fair trade is a social movement that has the main objective of helping producers in developing countries, aiding in the improvement of trading conditions and also strives to promote sustainability (Fair).

Fairtrade International (FLO), combined with many businesses, campigners and other Fair Trade organizations like the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO), work hand-in-hand to oversee the Fair trade Movement by promoting the Fair Trade Principles, in hopes that it would result in more empowered producers (Fairtrade). It is facilitated by an alternative approach to trading, where products such as, bananas, cocoa and coffee, can be bought at a fair price from independent producers of developing countries and sold to consumers in developed countries through the basis of a partnership between producers and consumers, eliminating the middleman in the trading equation, which usually takes away a huge chunk of the producers’ profits.

The fairly traded product will carry a FAIRTRADE Mark, which is a label to certify that the product has met with Fairtrade standards (Fairtrade). By preventing any exploitation of these producers from developing countries, it would give them the opportunity to improve their lives, as well as allow for a more sustainable livelihood (Beattie).

According to FLO’s website, some of the organization’s key objectives include ensuring that the prices producers get for their products exceeds the cost of maintaining their production; helping producers in terms of financing; aiding in long-term trading partnerships enabling greater control as a producer; and setting minimum standards for all Fairtrade certified products, ensuring that they are socially, economically fair and environmentally responsible.

From the description of the work and the objectives of the above-mentioned organizations, campaigners and businesses, we can see that it matches with the textbook definition of a social movement, which is “the more-or-less persistent and organized effort on the part of a relatively large number of people to bring about or resist change”- The Free Trade organizations that shared the same ideology, came together to