22 Dec Understanding Fairtrade in the Food processing industry

Trade of food items between countries has been happening since more than 700 years. Earlier it used to be a barter system and then turned to monetary exchange after introduction of currency. Trade was through ships and then later on through air.

Throughout trade history worldwide, particularly in the food chain, the farmers always received pittance whereas the traders received the major chunk of profits. This used to occur in spite of all the hard work and toiling done by farmers. To make sure that this didn’t happen, Fairtrade concept was introduced. Over the last few years, fairtrade has become a ‘buzzword’ used by scientists, socially active companies, international business development companies, and ethically aware retail customers.

Fairtrade simply means selling the final product to the consumer at a higher than market price and passing off the difference to the farmer so that he gets a fair price for the product that he/she grew and worked hard on.  It’s a global movement which also includes safe working conditions, environment sustainability and community development.

In terms of goals and objectives, fair trade shares a number of current international social justice and environmental movements. Fair trade is in line with the human rights, global democracy, and trade justice movements in their criticism of neoliberal globalization and support for political and economic fairness (Smith 2008).

Fairtrade promotes gender equality and disallows child labour. It also focuses on women empowerment.

Many Fairtrade products are organic certified also i.e. produced without the use of chemicals and pesticides. This helps enhance environmental sustainability also.

Consumers also play an important role in the chain. They should prefer to buy fairtrade products in order to support the farmers.

The most popular products in Fairtrade are coffee and chocolate as these are consumed most by volume.

In a capitalist world where inequalities exist in abundance, fairtrade acts as a beacon of hope for a more balanced future.

#fairtrade #organic #supportfarmers

References:

Smith, Jackie (2008), Social Movements for Global Democracy, Baltimore, MD: Johns
Hopkins University Press