Top 10 fair trade products
Fair trade products can be a moral minefield. First of all, there is fair trade and then there is Fairtrade with a capital F. We normally prefer a product to have an official Fairtrade certification and sport the Fairtrade Mark, which means it has undergone rigorous scrutiny and lives up to the Fairtrade Foundation -- or the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation (FLO) -- standards, which ensure that farmers in the developing world receive a fair price for their produce, farm in an environmentally sustainable way and look after their communities.
But it's not all that easy. At the moment it's mostly food and some cotton clothes, body care products, roses and footballs that can be certified Fairtrade. There are alternative fair trade standards, such as the International Fair Trade Association (IFAT) and the British Association of Fair Trade Shops (BAFTS), which guarantee that factories and shops respectively adhere to fair trade principles, but no system so far is as comprehensive as the FLO Fairtrade certification.
Holidays, gadgets, footwear, jewellery and many other things cannot be certified Fairtrade yet, which means they have to come up with alternative ways to show us consumers they are fair to the people who produce or make the products in question.
Equal Exchange coffee, Pants to Poverty Condom Pocket Pants and Divine chocolate in particular are great examples of certified Fairtrade products, which rely on the standards of the Mark. Incredible transparency within the companies shows us just how much difference we can make to the producers by buying these products rather than a conventional non-Fairtrade product. We think Divine is about as Fairtrade as it gets as the cocoa farmers who grow the cocoa for Divine actually own half the company. The certified Fairtrade dress from People Tree also goes beyond the standards of Fairtrade because it was made by particularly marginalised women in Bangladesh.
Other companies, such as clothing brand Amana, 'made' jewellery, The Fair Trade Furniture Company (FTFC) and Veja trainers, rely on consumers to trust them as they don't have any official certifications. Like People Tree, the four uncertified fair trade companies have picked their producer groups carefully. Amana works with a group of women in the Moroccan Atlas Mountains.
Made's decision to work with people in Kenya, who wouldn't be able to get jobs elsewhere, is perhaps more important now than ever and Veja works with the Seringueiros latex tappers as they live very sustainably and work to protect the Brazilian rain forest. Because all four companies' transparency makes their claims relatively uncomplicated to 'check', we do trust them. Especially Amana, FTFC and made, as the founders of the companies are very open and easy to contact for information.
The Veja trainers, meanwhile, are in the process of getting the canvas certified Fairtrade, which makes us feel the company really wants to be as Fairtrade as possible. And while we love most everything about Amana at the moment, we think it's important the company starts looking a certifications soon. Right now we can ring up the owners with questions, but when as the company grows it will need a third party endorsement ensuring that its claims are true. Made is working towards getting an IFAT certification and is in talks with FLO about Fairtrade certifications for jewellery, which we appreciate.
The reason we like The United Pepper Lili Webcam -- except for its design -- is that it has shown the world it is possible to make gadgets in a more responsible way. While we wouldn't have regarded it fair trade had it been a dress manufactured in the same way, we think United Pepper has done well by paying the Vietnamese workers a fair wage and ensuring the working conditions in the factory are up to scratch. Traidcraft's unofficial endorsement also boosts the credibility.
We respect The Body Shop's way of trading fairly mostly because it's the fair trade mainstream body care pioneer. Twenty years ago it established its own Community Trade programme, the first standard for paying ingredients producers fairly and supporting their communities. To this day, The Body Shop uses only this programme, and while it seems to work, the lack of a third party approval is a major drawback for us.
So, a product mustn't necessarily sport an official Fairtrade Mark to have been produced in fair manner, but when it is at all possible, we do prefer the certification. Out of these ten products, Divine chocolate definitely nabs the top prize, with Equal Exchange coffee, Pants to Poverty knickers and the People Tree dress following close behind. Amana, made, FTFC and Veja all come in at the next tier and United Pepper and The Body Shop sit one below, but are still in our good books -- mainly for being fair trade pioneers in their fields.
Amana Bwindi Charity T-shirt
Divine 70% Dark Chocolate 100g
Equal Exchange Organic and Fairtrade Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Coffee
Made Iffat Necklace
Pants to Poverty Condom Pocket Pants
People Tree Black and White Check Dress
The Body Shop White Musk Blush Smooth Satin Body Lotion
The Fair Trade Company Jepara Chair
United Pepper Lili Webcam
Veja 'Volley' Trainers
