Editing Fair trade (section)

== Product certification ==
{{Main|Fair trade certification}}
{{Hatnote|Note: Customary spelling of Fairtrade is one word when referring to the FLO product labeling system. See [[Fairtrade certification]]}}
[[File:Fairtrade Certification Mark.svg|thumb|upright=0.8|International Fairtrade Certification Mark]]
===Fairtrade International===
Fairtrade labelling (usually simply Fairtrade or Fair Trade Certified in the United States) is a certification system that allows consumers to identify goods that meet certain standards. Overseen by a standard-setting body ([[Fairtrade International]]) and a certification body ([[FLO-CERT]]), the system involves independent auditing of producers and traders to ensure the standards are met. For a product to carry either the International Fairtrade Certification Mark or the [[Fair Trade Certified Mark]], it must come from FLO-CERT inspected and certified producer organizations. The crops must be grown and harvested in accordance with the standards set by FLO International. The supply chain must be monitored by FLO-CERT, to ensure the integrity of the labelled product.

Fairtrade certification purports to guarantee not only fair prices, but also [[ethical purchasing]] principles. These principles include adherence to ILO agreements such as those banning child and [[slave labour]], guaranteeing a safe workplace and the right to unionise, adherence to the [[United Nations]] charter of [[human rights]], a fair price that covers the cost of production and facilitates social development, and protection of the environment. The Fairtrade certification also attempts to promote long-term business relationships between buyers and sellers, crop pre-financing, and greater transparency throughout the supply chain.

The Fairtrade certification system covers a growing{{Current event inline|date=March 2022}} range of products, including bananas, honey, coffee, oranges, Cocoa bean, cocoa, cotton, dried and fresh fruits and vegetables, juices, nuts and oil seeds, quinoa, rice, spices, sugar, tea and wine. Companies offering products that meet Fairtrade standards may apply for licences to use one of the Fairtrade Certification Marks for those products. The International Fairtrade Certification Mark was launched in 2002 by FLO, and replaced twelve Marks used by various Fairtrade labelling initiatives. The new Certification Mark is currently used worldwide (with the exception of the United States). The Fair Trade Certified Mark is still used to identify Fairtrade goods in the United States.

To gain a licence to use the FAIRTRADE mark, businesses need to apply for products to be certified by submitting information about their supply chain. Then they can have individual products certified depending on how these are sourced.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Become a licensee|url=https://www.fairtrade.org.uk/for-business/business-resources-faqs/ways-of-working-with-fairtrade-faqs/how-to-apply-for-a-fairtrade-license/become-a-licensee/|access-date=2021-09-04|website=Fairtrade Foundation|language=en-GB|archive-date=2021-09-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210904184305/https://www.fairtrade.org.uk/for-business/business-resources-faqs/ways-of-working-with-fairtrade-faqs/how-to-apply-for-a-fairtrade-license/become-a-licensee/|url-status=live}}</ref> Coffee packers in developed countries pay a fee to the Fairtrade Foundation for the right to use the brand and logo. Packers and retailers can charge as much as they want for the coffee. The coffee has to come from a certified fair trade cooperative, and there is a minimum price when the world market is oversupplied. Additionally, the cooperatives are paid an additional {{clarify|text=10c|reason=currency?|date=March 2022}} per pound premium by buyers for [[community development]] projects.<ref>{{Citation | last = Bowes | first = John | year = 2010 | title = The Fair Trade Revolution | place = London | publisher = Pluto Press}}</ref>{{Pages needed |date=December 2014}} The cooperatives can, on average, sell only a third of their output as fair trade, because of lack of demand, and sell the rest at world prices.{{Sfn | Mohan | 2010}}{{Pages needed | date = December 2014}}{{Sfn | Kilian | Jones | Pratt | Villalobos | 2006}}{{Sfn | Berndt | 2007}}{{Sfn | Kohler | 2006}}<ref>{{Citation | last1 = Renard | first1 = MC | first2 = VP | last2 = Grovas | year = 2007 | chapter = 9. Fair Trade coffee in Mexico: at the center of the debates | editor1-first = D | editor1-last = Murray | editor2-first = L | editor2-last = Raynolds | editor3-first = J | editor3-last = Wilkinson | title = Fair Trade: The Challenges of Transforming Globalisation | place = London | publisher = Routledge | pages = 38–39}}</ref>{{Sfn | Riedel | Lopez | Widdows | Manji | 2005}}<ref>{{Citation | last = Bacon | first = C | year = 2005 | title = Confronting the coffee crisis: can Fair Trade, organic and speciality coffee reduce small-scale farmer vulnerability in northern Nicaragua? | journal = World Development | volume = 33 | issue = 3 | pages = 497–511 | doi = 10.1016/j.worlddev.2004.10.002 | s2cid = 18150177 | url = http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/0xn3f86t | access-date = 2018-08-22 | archive-date = 2018-10-03 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20181003080923/https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0xn3f86t | url-status = live }}</ref>{{Sfn | Mohan | 2010}} The exporting cooperative can spend the money in several ways. Some go to meeting the costs of conformity and certification: as they have to meet fair trade standards on all their produce, they have to recover the costs from a small part of their turnover,{{Sfn | Berndt | 2007}} sometimes as little as 8%,{{Sfn | Riedel | Lopez | Widdows | Manji | 2005}} and may not make any profit. Some meet other costs. Some is spent on social projects such as building schools, health clinics and baseball pitches. Sometimes there is money left over for the farmers. The cooperatives sometimes pay farmers a higher price than farmers do, sometimes less, but {{weasel inline|text=there is no evidence|date=March 2022}} on which is more common.<ref name="EthicalObjections">{{Citation | last = Speaker | first = Griffiths | title = Why Fair trade isn't | url = http://www.griffithsspeaker.com/Fairtrade/why_fair_trade_isn.htm | access-date = 2011-05-05 | archive-date = 2017-12-30 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171230074034/http://www.griffithsspeaker.com/Fairtrade/why_fair_trade_isn.htm | url-status = live }}{{Self-published source|date=March 2015}}</ref>

To become a ''certified fair trade producer'', the primary cooperative and its member farmers must operate to certain political standards, imposed from Europe. FLO-CERT, the for-profit side, handles producer certification, inspecting and certifying producer organizations in more than 50 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.<ref name="FLOCERT">{{Citation | title = FLO-Cert | url = http://www.flo-cert.net/flo-cert/main.php?lg=en | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090918131636/http://www.flo-cert.net/flo-cert/main.php?lg=en | archive-date = 2009-09-18 }}</ref> In the [[fair trade debate]] there are many complaints of failure to enforce these standards, with producers, cooperatives, importers, and packers profiting by evading them.<ref name="Raynolds, LT 2009"/><ref name="Utting, K 2009, p 139"/><ref>{{Citation | first1 = J | last1 = Valkila| last2 = Haaparanta | first2 = P | last3 = Niemi | first3 = N | year = 2010 | title = Empowering Coffee Traders? The Coffee Value Chain from Nicaraguan Fair Trade Farmers to Finnish Consumers | journal = Journal of Business Ethics | volume = 97 | issue = 2| page = 264| doi = 10.1007/s10551-010-0508-z| s2cid = 146802807}}</ref>

=== Definition of "producer" ===
The fair trade industry standards provided by Fairtrade International use the word "producer" in many different senses, often in the same specification document. Sometimes it refers to farmers, sometimes to the primary cooperatives they belong to, to the secondary cooperatives that the primary cooperatives belong to, or to the tertiary cooperatives that the secondary cooperatives may belong to<ref>[http://www.fairtrade.net/fileadmin/user_upload/content/2009/standards/documents/2012-07-11_SPO_EN.pdf Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International e.V. (2011), "Fairtrade Standard for Small Producer Organizations", version: 01.05.2011_v1.1 p 5] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170708194936/https://www.fairtrade.net/fileadmin/user_upload/content/2009/standards/documents/2012-07-11_SPO_EN.pdf |date=2017-07-08 }} (PDF)</ref> but "Producer [also] means any entity that has been certified under the Fairtrade International Generic Fairtrade Standard for Small Producer Organizations, Generic Fairtrade Standard for Hired Labour Situations, or Generic Fairtrade Standard for Contract Production."<ref>[http://www.fairtrade.net/fileadmin/user_upload/content/2009/standards/documents/2012-04-02_GTS_EN.pdf Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International e.V. (2011) "Generic Fairtrade Trade Standard," p11] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130502051837/http://www.fairtrade.net/fileadmin/user_upload/content/2009/standards/documents/2012-04-02_GTS_EN.pdf |date=2013-05-02 }} çPDF)</ref> The word is used in all these meanings in key documents.<ref>[http://www.fairtrade.net/fileadmin/user_upload/content/2009/standards/documents/2012-07-11_SPO_EN.pdf Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International e.V. (2011), "Fairtrade Standard for Small Producer Organizations", version: 01.05.2011_v1.1] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170708194936/https://www.fairtrade.net/fileadmin/user_upload/content/2009/standards/documents/2012-07-11_SPO_EN.pdf |date=2017-07-08 }} (PDF)
* [http://www.fairtrade.net/fileadmin/user_upload/content/2009/standards/documents/2012-10-01_EN_SPO_Explan_Doc_2_.pdf Fairtrade International (FLO) (2011?), "Explanatory Document for the Fairtrade Standard for Small Producer Organizations"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130502090135/http://www.fairtrade.net/fileadmin/user_upload/content/2009/standards/documents/2012-10-01_EN_SPO_Explan_Doc_2_.pdf |date=2013-05-02 }} (PDF)
* [http://www.fairtrade.net/fileadmin/user_upload/content/2009/standards/documents/2012-04-02_GTS_EN.pdf Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International e.V. (2011) "Generic Fairtrade Trade Standard"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130502051837/http://www.fairtrade.net/fileadmin/user_upload/content/2009/standards/documents/2012-04-02_GTS_EN.pdf |date=2013-05-02 }} (PDF)
* [http://www.fairtrade.net/fileadmin/user_upload/content/2011-12-29_Explan_Doc_GTS_EN.pdf Fairtrade International, (2011) "Explanatory Document for the Fairtrade Trade Standard] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130502070136/http://www.fairtrade.net/fileadmin/user_upload/content/2011-12-29_Explan_Doc_GTS_EN.pdf |date=2013-05-02 }} (PDF)
* 
* [http://www.fairtrade.net/fileadmin/user_upload/content/2009/standards/documents/2012-04-01_EN_SPO_Coffee.pdf Fairtrade International (FLO) (2011);"Fairtrade Standard for Coffee for Small Producer Organizations" version: 1 April 2011] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130502064651/http://www.fairtrade.net/fileadmin/user_upload/content/2009/standards/documents/2012-04-01_EN_SPO_Coffee.pdf |date=2013-05-02 }} (PDF)</ref> In practice, when price and credit are discussed, "producer" means the exporting organization, "For small producers' organizations, payment must be made directly to the certified small producers' organization".<ref name="fairtrade.net">[http://www.fairtrade.net/fileadmin/user_upload/content/2009/standards/documents/2012-04-02_GTS_EN.pdf Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International e.V. (2011) "Generic Fairtrade Trade Standard, p 16"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130502051837/http://www.fairtrade.net/fileadmin/user_upload/content/2009/standards/documents/2012-04-02_GTS_EN.pdf |date=2013-05-02 }} (PDF)</ref> and "In the case of a small producers' organization [e.g. for coffee], Fairtrade Minimum Prices are set at the level of the Producer Organization, not at the level of individual producers (members of the organization)" which means that the "producer" here is halfway up the marketing chain between the farmer and the consumer.<ref name="fairtrade.net" /> The part of the standards referring to cultivation, environment, pesticides, and child labour has the farmer as "producer".