Editing Fair trade (section)

== Criticism ==
{{Main|Fair trade debate}}
{{Duplication|dupe=Fair trade debate|date=March 2022}}
While some studies claim fair trade is beneficial and efficient,<ref name="Bacon">{{cite journal|last=Bacon|first=Christopher|title=Confronting the Coffee Crisis: Can Fair Trade, Organic, and Specialty Coffees Reduce Small-Scale Farmer Vulnerability in Northern Nicaragua?|doi=10.1016/j.worlddev.2004.10.002|volume=33|issue=3|journal=World Development|pages=497–511|year=2005|s2cid=18150177|url=https://escholarship.org/content/qt0xn3f86t/qt0xn3f86t.pdf?t=lnqgwh|access-date=2019-09-25|archive-date=2021-10-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211031110118/https://escholarship.org/content/qt0xn3f86t/qt0xn3f86t.pdf?t=lnqgwh|url-status=live}}</ref> other studies have been less favourable. Sometimes the criticism is intrinsic to fair trade, sometimes efficiency depends on the broader context such as the lack of government help or volatile prices in the global market.{{clarify|reason=this sentence is vague and obscure|date=March 2022}}<ref>{{cite journal|last=Utting-chamorro|first=Karla|title=Does fair trade make a difference? The case of small coffee producers in Nicaragua|doi=10.1080/09614520500075706|volume=15|issue=3–4|journal=Development in Practice|pages=584–99|year=2005|s2cid=154018501}}</ref>

One 2015 study concluded that producer benefits were close to zero because there was an oversupply of certification, and only a fraction of produce classified as fair trade was actually sold on fair trade markets, just enough to recoup the costs of certification.<ref name="mitpressjournals.org">{{cite journal|last1=de Janvry|first1=Alain|last2=McIntosh|first2=Craig|last3=Sadoulet|first3=Elisabeth|author3-link=Elisabeth Sadoulet|title=Fair Trade and Free Entry: Can a Disequilibrium Market Serve as a Development Tool?|journal=The Review of Economics and Statistics|date=July 2015|volume=97|issue=3|pages=567–73|doi=10.1162/REST_a_00512|s2cid=27543341|url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/87w0c2v8|access-date=2020-08-31|archive-date=2020-11-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201127144749/https://escholarship.org/uc/item/87w0c2v8|url-status=live}}</ref> A study published by the ''Journal of Economic Perspectives'', however, suggests that Fair Trade does achieve many of its intended goals, although on a comparatively modest scale relative to the size of national economies.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dragusanu |first1=Raluca |last2=Giovannucci |first2=Daniele |last3=Nunn |first3=Nathan |title=The Economics of Fair Trade |journal=Journal of Economic Perspectives |date=2014 |volume=28 |issue=3 |pages=217–236 |doi=10.1257/jep.28.3.217 |s2cid=31724677 |url=https://thecosa.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Economics-of-Fair-Trade-Dragusanu_Giovannucci_Nunn_Journal-of-Economic-Perspectives_2014-1.pdf |access-date=1 April 2020 |doi-access=free |archive-date=24 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200924151919/https://thecosa.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Economics-of-Fair-Trade-Dragusanu_Giovannucci_Nunn_Journal-of-Economic-Perspectives_2014-1.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> A 2014 study of coffee and tea producers in Uganda and Ethiopia suggested that participation in fair trade organizations did not improve workers' conditions.<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24858301 | jstor=24858301 | title=Fairtrade cooperatives in Ethiopia and Uganda: Uncensored | last1=Cramera | first1=C. | last2=Johnstonb | first2=D. | last3=Oyaa | first3=C. | last4=Senderb | first4=J. | journal=Review of African Political Economy | date=2014 | volume=41 | issue=143 | pages=S115–S127 }}</ref> Some research indicates that the implementation of certain fair trade standards can cause greater inequalities in some markets where these rigid rules are inappropriate for the specific market.<ref name="Booth, P 2007">{{cite journal | last1 = Booth | first1 = P. | last2 = Whetstone | first2 = L. | year = 2007 | title = Half a Cheer for Fair Trade | journal = Economic Affairs | volume = 27 | issue = 2| pages = 29–36 | doi=10.1111/j.1468-0270.2007.00727.x| s2cid = 55272716 }}</ref><ref name="perso2010">{{cite web|last1= Carimentrand|first1= A.|last2= Ballet|first2= J.|year= 2010|title= When Fair Trade increases unfairness: The case of quinoa from Bolivia|url= http://ethique.perso.sfr.fr/Working%20paper%20FREE-Cahier%20FREE%20n%B05-2010.pdf|access-date= 2012-02-07|archive-date= 2012-03-28|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120328133722/http://ethique.perso.sfr.fr/Working%20paper%20FREE-Cahier%20FREE%20n%B05-2010.pdf|url-status= live}}</ref><ref name="Doppler, F. 2006">Working paper FREE-Cahier FREE n°5-2010; Doppler, F., & Cabañas, A.A. (2006). Fair Trade: Benefits and Drawbacks for Producers. Puente @ Europa, Año IV, Número 2 – Junio 2006, 53–56.</ref> In the [[fair trade debate]] there are complaints of failure to enforce the fair trade standards, with producers, cooperatives, importers, and packers profiting by evading them.<ref name="Raynolds, LT 2009">Raynolds, LT: 2009, "Mainstreaming Fair Trade Coffee: from Partnership to Traceability", ''World Development'', 37 (6) p. 1089.</ref><ref>{{Citation | last1 = Valkila | first1 = J | 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><ref name="Utting, K 2009, p 139">{{cite journal | last1 = Utting | first1 = K | year = 2009 | title = Assessing the impact of Fair Trade Coffee: Towards an Integrative Framework | journal = Journal of Business Ethics | volume = 86 | issue = S1 | page = 139 | doi = 10.1007/s10551-008-9761-9 | s2cid = 154359304 }}</ref><ref name="valkila2009">{{cite journal | last1 = Valkila | first1 = J | year = 2009 | title = Fair Trade organic coffee production in Nicaragua – Sustainable development or a poverty trap? | doi = 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2009.07.002 | journal = Ecological Economics | volume = 68 | issue = 12 | pages = 3018–25 [3022–23]  | bibcode = 2009EcoEc..68.3018V }}</ref><ref name="Reed">Reed, D.: 2009, "What do Corporations have to do with Fair Trade? Positive and normative analysis from a value chain perspective", ''Journal of Business Ethics'', 86, 3–26. p. 12</ref>

=== Ethical basis===
Studies shows a significant number of consumers were content to pay higher prices for fair trade products, in the belief that this helps the poor.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.franchising.com/news/20080612_costa_coffee_hosts_national_foundation_day_to_enco.html |title=Costa Coffee Hosts National 'Foundation Day' To Encourage Ethical Coffee Consumption |publisher=Franchising.com |date=2008-06-12 |access-date=2017-11-13 |archive-date=2017-07-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170704061340/https://www.franchising.com/news/20080612_costa_coffee_hosts_national_foundation_day_to_enco.html |url-status=live }}
* {{cite journal |last=Niemi|first= 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 | pages = 257–270|doi= 10.1007/s10551-010-0508-z |s2cid= 146802807 }}
* {{cite journal|last1= Trudel|first1= R.|last2=Cotte|first2= J. |year=2009 |title=Does it pay to be good? |publisher=MIT Sloan Management Review}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Winter|first1= Arnot C.|last2= Boxall|first2= P.|last3= & Cash|first3= S. |year=2006|title= Do ethical consumers care about price? A revealed preference analysis of Fair Trade coffee purchases|publisher= Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics|volume= 54| pages = 555–565}}</ref> One ethical criticism of Fairtrade is that this premium over non-Fairtrade products does not reach the producers and is instead collected by businesses or by employees of co-operatives or is used for unnecessary expenses. Some research finds the implementation of certain fair trade standards causes greater inequalities in markets where these rigid rules are inappropriate for the specific market.<ref name="EthicalObjections" />{{Self-published source|date=March 2015}}<ref name="Booth, P 2007"/><ref name="Doppler, F. 2006"/><ref>Booth, Philip "Don't bully the faithful into buying Fairtrade", ''The Catholic Herald'', 20 February 2009</ref><ref name="perso2010"/>{{Dead link|date=April 2022}}

=== What happens with the money? ===

==== Little money may reach the developing countries ====
The Fairtrade Foundation does not monitor how much retailers charge for fair trade goods, so it is rarely possible to determine how much extra is charged or how much of that premium reaches the producers. In four cases it has been possible to find out. One British café chain was passing on less than one percent of the extra charged to the exporting cooperative;<ref name="EthicalObjections" /> in Finland, Valkila, Haaparanta, and Niemi<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Valkila | first1 = J. | 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| pages = 257–270 | doi=10.1007/s10551-010-0508-z| s2cid = 146802807 }}</ref> found that consumers paid much more for Fairtrade, and that only 11.5% reached the exporter. Kilian, Jones, Pratt, and Villalobos{{Sfn | Kilian | Jones | Pratt | Villalobos | 2006}} talk of U.S. Fairtrade coffee getting {{currency|5|USD}} per pound extra at retail, of which the exporter receives only 2%. Mendoza and Bastiaensen<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Mendoza | first1 = R. | last2 = Bastiaensen | first2 = J. | year = 2003 | title = Fair Trade and the Coffee Crisis in the Nicaraguan Segovias | journal = Small Enterprise Development | volume = 14 | issue = 2| pages = 36–46 | doi=10.3362/0957-1329.2003.020}}</ref> calculated that in the UK only 1.6%–18% of the extra charged for one product line reached the farmer. These studies assume that the importers paid the full Fairtrade price, which is not necessarily the case.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Raynolds | first1 = L. T. | year = 2009 | title = Mainstreaming Fair Trade Coffee: from Partnership to Traceability | journal = World Development | volume = 37 | issue = 6| pages = 1083–1093 [1089] | doi=10.1016/j.worlddev.2008.10.001}}
* {{cite journal | last1 = Valkila | first1 = J. | 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 = 257–270| page = 264 | doi = 10.1007/s10551-010-0508-z | s2cid = 146802807 }}
* Barrientos, S., Conroy, M.E., & Jones, E. (2007). "Northern Social Movements and Fair Trade." In L. Raynolds, D. D. Murray, & J. Wilkinson, ''Fair Trade: The Challenges of Transforming Globalization'' (pp.&nbsp;51–62). London and New York: Routledge. Quoted by {{cite journal | last1 = Reed | first1 = D | year = 2009 | title = What do Corporations have to do with Fair Trade? Positive and normative analysis from a value chain perspective | journal = Journal of Business Ethics | volume = 86 | issue = S1 | pages = 3–26 [21] | doi=10.1007/s10551-008-9757-5| s2cid = 55809844 }}</ref><ref name="valkila2009" /><ref name="Reed" />

==== Less money reaches farmers ====
The Fairtrade Foundation does not monitor how much of the extra money paid to the exporting cooperatives reaches the farmer. The cooperatives incur costs in reaching fair trade standards, and these are incurred on all production, even if only a small amount is sold at fair trade prices. The most successful cooperatives appear to spend a third of the extra price received on this: some less successful cooperatives spend more than they gain. While this appears to be agreed by proponents and critics of fair trade,<ref>e.g. Utting-Chamorro, K (2005). "Does Fairtrade make a difference? The case of small coffee producers in Nicaragua." ''Development in Practice'', Volume 15, Numbers 3 and 4, June 2005, Berndt, C.E. (2007). ''Is Fair Trade in coffee production fair and useful? Evidence from Costa Rica and Guatemala and implications for policy.'' Washington DC.: Mercatus 65 Policy Series, Policy Comment 11, Mercatus Centre, George Mason University.</ref> there is a dearth of economic studies setting out the actual revenues and what the money was spent on. FLO figures<ref name="Labelling">{{cite web |publisher=Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International |title=Annual Report 2009–2010 |year=2010 |access-date=May 27, 2011 |url=http://www.fairtrade.net/fileadmin/user_upload/content/2009/resources/FLO_Annual-Report-2009_komplett_double_web.pdf |archive-date=January 13, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110113142003/http://www.fairtrade.net/fileadmin/user_upload/content/2009/resources/FLO_Annual-Report-2009_komplett_double_web.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> are that 40% of the money reaching the [[developing world]] is spent on "business and production", which would include these costs as well as costs incurred by any inefficiency and corruption in the cooperative or the marketing system. The rest is spent on social projects, rather than being passed on to farmers.

Differing anecdotes state farmers are paid more or less by traders than by fair trade cooperatives. Few of these anecdotes address the problems of price reporting in developing world markets,<ref>See Bowbrick, P, "Are price reporting systems of any use?", ''British Food Journal''. 90(2) 65–69 March/April. 1988. Current international research on developing world market information systems is given at [http://www.sim2g.org/ sim2.org] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110904205602/http://sim2g.org/ |date=2011-09-04 }}</ref> and few appreciate the complexity of the different price packages that may or may not include credit, harvesting, transport, processing, etc. Cooperatives typically average prices over the year, so they pay less than traders at some times, more at others. Bassett (2009)<ref>Bassett, T. (2009). "Slim pickings: Fairtrade cotton in West Africa." ''Geoforum''.</ref> compares prices only where Fairtrade and non-Fairtrade farmers have to sell cotton to the same monopsonistic ginneries which pay low prices. Prices would have to be higher to compensate farmers for the increased costs they incur to produce fair trade. For instance, fair trade encouraged Nicaraguan farmers to switch to organic coffee, which resulted in a higher price per pound, but a lower net income because of higher costs and lower yields.<ref name="valkila2009"/>{{Sfn | Kilian | Jones | Pratt | Villalobos | 2006}}<ref>Wilson, B. R. (2009). "Indebted to Fair Trade? Coffee and Crisis in Nicaragua." ''Geoforum''.</ref>

==== Effects of low barriers to entry ====
A 2015 study concluded that the low barriers to entry in a competitive market such as coffee undermines any effort to give higher benefits to producers through fair trade. They used data from Central America to establish that the producer benefits were close to zero. This is because there is an oversupply of certification, and only a fraction of produce classified as fair trade is actually sold on fair trade markets, just enough to recoup the costs of certification.<ref name="mitpressjournals.org"/>

=== Inefficient marketing system ===
One reason for high prices is that fair trade farmers have to sell through a [[monopsonist]] cooperative, which may be inefficient or corrupt–certainly some private traders are more efficient than some cooperatives. They cannot choose the buyer who offers the best price, or switch when their cooperative is going bankrupt<ref>Mendoza, R., & J. Bastiaensen, J. (2003). "Fair Trade and the Coffee Crisis in the Nicaraguan Segovias." ''Small Enterprise Development'', 14(2), p.&nbsp;42.</ref> if they wish to retain fairtrade status. Fairtrade deviates from the free market ideal of some economists. [[Brink Lindsey]] calls fairtrade a "misguided attempt to make up for [[market failure]]s" that encourages market inefficiencies and overproduction.<ref name="Brink">{{cite web |url=http://www.adamsmith.org/pdf/groundsforcomplaint.pdf |title=Adam Smith Institute - the free-market think tank |access-date=2012-02-08 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080517134810/http://www.adamsmith.org/pdf/groundsforcomplaint.pdf |archive-date=2008-05-17 }}</ref>

=== Fair trade harms other farmers ===

==== Overproduction argument ====
Critics argue that fair trade harms non-Fairtrade farmers. Fair trade claims that its farmers are paid higher prices and are given special advice on increasing yields and quality. Economists<ref name="EthicalObjections" />{{Self-published source|date=March 2015}}<ref name="Brink" /><ref>Booth, P. and L. Whetstone (2007) 'Half a Cheer for Fair Trade', Economic Affairs, 27, 2, 29–36; Sidwell, M. (2008) Unfair Trade, London: Adam Smith Institute.
* Harford, T: "The Undercover Economist.", 2005
* {{cite web | title = Markets, poverty, and Fair Trade | author = Sam Bowman | date = 11 March 2011 | url = http://www.adamsmith.org/blog/tax-and-economy/markets,-poverty,-and-fair-trade/ | publisher = [[Adam Smith Institute]] | access-date = 2011-09-30 | archive-date = 2012-04-01 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120401013509/http://www.adamsmith.org/blog/tax-and-economy/markets%2C-poverty%2C-and-fair-trade | url-status = dead }}</ref><ref name="economist">{{Cite news | newspaper = The Economist | date = Dec 7, 2006 | url = http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8380592 | title = Voting with your trolley | access-date = February 7, 2012 | archive-date = April 7, 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090407000704/http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8380592 | url-status = live }}</ref> argue that if this is so, Fairtrade farmers will increase production. As the demand for coffee is highly inelastic, a small increase in supply means a large fall in market price, so perhaps a million Fairtrade farmers get a higher price and 24 million others get a substantially lower price. Critics cite the example of farmers in Vietnam being paid a premium over the world market price in the 1980s, planting much coffee, then flooding the world market in the 1990s. The fair trade minimum price means that when the world market price collapses, it is the non-fair trade farmers, particularly the poorest, who have to cut down their coffee trees.

=== Other ethical issues ===

==== Secrecy ====
Under EU law ([[Unfair Commercial Practices Directive|Directive 2005/29/EC]] on Unfair Commercial Practices) the criminal offense of unfair trading is committed if (a) "it contains false information and is therefore untruthful or in any way, including overall presentation, deceives or is likely to deceive the average consumer, even if the information is factually correct", (b) "it omits material information that the average consumer needs… and thereby causes or is likely to cause the average consumer to take a transactional decision that he would not have taken otherwise", or (c) "fails to identify the commercial intent of the commercial practice… [which] causes or is likely to cause the average consumer to take a transactional decision that he would not have taken otherwise." [[Peter Griffiths (politician)|Peter Griffiths]] (2011)<ref name="EthicalObjections" /> points to false claims that fair trade producers get higher prices and to the almost universal failure to disclose the extra price charged for fair trade products, how much of this actually reaches the developing world, what this is spent on in the developing world, how much (if any) reaches farmers, and the harm that fair trade does to non-fair trade farmers. He also points to the failure to disclose when "the primary commercial intent" is to make money for retailers and distributors in rich countries.

==== Unethical selling techniques ====
Economist [[Philip Booth (economist)|Philip Booth]] says that the selling techniques used by some sellers and supporters of fair trade are bullying, misleading, and unethical,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.iea.org.uk/record.jsp?type=book&ID=437 |title=IEA ::: Institute of economic affairs |access-date=2012-02-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090906121402/http://www.iea.org.uk/record.jsp?type=book&ID=437 |archive-date=2009-09-06 |url-status=dead }}</ref> such as the use of boycott campaigns and other pressure to force sellers to stock a product they think ethically suspect. However, the opposite has been argued, that a more participatory and multi-stakeholder approach to auditing might improve the quality of the process.{{clarify|reason=confusing sentence, doesn't seem to follow from previous sentence|date=March 2022}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ntd.co.uk/idsbookshop/details.asp?id=807 |title=IDS Bookshop – Item details |publisher=Ntd.co.uk |access-date=2013-05-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116021902/http://www.ntd.co.uk/idsbookshop/details.asp?id=807 |archive-date=2013-01-16 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Some people{{who|date=March 2022}} argue that strategic use of labeling may help embarrass (or encourage) major suppliers into changing their practices. It may bring to light corporate vulnerabilities that activists can exploit. Or it may encourage ordinary people to get involved with broader projects of social change.<ref>{{cite journal | author = Julie Guthman | year = 2007 | journal = Antipode | title = The Polanyian Way? Voluntary Food Labels as Neoliberal Governance | volume = 39 | pages = 456–78 | doi = 10.1111/j.1467-8330.2007.00535.x | issue = 3 | bibcode = 2007Antip..39..456G }}</ref>

=== Failure to monitor standards ===
There are complaints that fair trade standards are inappropriate and may harm producers, sometimes making them work several months more for little return.<ref name="EthicalObjections" />{{Self-published source|date=March 2015}}<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Utting-Chamorro | first1 = K | year = 2005 | title = Does Fairtrade make a difference? The case of small coffee producers in Nicaragua | journal = Development in Practice | volume = 15 | issue = 3, 4 | pages = 584–599 | doi = 10.1080/09614520500075706 | s2cid = 154018501 }}</ref><ref>Moberg M (2005). "Fairtrade and Eastern Caribbean Banana Farmers: Rhetoric and Reality in the Anti-Globalization Movement." ''Human Organization'' 64:4–16, Cited in Nelson and Pound (2009) p.&nbsp;10.</ref><ref name="valkila2009" />

Enforcement of standards by Fairtrade was described as "seriously weak" by Christian Jacquiau.<ref name="Hamel">{{cite web |url=http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/Fair_trade_firm_accused_of_foul_play.html?cid=5351232 |title=Fair trade firm accused of foul play |publisher=Swissinfo.ch |date=2006-08-03 |access-date=2021-09-05 |archive-date=2013-12-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131214072048/http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/Fair_trade_firm_accused_of_foul_play.html?cid=5351232 |url-status=live }}</ref> Paola Ghillani, who spent four years as president of Fairtrade Labelling Organizations, agreed that "certain arguments carry some weight".<ref name="Hamel" /> There are many complaints of poor enforcement: labourers on Fairtrade farms in Peru are paid less than the minimum wage;<ref>Weitzman, H. (2006, August 9). "'Fair' coffee workers paid below minimum wage." ''Financial Times''
* Weitzman, H. (2006, September 9). "Ethical-coffee' workers paid below legal minimum." ''Financial Times''.</ref> some non-Fairtrade coffee is sold as Fairtrade<ref name="ft.com">{{Citation |url= http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/d191adbc-3f4d-11db-a37c-0000779e2340.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/d191adbc-3f4d-11db-a37c-0000779e2340.html |archive-date=2022-12-10 |url-access=subscription | newspaper =FT | place = Americas | title = The bitter cost of 'fair trade' coffee| date =2006-09-08 }}</ref> "the standards are not very strict in the case of seasonally hired labour in coffee production."<ref name="valkila2009" /> "[S]ome fair trade standards are not strictly enforced."<ref name="Reed" /><ref>Moore, G., Gibbon, J., & Slack, R.: 2006, "The mainstreaming of Fair Trade: a macromarketing perspective," ''Journal of Strategic Marketing'', 14, 329–52.</ref> In 2006, a ''[[Financial Times]]'' journalist found that ten out of ten mills visited had sold uncertified coffee to co-operatives as certified. It reported on "evidence of at least one coffee association that received an organic, Fair Trade or other certifications despite illegally growing some 20 per cent of its coffee in protected national forest land."<ref name="ft.com" />

=== Trade justice and fair trade ===
Segments of the [[trade justice]] movement have criticized fair trade for focusing too much on individual small producer groups without advocating for trade policy changes that would have a larger effect on disadvantaged producers' lives. French author and [[Radio France Internationale|RFI]] correspondent [[Jean-Pierre Boris]] championed this view in his 2005 book ''Commerce inéquitable''.<ref>{{Citation | last = Boris | first = Jean-Pierre | year = 2005 | title = Commerce inéquitable | publisher = Hachette Littératures | place = Paris}}</ref>

=== Political objections ===
There have been political criticisms of fair trade from the left and the right. Some believe the fair trade system is not radical enough. Christian Jacquiau, in his book ''Les coulisses du commerce équitable'', calls for stricter fair trade standards and criticizes the fair trade movement for working within the current system (i.e., partnerships with mass retailers, [[multinational corporation]]s, etc.) rather than establishing a new, fairer, fully autonomous (i.e., [[state monopoly|government monopoly]]) trading system. Jacquiau also supports significantly higher fair trade prices in order to maximize the effect since most producers only sell a portion of their crop under fair trade terms.{{Sfn | Jacquiau | 2006}}{{Citation needed |date=December 2014}} The fair trade approach is rooted in a Northern consumerist view of justice that Southern producers do not participate in setting. "A key issue is therefore to make explicit who possesses the power to define the terms of Fairtrade, that is who possesses the power in order to determine the need of an ethic in the first instance, and subsequently command a particular ethical vision as the truth."<ref>Catherine S. Dolan (2008), ''Research in Economic Anthropology'', "Arbitrating risk through moral values: the case of Kenyan fairtrade", volume 28, pp. 271–96.</ref>