WHAT IS FAIR TRADE?
Fair trade is a global movement that seeks to achieve greater equity in international trade by establishing trading partnerships based on dialogue, transparency, respect and by promoting a sustainable and ethical system for development.

The fair trade model offers producers, traders and consumers a way to directly engage in the fight against poverty and exploitation: fair trade relies on a series of principles that guarantees fair deals for producers, rights for workers and protection of the environment. 

The fair trade partnership involves producers, traders, retailers and consumers. The movement started in the USA and Europe following the Second World war as a way to address the inequities of the global trading system and to express solidarity with exploited producers in the developing world. Although initially fair trade supplied a niche market, it has developed into a professional and more mainstream sector over the past decade. Some markets have reported an increase of sales of fair trade products of over 70%. Increasingly, consumers are demanding healthy and ethically sound produced products. The huge growth in the fair trade market presents a great opportunity for marginalised producers to get involved in fair trade.

HOW DID IT START??
The fair trade movement started in the 1940s, when small US and European organisations began trading directly with handicraft producers in least developed countries. These so-called Alternative Trading Organisations (ATOs) were for the first time offering an alternative method to conventional trade by ensuring producers and their communities a fair price for their goods. 

The impacts of such alternative trading relationships proved to be very successful in the upliftment of livelihoods in underdeveloped areas. As a result, during the next decades the model was replicated in other commodities' supply chains, e.g. agricultural goods. Many small farmers in the South were in fact victims of middlemen who often cheated on the quality and quantities of their produce. At the same time, the rules of global trade became increasingly harsher for Southern producers and workers, and exploitative practices a daily habit.

Fair trade was born with the aim to establish trustful partnerships between producers, workers, traders and consumers, and to achieve a way of trading that is fair and focused on sustainable development.

Currently fair trade is an active global movement supported by thousands of producers and traders, millions of consumers and a huge network of grassroots and support organisations.