Fair Trade

Résumé du document

Recently, economy organization suffers imbalances which affect agricultural product producers. Price and purchase conditions are imposed without possibility to negotiate and in the majority of the cases, the price of purchase are not sufficient to cover production costs. According to United Nations Organization of Food and Agriculture, within the 840 million of persons who suffer of hunger in 2005, 800 millions are growers. Commerce is very important in a society to create social link but, recently, its organization is out of producers and consumers knowledge. Indeed, consumers do not know product provenance and producers ignore their product destinations. Moreover, big companies impose their rule like the price and products. Thus, trade becomes a matter of power and profit. It represents a relation of dominant-dominated and the consequences are harmful for human beings, society, ecology and culture.

Extraits

[...] It's this principle that fair trade wants to re-establish. For more than forty years, fair trade proposes an efficient alternative to reduce inequalities engendered by conventional trade and to reattribute man place in the commercial exchanges. The members of this organization defend the following ideas: - Assure a good remuneration of labour to the most disadvantaged producers and artisans; let them respond to elementary needs. - Assure human rights' respect - Set up sustainable relation between economic partners - Promote environment protection - Propose to consumers products of quality - Sell trough the most possible short chain to avoid intermediary To have an idea of the context we are going to the different types of trade which exist: As far as fair trade is concerning, cooperatives establish the purchase price of the products in order to pay workers with the highest equity. [...]

[...] EFTA's goal is to promote fair trade and to enable Fair Trade to be more efficient and effective. The organization also publishes yearly various publications on the evolution of the fair trade market. EFTA currently has eleven members in nine different countries. During the 1990's years, the labeling movement's structure becomes more established. We could note the creation of the Fair trade Labeling Organizations International (FLO) in 1997, which is an association of three producer networks and twenty national labeling initiatives that promote and market the Fair trade Certification Mark in their countries. [...]

[...] Indeed, more of 8 French on 10 knows faire trade and 58% within them associate it to good quality products and 54% consider they are associated to a respect notion for developing producers. Thus, for some consumers buy fair trade products seems to be buy quality thanks to a social act. However, some consumers do not buy fair trade products. Why? First, the main reason evoked by consumers is the lake of exposition and accessibility. Moreover, in second reason, consumers speak about the price. They declare that fair trade products are more expensive than competitive products. [...]

[...] However, the impact of Fair Trade stays limited in the South countries and the sells capacity low. At the end of 1980's, in a café cooperative in Chiapas (Mexico) was born an idea, the labeling of fair products. The certification would have the benefice to offer to North consumers the possibility to buy fair products in hypermarkets, guaranteeing the respect of some ethical norms. This idea was concretized by Nico Roozen from the association Solidaridad and the Pere Frans Van der Hoff. [...]

[...] He must know that his attitude to the population can affect so positively than negatively the local population. All donations are forbidden for example and all kind of interventions must be controlled by responsible persons of community. As we have seen, forms of fair trade are varied. With fair tourism, fair trade system is developing and these changes let thinking that fair trade evolution isn't finished. So . Has Fair Trade a future? Yes, fair trade has a future, it can and has to be applied at more large scale. Fair trade represents only of global exchanges. [...]