Last summer foodlog.nl criticised Fair Trade. Bart Schmal, then living in Nicaragua, stated Fair Trade is just trade. As it helps building commercial flows for farmer cooperatives generating a commercially viable volume, Fair Trade doesn't necessarily provide better income for the poorest. Small, unorganised farmers - especially women, living off small patches of land - simply don't have access to the flows Fair Trade generates. They are just too small to get the attention they need so badly. In fact, one could argue that their bigger colleagues who do get the attention need it far less.
Fair Trade is rather big business. In order to be true to its name, it needs to be complemented by small scale or even individual fairness. Fair Trade most certainly helped to create trade and will do so even more when large corporates - such as Mars, Verkade and Sara Lee - seek Fair Trade ingredients. However, it doesn't necessarily help those without land who work it for the farmers that own it.

Fair trade merely facilitates trade and cannot support small or no structures at all. It doesn't interfere in remuneration policies for farm-hands. And almost by definition, it will progressively exclude small farmers. At its best, Fair Trade can be effective on a general economic level, but not - as Western consumers would expect - on an individual human level.
Big Fair Trade as it has grown up, isn't wrong. It's just not what we think it is: aid for individuals. On that level, Big Fair Trade's ways of campaigning and advertising need closer scrutiny. Consumers have a right to know in whose pockets ends up the Fair Trade premium they pay for.

During his stay in Nicaragua, Bart met Will Burke who tries to trade fairly in a way realising fairness and trade at the same time. Will founded a Chicago based fair trade company called Sol Simple. It imports dried fruits, coffee and nuts from small farmers. Will isn't interested in the Fair Trade label (the only one he likes to use is the US kosher-warranty). He just wants to make a living trading fairly and doing what consumers intuitively expect when they buy fair stuff.

Bart asked Will to state his feelings about Fair Trade. Something new and fair seems to be in the making.

This is how Will responded:
Thank you very much for your inquiry regarding fair trade. There are two kinds of fair trade: Trading fairly and trading fairly and certifying it. Not all products are able to be traded fairly. The reasons are that certified fair trade goods must come from a cooperative that has gone through the evaluation and expense of the Fair Trade Labeling Organization (FLO) evaluation and documentation. Most cooperatives, especially in Nicaragua, are not willing to commit to the effort. Fairly traded products cannot come from corporate farms either.

There are two ways to trade fairly: Pay at least an extra 10% than the market price so the cooperative uses the funds to support their community/member producers. This is the only way it can be certified. Or pay fairly, but also pay in advance; draft contracts that extend a year with quarterly reviews of the market price; promise to buy entire harvests; work only with small farmers whose product costs more than those that come from large scale or corporate farms.

I work directly with large NGO's that have a budget to help start cooperatives and get them certified for both fair trade and organic production (they often go hand in hand).I thus try to convince small farmers to organize by providing them with a guaranteed market. In Nicaragua, most farmers do not have the luxury to look to the future, as they need money now. That said, only my coffee is fair trade certified. I'm working on my bananas as well since they come from a cooperative. My cashew cooperative will not get certified because they refuse to. They don't like the paperwork. My pineapples and mango will not be certified for a long time as there are no cooperatives that are able to supply us with mango and pineapple. These are crops that traditionally are grown on small properties (5 manzanas or so). Each pineapple/mango farmer sells to the trucks that drive by.

What we do with the cashews, pineapple, mango and banana is guarantee contracts and pay over the market price. For example, mangos are going for about 35 cordobas per 100 right now. I pay 50 cordobas per 100 mangos. Pineapples are usually around 50 cords per 12 pineapples, while I pay around 70 per 12. I do this and honor written and verbal contracts with all my producers. They prefer to sell to me and I get a better product as a result. I do not buy from medium and large scale farms, only small producers.

Lastly, my products in the US cost no more than our competition. In most cases, we are cheaper, so there is no extra profit margin that we can either enjoy ourselves or give back to the community.

So, fair trade does not necessarily mean that the producer in the end is getting more money. It also means that they are being guaranteed a sale, getting paid in advance and can plan their production for the following harvests with companies like mine because it's a partnership.

I hope that helps. Please let me know if you have any questions.
With thanks,
Will


As Will Burke is happy to participate in our discussion, please don't be shy and let's stick to English in this thread

Please note that it relates very much to the mindset of Olivier de Schutter and Niels Roling in De Rode Hoed last week. Mainstream Fair Trade might be part of a mechanistic paradigm to save the poor in general, while leaving too large a number truly needy individuals in distress and aggravating their destiny.

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