We didn't make enough to live on before. Now we get a better price and the money comes directly to us. Cut out the middlemen - People have long recognised how unfair such a situation is, and in the last ten years the fair trade movement has developed to provide a real alternative. Fair trade organisations do business directly with producers in the developing world, cutting out the middlemen and thus ensuring that the maximum profit is returned to source. Fair trade also guarantees stability for producers, protecting them against flux in the market through secure, long-term prices and premiums over and above the market rate.
Many schemes also offer prepayment or access to credit.
Growing movement - Nor is the fair trade movement restricted to foodstuffs. Crafts, clothing, jewellery and furniture are fairly traded in the same way - and the movement is growing. Around 1,700 world shops and fair trade groups took part in the first European World Shop Day, in May 1996, and there are now fair trade organisations throughout the world. Influencing others - As well as the fair trade organisations themselves, there is a growing demand for other trading companies to adopt more ethical policies towards their own suppliers. Campaigns to make the world trading system fairer remain crucial.