RAI - Social Action Department

Guidelines

in collaboration with Fair trade Italia (www.fairtradeitalia.it)

What is Fair Trade?
The criteria of Fair Trade
Who are the people of Fair Trade?
The products of Fair Trade

Why should we buy the products of Fair Trade?

Where can we find the products of Fair Trade?
The label Fair trade
A world system: some figures
The Guidelines
The benefits of Fair Trade: the testimonies
Useful Links

1. What is Fair Trade?

Fair Trade is a commercial partnership based on dialogue, transparency and respect that tries to establish a major equality on the international market.
It contributes to a sustainable development offering better commercial conditions and guaranteeing the rights of disadvantaged producers and workers of the south of the world.
The objectives of Fair Trade are different: working with disadvantaged producers and workers in order to help them pass from a vulnerable condition to a self-sufficient economic one; making producers and workers active part in their organizations; playing a more active role in the global scenario in order to reach a major equality in the international trade.

Return to menu

2. The criteria of Fair Trade

There are seven basic criteria on which Fair Trade is based:

paying a minimum price to the local producers in order to enable them and their families to satisfy their basic needs and to reach a life standard;
paying a Fair Trade premium that producers must use in projects of social development;
providing the most disadvantaged producers a pre-financing to sustain the production costs and avoid asking for a loan;
creating a lasting cooperation between importers and producers based on mutual respect;
favouring the direct import to pay producers and craftsmen the most;
the production is realized in the respect of the environment promoting biological farming and preferring low-impact environmental processes from the cultivation to the distribution;
the production is realized in the respect of the environment promoting biological farming and preferring low-impact environmental processes from the cultivation to the distribution.

Return to menu

3. Who are the people of Fair Trade?

The producers

Farmers, craftsmen associated in organizations and employees of local firms or plantations located in disadvantaged areas of the countries of the south of the world.
Fair trade guarantees the producers new trading channels in the countries of the north of the world, besides providing them technical assistance on the production and fixing the highest prices on their products compared with the conventional commercial practices.
From their side, the producers commit themselves to a common and democratic management of their business.
Fair Trade guarantees the employees the respect the ILO Conventions in the workplace.
The producers and the employees will be responsible for managing the premium in a democratic way.

The traders
They are importers and exporters that take care of the transfer of the products from the countries of production to the countries of consumption.
The importers can be specialized organizations in Fair trade (named central import organizations) or firms that decide to import a part of goods deriving from Fair Trade. In some cases the producers use the exporters until they acquire the competences needed to run this business autonomously.

The distributors
They are organizations that sell the products of the Fair Trade chain to the final consumers of the western countries.
At the beginning of the Fair Trade, they were only “Fair Trade Shops”, that is shops run by non-profit organizations.
At present the Fair Trade products are available also in lots of the chains of the big distribution, in traditional shops, in vending machines and cafés.

FLO (Fair trade Labelling Organization International)
It is the world organization for the Fair trade product labelling. It guarantees that the Fair trade labelled products are in compliance with the criteria on which Fair trade is based and contribute to the development of the producers. The label has been created to enable the consumers to recognize the products that respect the Fair trade guidelines from the production to the distribution.

Return to menu

5. Why should we buy a Fair trade product?

Buying a Fair trade labelled product guarantees that the purchase has been made without causing exploitation or poverty in the south of the world.
The production process is in compliance with the environment promoting biological farming and privileging low-impact environmental processes: from the cultivation to the distribution.
At the same price as the other products, therefore, the Fair trade products guarantee some fundamental principles: the provenience (they arrive from the producer to the consumer); the made (it is not based on the exploitation of the multinational chains and offers long-term contracts), the authenticity of the final product (authentically biological, plus grown or made in the respect of the environment).

Return to menu

6. Where can we find Fair trade products?

The range of the Fair trade labelled products is available in over 5,000 outlets, among which lots of big distribution brands (the list of the big distribution is available on www.fairtradeitalia.it/gdo.asp?sez=4&subsez=1), specialized biological farming shops, the Fair Trade Shops, that play an informative role in sensitizing and promoting the Fair Trade activities (the list of the Fair Trade Shops is available on www.commercioalternativo.it/comes/botteghe.phtml).
Nowadays the Fair trade products are also available in lots of cafés, restaurants and bed & breakfast.
They are more and more present in the tenders for food catering companies in school, town halls and regional office canteens (www.cittaequosolidali.it ) and its consumption is more and more frequent also in the sector of automatic distribution: there are several companies and governmental offices in Italy that offer Fair trade products (coffee, chocolate, snacks, fresh fruits).

Return to menu

7. The Fairtrade label

Fair trade is the label run in Italy by the non-profit Consortium Fair trade TransFair Italia.
The Consortium is made of institutions of the Third Sector, such as Arci, Acli, Banca Etica, Legambiente, Mani Tese, Movimento Consumatori, born in 1994 to sponsor the Fair trade products in the big distribution. Fair trade Italia joins FLO Fair trade Labelling Organizations International, international federation of labels that comprises 20 “national label initiatives” and a “Producers' Network”, that represents the producers' organizations from Latin America, Central America, Africa and Asia. FLO is the world organization that establishes the Fair trade standard for the producers and workers of the south of the world and for the traders (importers, exporters and transformers).

The Fair trade label on the products guarantees:

the producers of the south of the world have received a higher price than that old conventional trade in order to cover the production costs;
the producers have received a Fair trade premium to destine to social development and health projects that involve the entire community such as building schools, roads, infrastructures and hospitals as well as training courses, scholarships for the producers' children, etc.
the producers work in the respect of the environment and the local bio-diversity promoting low-impact environmental processes. A great number of organizations use the Fair trade premium to convert their farming activities into biological ones.

In the Fair Trade Shops, the former Fair trade shops, along with food products, there are also handicrafts imported from specialized organizations. The organizations that collect national labelled initiatives, Fair Trade Shops, import centrals, producers of the south of the world, are represented by FINE, European Fair trade network coordination.

For further information on Fair trade label:

www.fairtrade.net
www.fairtradeitalia.it

For further information on Fair trade in Europe:
www.fairtrade-advocacy.org

Return to menu

8. A world system: some figures

National label initiatives: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, Mexico, Norway, New Zealand, Holland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Usa.

Producers' organizations: Argentina, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Camerun, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros Island, Ivory Coast, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Philippines, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Laos, Malawi, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, New Papua, Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Democratic Republic of Congo, Dominican Republic, Rwanda, Senegal, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor East, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Venezuela, Vietnam, Windward Island, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Producers' Fair trade labelled organizations in 2007: 632

Global sales of Fair trade labelled products in 2007: 2,3 million Euros

People that indirectly benefit from Fair trade, producers, workers, families: 7 million

Importers: 650

Countries where Fair trade products are made: 60

Return to menu

9. Guidelines

In July 2006 in Strasburg the European Parliament Resolution on Fair trade and development (2005/2245(INI) was approved, recognizing Fair trade as a valid means of economic growth for the south of the world and inviting the European Commission to adopt actions in order to promote Fair trade from different perspectives, such as educational and fiscal.
In Italy, the regional assemblies of Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Lazio, Tuscany and Liguria have approved resolutions and laws that refer to fair trade.
Local regulations on fair trade have also been issued by many municipal administrations.
On a national level, two resolutions have been issued by the Italian Parliament: the Fioroni motion, approved by the Senate in 2002, and the Iovene motion, approved by the Lower Chamber in 2003, that recognize fair trade as a social model and as commercial opportunity for disadvantaged producers.
In July 2007, Mr Realacci, MP and President of Aies (Inter-parliamentary Association on Fair trade), presented a law draft aimed at regulating the all system.

Return to menu

10. Fairtrade benefits: the testimonies

“We have not become rich with our three-hectares cocoa and banana plantation, that give us about $ 2,300 a year, but we have bought a boat, clothes and saved up for diseases and our dream: to open a shop here”.
Aida Moreno Maiorca, Appta member, cocoa producer from Costa Rica

“The highest contribution of fair trade is having transformed agriculture into a rewarding occupation that farmers are determined to pursuit in dignity. The producers are really proud to export their fair trade coffee in the most demanding world markets.”
Santiago Paz, director of Cepicafe, coffee producer from Peru

“Our experience in Ambootia confirms the strong bond among biological farming,bio-dynamic, fairtrade and social development. Ambootia has develped a well-integrated community, self-sufficient, ecologically and economically sustainable”.
Ambootia Tea Garden, tea plantation from India

“My first objective is to see all my children at university and in order to realize this dream I need all the aids possible. I am grateful to the support from fair trade. I would really like to convince the consumers to keep buying more and more Fair trade labelled flowers; in that way we can help our life conditions, and our families and communities' ones”.
Hellen Anyango Osiago, Oserian worker, flower plantation in Kenya

Return to menu

1. What is Fair Trade?

2. The criteria of Fair Trade

3. Who are the people of Fair Trade?

5. Why should we buy a Fair trade product?

6. Where can we find Fair trade products?

7. The Fairtrade label

8. A world system: some figures

9. Guidelines

10. Fairtrade benefits: the testimonies

11. Useful Links