Frequently Asked Questions

Fairtrade is the concept of trading in such a way that the producer is guaranteed a fair price, decent working conditions and a premium payment to invest in community development. The Fairtrade Foundation is the organisation that oversees Fairtrade standards in the UK and promotes the Fairtrade Mark but they do not themselves sell any Fairtrade products.Traidcraft is a particular fair trade company and charity which exists to fight poverty through trade. Traidcraft develops and sells a wide range of fair trade products in order to benefit producers in the developing world. As a dedicated fair trade organisation, Traidcraft is always trying to have the biggest possible impact on poverty through its work, seeking out particularly disadvantaged producer groups to work with and developing fair trade into new product areas.

The Fairtrade Mark is only available on those products which have internationally-agreed Fairtrade criteria attached to them. These criteria are developed by the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation (FLO). Most certifiable products are food products, and cotton has recently been added to the list.

There are a number of good reasons why a product might not carry the Mark:

• FLO may not have developed criteria for that product type: this is particularly the case for non-food items such as fair trade crafts, but can also apply to specific food ingredients.
• The product may contain fair trade ingredients, but not a sufficient proportion to justify carrying the Mark on the whole product.
• Producer groups may not be registered with FLO as producers of Fairtrade products. This may be because they are too small to justify the costs of certification, or because they are still in the process of working, with the support of a fair trade organisation, towards meeting Fairtrade standards. This may be necessary to get an impoverished community into the fair trade system.

For a product to be able to carry the Fairtrade Mark, there must be Fairtrade standards for that particular product. The International Fairtrade Labelling Organisation develops standards on a commodity-by-commodity basis because different supply chains work so differently - it is not possible to simply have generic criteria that are easily applied to different commodities in different countries. For example, Fairtrade works hard to ensure that the Fairtrade price covers a sustainable cost of living for producers - this cost of living may be different in Bolivia from India, but both countries may grow coffee beans.
For many non-food products (like handicrafts) the supply chains are so complex and the products are produced on such a smaller scale that it is unlikely they will ever carry the Fairtrade Mark.

Then how can I trust that they're really fairly traded?