"While you go shopping for delicious Fairtrade food and drink, people in the developing world are earning a decent living, feeding their family, putting their children through school. Fighting poverty." In just a few words, Oxfam encapsulates the movement's determination to end years of exploitation, addressing the unfair balance of trade in favour of the developed countries. With access to up to the minute news telling of horrific suffering, anything else is hard to swallow - for businesses and consumers alike, it's a question of ethics.

Meeting the criteria

The FAIRTRADE Mark is an independent consumer label, which appears on products as an independent guarantee that disadvantaged producers in the developing world are getting this better deal. For a product to display the FAIRTRADE Mark, it must meet international Fairtrade standards. The international certification body - Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO) - sets these standards. Producer organisations that supply Fairtrade products are inspected and certified by FLO. They receive a minimum price that covers the cost of sustainable production and an extra premium that is invested in social or economic development projects. The Fairtrade Foundation licenses the FAIRTRADE Mark to products in the UK, which meet FLO standards. The supplier (brand-owner or main national distributor) must sign the Foundation's Licence Agreement, which provides a licence to use the Mark.

Gaining momentum

Around 20 years ago, development agencies recognised the potentially powerful role that consumers could play in improving the situation for producers. By buying direct from farmers at a better price and then marketing their produce directly through their own ‘one-world' shops and catalogues, the charities offered consumers the opportunity to buy products on the basis of fair trade. This enabled the end user to vote with their wallets against the outrageous economic mistreatment of the developing world.

Fairtrade Labelling appeared first in the Netherlands in the late 1980s. The Max Havelaar Foundation launched the first Fairtrade consumer guarantee label in 1988 on coffee sourced from Mexico.

In March 1994, the FAIRTRADE mark was launched on its first ever product in the UK, Green & Black's Maya Gold organic chocolate. The first tea (Clipper Fairtrade tea) and first coffees (Cafédirect roast & ground and freeze dried, instant coffee) took the Fairtrade mark later in the year.

In January of 1997 Fairtrade coffee became widely available to the catering trade and a campaign was launched to target restaurants and institutions.

By 2006 over 1500 Fairtrade retail and catering products were available in the UK; initially perceived as quite bohemian, the tireless efforts of charities, brand innovators and celebrities all helping the cause by waving the Fairtrade flag, had finally made it fashionable. Whatever their motivations, consumers up and down the country opted to make a statement for Fairtrade, impacting positively on the sale of ethical goods and improving the lives of those that had produced them.

The journey continues

Back in 2006, an article in The Guardian said that a third of British shoppers were prepared to spend more on "ethical" foods. Referring to the latest Mintel report, it highlighted that three quarters of British people believed they had a duty to recycle - up from 65% in 2002, and 34% said they bought Fairtrade-branded goods when available, compared with 25% in 2002.

Fast forward to recession hit 2009, and one has to ask whether the consumer's increasingly tightened purse strings has forced him to reconsider such ideals. Not so, says Michael Gidney, from the fair trade charity Traidcraft. "In fact, in the UK, annual sales of Fairtrade-certified goods increased by more than 40% last year, to £700m. This is exceptional growth, good for producers in developing countries but clearly also good for UK businesses. It shows that, despite the credit crunch, UK consumers want to support fair trade," he told Public Service Review on International Development, in April.

Gidney went so far as to suggest that Fairtrade actually offers a solution to the economic turbulence. It benefits producers and helps to sustain them though the fluctuations of the global marketplace, he said. In addition, it demonstrates that it is possible to trade sustainably and it makes good business sense to do so he insisted, adding that this is why we have seen the conversion of major product categories to Fairtrade.

Despite its growth, Gidney warned against a complacent attitude toward Fairtrade: "Small-scale producers in developing countries are at the sharp end of globalisation. They are subject to the same volatility that affects UK and US stock markets, but without the social safety nets available in richer countries. For many, fair trade is a lifeline. While producers line up to sell on fair trade terms, the challenge is to build the markets around the world for their produce. More than ever, they need consumers to continue looking for fair trade goods. Fair trade companies are responding by helping to create new standards and bringing new products to market." Continuing brand innovation and a commitment toward marketing and consumer awareness campaigns remain vital in the current economic climate.

IGD surveyed over 1,000 UK shoppers in December and claimed that the country's consumers are still supporting ethical products despite the downturn, reported Just Food in February. According to the survey, 25% of consumers bought Fairtrade products in the previous month, up from 9% in 2006. The proportion of shoppers buying food made according to higher animal welfare standards had risen from 14% in 2008 to 18%.

IGD chief executive Joanne Denney-Finch told Just Food that while consumers had become more "price sensitive", they were still looking to buy ethical products: "Shoppers are not leaving their ethical concerns at home when they go food shopping. The aspiration for high quality, more sustainable food remains, but people are scrutinising closely to get the best value for their values."

Ethical diversification

As with any movement, some of its followers have branched out their own, with the Fairtrade model being adapted to reflect the ongoing research into global trade. Some see the Fairtrade criteria as a misguided ‘one size fits all' approach to ‘making a difference'. As a result, many brands have actively sought out ways to create bespoke trading models that better serve the needs of individual plantations.

Brighter Tomorrow at Origin is the name for the FLAVIA (Mars Drinks brand) programme of work with Farmers in Kenya. It has a similar objective to Fairtrade, but operates slightly differently.

"A large percentage of coffee in Kenya is produced by small cooperatives rather than large coffee estates," explains Daniel Vennard, sustainability director at Mars Drinks. "These smallholders and cooperatives often don't have the resources required to develop productive facilities and sustainable farming techniques. Brighter Tomorrow at Origin aims to help improve conditions and enhance the quality of their product, thereby commanding a higher price for their yield."

Brighter Tomorrow at Origin is part of the Mars Drinks ‘Thirsty for Change' programme. This aims to take an all encompassing approach to sustainable business - sourcing ingredients from sustainable farms, developing recycling initiatives, as well as delivering innovative energy efficient products to workplaces around the world. Successfully established three years ago, it expresses the Mars ‘five principles' of working: Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency and Freedom, in terms of coffee sourcing.

Vending International also spoke to Martin Armitt, marketing controller at Aimia Foods, to find out more about the diversification of Fairtrade products in the vending sector, he had this to say:

"Consumers clearly like to choose fair and ethically sourced products. According to AC Nielsen, 53% of people like the convenience of supporting good causes through purchase decisions, as opposed to 11% who prefer to donate money directly.  Therefore fair and ethically sourced products are a marketing opportunity - that's okay as long as they operate with high integrity. 

"What I think is interesting is that some of the fair and ethical schemes seem to almost rival each other and I think there is scope for more dual certified products, for example Fairtrade-Organic or Fairtrade and RFA dual certificate. The models also work slightly differently - Rainforest Alliance in particular has a different model to Fairtrade that makes it more viable across large brands. This is why we have seen large brands like PG Tips and Kenco adopt it. Clearly the certification applies to products grown in the developing world - in the case of hot drinks that is coffee, hot chocolate and tea.  Aimia has fair and ethically certified products in all these areas - in fact, 80 per cent of our coffee sales now come from fair and ethical sources - and we are looking to increase this all the time."

Whether brands operate under the Fairtrade banner or an equally ethical alternative, this can only be a good thing for the producers of our everyday consumables. Individuals and businesses alike are keen to show that they care, or at least appear as though they do, so continued demand should ensure increasing production on the basis of fair trade for years to come.

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