Fair Trade Week

The idea behind Fair Trade as far as I understand is to ensure that farmers in the developing world get a fair price for their produce.

But my question today is who decides what is included on the list and what isn't?

For instance in November 2007 I attended an event and happened to sit next to a guy from the Fair Trade organisation. I asked him how the female producers at Ethnic supplies could go about registering with Fair Trade. He looked me in the eye and told me that Textile and handicrafts are not included.

I asked him why and did he realise that he was possibly excluding two thirds of the world’s population from the opportunity of earning a fair wage for their hard work?

This is a figure I plucked out of the air and has no basis in fact per se, but I just wanted to make a point which was that if that is how Fair Trade operates then surely it is an unfair system?

Something else that troubles me is the fact that something like coffee leaves the developing world as a raw material and at that stage it is not worth a lot. The coffee houses in the west process it and add value, and charge whatever they like.

Is that fair or ethical even? How do governments in the developing worlds generate tax, if the real value of something like coffee is not realised until it hits the coffee houses?

I am by no means an expert at these things and I am merely raising them to generate discussion and debate.

Would a system that allowed value addition at base be a much better system for all? It works well here at Ethnic Supplies. Our ladies take whatever they can find useless grasses etc and turn them into these beautiful and useful items


this basket for instance is made from papyrus and raffia, the colour is achieved form dyes found in the root plants I am not aware that any of those raw materials being traded as commodities. However a finished basket like this enables a woman to send her child to school, pay for health care and could be the difference between the family going hungry or not. It makes an excellent bread basket and or bathroom tidy



This table runner is produced from combining raffia and cotton and the colours are from roots of plants. What is exciting about suing cotton in this way is that cotton farmers in Africa in particular were hit with an increase in second hand clothes that are donated by well wishers in the west but end up in markets being sold for very little, not to mention the subsidies that are given to cotton farmers in the US