Fair trade
The history of fair trade in the United States began in the 1990s, when the use of fair trade labels was introduced to help visually distinguish products. Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO) was formed to set fair trade prices, and TransFair USA took the lead in the U.S. Its labeling efforts contributed to an average annual growth in the sale of fair trade coffee in the U.S. reaching 79% in 1999. Then, throughout the early 2000s, major chains in the U.S. such as Starbucks and Wal-Mart begin selling fair trade products. Fair trade sales in the U.S. averaged an annual growth of 50% throughout the decade.