Fairtrade

International trade may seem a remote issue, but when commodity prices fall dramatically it has a catastrophic impact on the lives of millions of small scale producers, forcing many into crippling debt and countless others to lose their land and their homes.

Too many farmers in the developing world have to contend with fluctuating prices that may not even cover what it costs to produce their crop.

Development agencies recognised the important role that consumers could play to improve the situation for producers. By buying direct from farmers at better prices, helping to strengthen their organisations and marketing their produce directly through their own one world shops and catalogues, the charities offered consumers the opportunity to buy products which were bought on the basis of a fair trade.

Fairtrade Labelling was created in the Netherlands in the late 1980s. Max Havelaar launched the first Fairtrade consumer guarantee label in 1986 on coffee sourced from Mexico.

Today, there are now 19 organisations including the Fairtrade Foundation, that run the international standard setting and monitoring body Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International.

Find out more about Fairtrade at www.fairtrade.org.uk