Who they are

The Fairtrade Foundation is an independent non-profit organization.

Fair Trade is all about putting people first. It is against poverty and helps the people to get a fair wage. Fairtrade offers producers a fair deal and improved terms of trade.

History

The concept of fair trade began in the 1940’s with some shops and church groups in the US and Europe.

EFTA (The European Fair Trade Association)

IFAT (The International Association for Fair Trade) – a global network of hundreds of organisations

Who is behind Fairtrade

Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO) – is responsible for the strategic direction of Faitrade

FLO-CERT – independent certification company

Fairtrade Labelling Initiatives

Fairtrade Producer Networks - associations that Fairtrade certified producer groups may join

Fairtrade Marketing Organizations - organizations that market and promote Fairtrade in their country

The Fairtrade mark

· the producers and traders have met Fairtrade standards.

Fairtrade standardards

They relate to three areas of sustainable development: social development, economic development and environmental development.

Fairtrade minimum price

This is the price that a buyer of Fairtrade products has to pay to the Producer Organization. It is not a fixed price and when the market price is higher than the Fairtrade minimum, the buyer must pay the market price.

Prouducts

There are a lot of Fairtrade products in many major supermarkets and independent shops like Nah und Frisch, Billa, BIPA, DM Drogeriemarkt.

Fairtrade, climate and environnement

The Fairtrade system includes environmental standards as part of producer certification. The standard requires producers to work to protect the natural environnement.

How big is Fairtrade?

Today about 7.5 million people benefit from Fairtrade.