Fair Trade Introduces Ethics to Shopping
Meander through your nearby Sainsburys, and you are witnessing the benefits of a global market. One can buy practically anything at super-low costs. It could be rice from Indonesia or rum from Columbia - it’s acquirable all year round. There’s never been a better period of time in the history of humanity to be a shopper in the west. This has come about through intricate stock control and logistics, economies of scale, strong competitive forces, and possibly most significantly, the fact that most manufactured goods are sourced, and frequently manufactured, in the poorer nations.
The last reason is rather substantive, and controversial. While western consumers are enjoying food, drink, clothing and other items manufactured from the poorest countries at rock-bottom prices, workers and commercial enterprises in these producing nations are frequently ripped off, and haven’t any real sustainability as they are at the end of a very long string of middle-men who control what they make, how much, and how often. This extended line of middle-men all take their share too - meaning there’s not much cash for the actual manufacturer.
Still, there’s help for such desperate individuals and companies. Fairtrade is a movement that seeks to empower such end-producing commercial enterprises in the poorer nations of the world. It attempts to get rid of the middle men, and pay the end-producer a reasonable price for a product in a far more primary way. You might have discovered Fairtrade products in your nearest super market. You’ll sometimes find they’re a tad more expensive, but by buying such ethical products or even ethical gifts - e.g. fair trade gifts - you will be happy to realise the producer is working in a sustainable way that not only pays them fairly via a much more direct revenue flow, but it also permits them to put this extra money into their company through greater profits, which actually contributes in a positive way toward these poorer areas of the world.
