The North enjoys the products of the South: coffee, tea, sugar, cocoa, rice, bananas, and many other products from Africa, Asia or Latin America. For a long time they have been a common feature of our standard of living, here in Europe and in Northern America.
However, the ones producing these goods usually cannot even cover their basic needs from their income. Many of these small-scale farmers in developing countries are dependent on weak world market prices for coffee, tea and sugar. The sole economic dependency on a low paid raw material for most of these family farmers means a life in continuous poverty.
To make our coffee cheaper, the coffee farmers often have to bear more and more hardship. Mind you, their standard of living is usually way below ours anyway.
Fair Trade tackles this problem. It is an innovative, market-based approach to sustainable development. Fair Trade helps small family farmers in developing countries to gain direct access to international markets and to receive fair prices for their products. This allows them to be self-determined in their economic activity, and to improve their standard of living with regard to income, health and education - without continuous dependency on foreign aid.
By receiving a fair price, Fair Trade producers can also avoid cost-cutting practices that sacrifice quality. For us, the consumers, this means that we receive exceptional, high quality products, produced in accordance with organic farming principles wherever possible. These products are imported directly from developing countries, under controlled conditions, with a guarantee of origin.
Products bearing the FAIRTRADE sign guarantee you that they have been produced and traded under fair conditions for the producers in the developing countries - and they guarantee relish with a clear conscience!
For more information access the Fair Trade site.