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Summary II

Fair trade aims to provide stable prices and premiums for small farmers in developing countries. While fair trade products are growing in popularity among consumers, critics argue that farmer wages are not significantly higher than conventional wages and fair trade does not sufficiently help farmers modernize and develop their skills. However, fair trade has brought greater awareness of social and ethical issues in global trade and set a precedent for promoting social responsibility. More analysis is still needed to fully understand its impacts and address criticisms.

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Johanna Mejia
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23 views

Summary II

Fair trade aims to provide stable prices and premiums for small farmers in developing countries. While fair trade products are growing in popularity among consumers, critics argue that farmer wages are not significantly higher than conventional wages and fair trade does not sufficiently help farmers modernize and develop their skills. However, fair trade has brought greater awareness of social and ethical issues in global trade and set a precedent for promoting social responsibility. More analysis is still needed to fully understand its impacts and address criticisms.

Uploaded by

Johanna Mejia
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Johanna María Mejía Sánchez

English Communication II
Master in International Business and Law
Summary #2 from the article: How fair is Fairtrade?

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6426417.stm

Summary:

Certainly fair trade products are getting more popular for the average consumer. In most development
countries fair trade products are popping up in every retailer or small shops. Even though the prices of
the fair trade are a little over the odds the buyers acquire them encouraged by the concept, to shop
ethically, behind the label.

The idea of paying this “premium” price is to protect the farmers and especially small producers in
developing countries from the market oscillations and ensure an agreed and stable price for the crops
they grow. As well this extra income seeks that the community has more resources to invest in social
projects and education and in general boost the social conditions of the farmers and their families.

Critics of fair trade claim that the wages of the farmers are not much more than the conventional crop
farming wages. Others argue that the organization lacks of mechanism to properly transform, through
the modernization and development of agricultural methods, the marginalized farming communities’
conditions, tying the farmers into a relationship of dependence with charity-minded shoppers in the
West.

Personal point of view

Fair trade has shortcomings and is not the magic formula to lift people out of poverty. But both, its
concept of fair wages and its aim of helping and improving the living conditions of the farming
communities, have set a precedent in the international trade. The organization certainly promotes social
responsibility and ethical standards in the context of globalization as we live.

But, regarding the criticisms, several question can be made, is the fair trade label just fashion? Are the
farmers really being paid better in order to satisfy other necessities as education and health? Is the
organization improving and helping to develop technical agricultural methods? Or is it just giving some
extra cents to the farmers and does it? Much deeper analysis and investigations can clarify these issues.
But, it is known that the label attracts more social responsible customer who believe they are doing
something good and this movement has been growing spectacularly in the last decade. The important
fact is that people are becoming more aware about social issues and certainly organizations as fair trade
are encouraged them to face the situations and not being completely passive and indifferent before
poverty and inequality. Buying fare trade products is not enough but, it is a step to the right direction to
show the consumers in the develop countries the origin and inputs of the final goods and the ethical
standard behind their production.

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