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In the late 1970s and early 1980s, US- and Canadian-based entrepreneurs who defined their businesses with the producers at heart began to meet regularly, exchange ideas, and network. This informal group, known as the North American Alternative Trade Organization (NAATO) would evolve into the Fair Trade Federation and formally incorporate in 1994.
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economics
Written byPeter Bondarenko
Peter Bondarenko
Former Assistant Editor, Economics, Encyclopædia Britannica.
Fact-checked byThe Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
There is no consensus regarding a starting date of the fair trade movement. However, an instrumental development was a visit in 1946 by the pioneering American businesswoman Edna Ruth Byler to a women’s sewing group run by the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in Puerto Rico. Byler began selling the group’s crafts to friends and neighbours in the United States. In 1962 her project was adopted by the MCC as the Overseas Needlework and Crafts Project. It was renamed Ten Thousand Villages in 1996.
In 1949 a nonprofit organization called SERRV (Sales Exchange for Refugee Rehabilitation and Vocations) was established in the United States by the Church of the Brethren to form trade relationships with poor communities in South America. The first formal fair trade shop in the United States, where goods from SERRV and other organizations were sold, was established in 1958.
Europe joined the movement during the late 1950s, when the Quaker-led Oxford Committee for Famine Relief—now Oxfam International—began selling arts and crafts made by Chinese refugees in its shops in the United Kingdom. In 1964 the organization introduced handicrafts and Christmas cards made in other developing countries.
Parallel developments took place in the Netherlands, led by the charitable Roman Catholic organization S.O.S. Wereldhandel, later renamed Fair Trade Original. In 1967 Fair Trade Original began purchasing products from producer groups in developing countries, initially importing wood carvings from the slums of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and later establishing subsidiaries in West Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Belgium.
In 1968, developing countries adopted a new political agenda at the second session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in New Delhi, emphasizing the message “Trade not aid” and advocating the establishment of equitable trade relationships between developed and developing countries. Although the agenda adopted in the UNCTAD was never fully implemented at the national level, its message contributed to the spread of fair trade practices around the world, thanks in large part to citizen-led initiatives.
In 1969 the first World Shop opened its doors in the Dutch town of Breukelen, initially selling sugarcane and handicrafts imported by Fair Trade Original. In 1973 coffee was added to the fair trade product line, with the first imports coming from cooperatives in Guatemala. Over time a range of products including tea, cocoa, sugar, wine, nuts, and spices were introduced, paralleling a significant increase in the number of World Shops, or Fair Trade shops, around the world.
Since the mid-20th century the fair trade movement has changed the lives of thousands of workers in developing countries by providing them with access to European and North American markets. The movement created a global industry and continues to expand, with organizations at all levels involved.
Critics, however, have argued that the expansion of the fair trade movement has come with significant costs. Some have charged that the fair trade label has been used as a marketing tool to entice consumers in developed countries to pay higher prices for certain products whose sale does little to benefit producers in poor countries. They argue that the fair trade label, whose initial aim was to empower local producers by identifying fair trade businesses and products, has been diluted over time and is now being used merely as a guarantee against exploitation. Furthermore, corporate plantations and big businesses have emerged in poor countries to compete against local fair trade products to the detriment of workers. Despite its imperfections, however, the fair trade movement continues to provide opportunities to marginalized workers throughout the world.
The first fair trade agricultural products were coffee and tea, quickly followed by dried fruits, cocoa, sugar, fruit juices, rice, spices and nuts. Coffee quickly became the main growth engine behind fair trade: between 25 and 50% of the total alternative trading organization turnover in 2005 came from coffee sales. [12]
Fair Trade network 1989 Fair Trade Labeling Organizations formed, which led to a third-party label in the U.S. in 1998 managed by TransFair USA 1997 Fair Trade Federation formed, as first network of FTOs in N. America 1994 Fair Trade retail sales in U.S. top $1 billion, worldwide tops $2.5 billion 2007 750 people participate in Fair Trade ...
sales were running at £100m for the first time, in the 10th year of Fairtrade. Launch of Fairtrade Flowers Fairtrade flowers launch with Fairtrade roses in Tesco stores. Today Fairtrade roses are available in most UK supermarkets including Co-op, Waitrose and Aldi. AMT and M&S Café Revive switch 100% to Fairtrade
During its history of over 60 years, Fair Trade has developed into a widespread movement with recognition on a political and mainstream business level. The Fair Trade movement today is a global movement. Over a million small-scale producers and workers are organised in as many as 3,000 grassroots organisations and their umbrella structures in ...
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The fair trade movement fixated on coffee first because it is a highly traded commodity for most producing countries, and almost half the world's coffee is produced by smallholder farmers. [37] At first fair trade coffee was sold at small scale; now multinationals like Starbucks and Nestlé use fair trade coffee. [85]
