Fair-Trade is More than Helping Someone Who Lives Far Away

Posted on | July 29, 2009 | No Comments

What is fair-trade?  Talking to some people this week, you’d think it was only trade via certain specially organised schemes.  I suppose that is one interpretation of the term ‘Fair-Trade’ – though I sometimes think we’re allowing someone to trademark the term, put it in capitals and own it.  Hmm.  Perhaps I’m being a bit grumpy.

Well, I don’t want to belittle the good work that some of these schemes do, but, as you can tell, to me, fair-trade simply means trading with someone in a fair way.  If I buy something from you, I will pay you a fair price for the work you’ve done.  You’d do the same for me.  We don’t try to rip each other off.  But that’s not how it is in business sometimes; particularly in fashion, apparel and footwear.  We all know about the vile sweatshops that exist throughout the world – yes, almost certainly even in your country, however First-World it is.  Long hours, appalling pay, awful conditions, being utterly exploited and treated inhumanely.  It’s bad.

However, the point I’m making is that companies don’t have to wait for a specially organised scheme in order to do something about trading fairly.  Many small (and not so small) companies make things themselves in a very fair way.  For example, I’ve recently been talking to a small company in Aspen, Colorado who make all their own bags.  They help people, who can’t leave their own homes, to work and earn a wage.  They also make bags themselves.  They pay above the going rate for the work that’s done, and give their helpers a high degree of control over the when they work, and what work they do.  Now, to me, supporting that is supporting fair trade.

It more than that though.  Surely, fair-trade must cover the whole supply chain?  That means ensuring that no one is exploited, from the first-person who gets paid during design and manufacturing, through the suppliers, transportation people, and retailers, ending with the purchase by you and me.

The problem is clear, however.  It is almost impossible for a customer to check out the entire supply chain for a product that they want to buy.  I see two ways forward.  One, is to continue to support established fair-trade projects, because many of them are genuinely caring and their labels can be helpful.  The other, is to ask the retailers from whom we’re buying about the fair-trade status of the product.  If they don’t know, or won’t say, don’t buy.  The more we do this, the more retailers will care about it.  Then suppliers, then manufacturers.  This will effectively make everyday items into fair-trade items.  It’s open to abuse, as is any push towards fair-trade, but there will be a significant difference.

Obviously, we at Plum Ethical want to shout about this!  All of our suppliers are checked out from the initial stages of design and manufacturing until the products reach us and are sent to you.   However, (and I’ve already said this before) we only started doing this because our old company had some worrying experiences with suppliers refusing to tell us how their products are made.  We made mistakes and we learned from them.  I think that’s all any of us can do.

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