Unit 5 Assignment : Fair Trade

Fair-Trade brought in the market a concept that seemed to have brought some

relief for farmers and producers in developing countries, by charging consumers

premiums prices and reversing a portion of that to farmers and producers against good

farming and labor practices. This indirect way of helping farmers in the developing

world was revealed to be problematic at several levels. We will analyze and navigate

in the following lines the world surrounding Fair-Trade.

After studying this chapter, I am neither more likely nor less likely to buy fair

trade coffee because I am not really convinced of the trustworthiness of the program as

a whole and how is structured and run. I am kind of inclined to think that it is just a

masquerade from developed countries that are putting it I place just to have a less

guilty conscience over the producers that they used to rip off and buy their product

very cheaply. I have even never paid attention to any “Fair Trade” label on coffees. I

believe I have seen the Fair-Trade stuff before in the news, but I was not aware that

coffees were labeled to be from Fair Trade dealings. Regardless of that and everything

I have studied in this chapter; I am not inclined at all to buy Fair Trade coffee because

there a lot of ambiguity surrounding the whole thing. I don’t think producers get any

significant return on the Fair-Trade coffees that are being sold.

The best way of achieving the objectives of improving the lives of developing-

country farmers and producers than the Fair-Trade approach, in my humble opinion,
would be to buy the units of coffee at a fair price. It is the only way I truly believe will

help farmers and producers. Units of coffee need to be bought at a direct fair price that

would enable them to make a living. Indirectly charging consumers for a labeled Fair-

Trade coffee after that coffee traded hands before giving back a percentage of the

premiums charged for such products is just a masquerade that needs to stop. Why

don’t those buying the coffee from the farmer pay the adequate price directly to

farmers, then do whatever they want to do with it for a profit? Companies buying

coffee should directly pay a decent price to farmers before transforming it or reselling

it for profit.

I cannot speak for all the consumers that buy Fair-Trade products but I think

there are quite a few reasons why they do so. The first one I can think of is that some

consumers buy Fair-Trade products because they firmly believe in the good that the

program brings to farmers and producers in terms of returns. It might be a good cause

if those farmers and producers would actually get significant returns from the sales of

such products in developed countries. But I think the reality is pretty far from the

expectation. Producing Fair-Trade products cost more money than usual, and the

producers get very little money from the cut that retailers charge consumers for the so-

called Fair-Trade products.

Another reason I can think of is the fact that some consumers buy Fair-Trade products

in the belief that it is produced in environment-friendly setups and in accordance with

labor laws and fair wages paid to the workers. That reason can easily turn out to be a

myth because “there are a number of reports and investigations that indicate that Fair-
Trade inspections are unreliable.” (Jimenez, n.d.). From that, we can draw the

conclusion that Fair-Trade organizations do not actually have any serious oversight on

how the goods are produced.

In conclusion, Fair-Trade seems to be a very complex world to understand, making the

true benefits of it clouded and difficult to believe in because of all the opacity

surrounding the structure and the dealings of the organizations that are leading it.

References
Jimenez, G. C. (n.d.). 8. Fair Trade – Good Corporation, Bad Corporation: Corporate
Social Responsibility in the Global Economy. Pressbooks. Retrieved December 16,
2020, from https://milnepublishing.geneseo.edu/good-corporation-bad-
corporation/chapter/8-fair-trade/