Fair Trade logos and marks must benefit the poor and not the
rich
(republishing, copying, no restrictions)
By: Father Shay Cullen
Readers of this column all over the world tell me how heartbroken they are when they read about children in prison, enslaved in brothels or sweat shops and living on the street. They realise unfair trade and corruption is the root of all poverty hunger and suffering.
That’s why we have to tackle the root causes of poverty especially in world trade and change the unjust trading system. Nowhere is the greed and selfishness of some nations more obvious than in the way they protect their own agricultural industries and block the products of the developing nations from entering their markets.
The imposition of stringent standards by rich countries and even some fair trade labeling and certification companies can be so strict in the pursuit of profits, protection, or perfection, that they can block the products from the poorest producers and end up helping the rich multinational corporations.
Fair Trade has become such a powerful selling point that the concept itself is a commodity and is being exploited for profit. To get a certification that your product is fairly traded the producer has to pay a big fee and a percent of all sales to the labeling company. When the Fair Trade movement first started the importing and distribution organisations in the developed countries opened the door to the poor and set basic criteria that would make it possible for the poor to benefit most.
When these dedicated justice loving organisations made ‘Fair Trade’ an ethical practice and a popular selling point, the labeling and certification companies then appeared and commercialised the ‘Fair Trade’ idea. They made it into a logo and sold it to companies willing to pay for it. It’s now big business. Even multinational corporations of questionable practices want the fair trade logo on their products to cover up their tarnished images.
Then some other corporations like Nestle with its coffee and the corporations behind Chiquito bananas have been given the logo for a single product and they crow to the world that they are a ‘Fair Trade’ company. The rest of their products are not fair trade? Would they ever be allowed to join the distinguished and most rusted Fair trade organisation of all the International Fair Trade Association (IFAT)? I think not.
Labeling companies are in it not to protect small fair trade organisations and producers but to make money from selling the logo. Apparently they are not even interested in certifying small struggling producer groups because they sell so little and while the logo might help them succeed they can’t get it. So the neediest are excluded from the label and the market. They will certify a token few.
No one knows where the authority to make and impose their rules on others came from. They seem to be self appointed. So that means other labeling company can emerge and certify Fair Trade products. That is exactly what the Philippine and Asian fair trade organisations are planning to do. They are tired of being lectured and dictated to from the North countries. The labeling companies have to be challenged because the power they have to exclude small producers is awesome. To be certified by them is success in the markets to be refused or shunned is a one way ticket to oblivion.
One labeling company in the UK had no qualms of conscience when they persuaded a supermarket chain to remove Philippine dried fruit products from the fair Trade shelves because they did not have their logo. They contacted that Philippine company and asked that they apply and pay to get the logo. Is this extortion, illegal practice or what?
This Philippine Fair Trade Company that is helping hundreds of Filipino farmers, indigenous people, exploited women and children for the past 30 years has suffered cancelled orders and incurred huge losses. The development programmes for Filipino children and farmers are damaged.
To pursue profit in the guise of virtue must be the most insidious forms of unfair trading. We have to work for justice in trade it’s the only way to change an unjust world and end the hunger and starvation afflicting millions around the world. [End]
