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FAIRTRADEA labelling system which guarantees that you are shopping ethically when you buy products with this Mark |
Look for this Mark on products when you shop |
What Is FAIRTRADE? |
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Fairtrade goods are not the cheapest, but when you buy them you are assured that:
Fairtrade works with individual producers, producer co-operatives and with local plantations and factories to benefit producers, workers and their communities.
By giving third world producers access to our markets on advantageous terms, Fairtrade helps them to help themselves. The more we buy, the more we help. UK sales are now around £100 million per year.
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How Can We Support FAIRTRADE? |
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Buy Fairtrade products at every opportunity.
Look for the FAIRTRADE Mark:
If you can’t find Fairtrade products where you want to buy them, let the shop management know by asking, by letter or via supermarkets’ customer comment boxes. The best way of keeping them in the shops is to buy them. |
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Who’s Behind FAIRTRADE? |
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Fairtrade labelling began in the Netherlands in the late
1980s. There are now 19 national organisations in consumer countries around the world managing and monitoring the
Fairtrade label. They operate under the guidance of an international standard setting and monitoring body,
Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO). The UK face of Fairtrade is The Fairtrade Foundation. It was established in 1992 as a registered charity. Its shareholders include CAFOD, Christian Aid, the Methodist Relief and Development Fund, the URC, Traidcraft, the World Development Movement, Oxfam and the National Federation of Women’s Institutes. Fairtrade certified products come from 422 certified producer groups (including many co-operatives of small producers) in 49 producer countries, as at September 2004. Around 5 million people (farmers or workers and their families) benefit. More details are on the websites of the Fairtrade Foundation ( www.fairtrade.org.uk ) and the FLO (www.fairtrade.net ). Critics of Fairtrade argue that it does not address the real problem of unfair international trade rules; helps delay inevitable changes in the structure of farming; and mostly eases middle class consumer consciences. Until world trade rules change, however, it is an effective way for us to assist poor third world producers right now. |
Based upon document produced by the Justice & Peace Group in Wheathampstead (February 2005)