Fair Trade Matters
Last updated: 17/01/2007 - 11:41
This feature supplied by:
The Open University (OU)
Professor Rob Paton, Chair of The Open University Master of Public Administration, looks at the rise and rise of Fairtrade products in the the UK.
30 years ago, Fairtrade started in Oxfam shops and church halls. Last year, 20% of coffee drunk in the UK was fairly traded and it’s now an international phenomenon. (47% of Switzerland’s bananas were Fairtrade). How much does this really help poor producers? Are the supermarkets taking advantage of a consumer fad? And is Fairtrade any more than a bucketful in the ocean of world trade?
Clear arguments and explanations are available from Fairtrade Foundation but perhaps arguments about mark-ups and consumer awareness are missing the wood for trees. They overlook how Fairtrade reflects two broader, long-term trends: global governance and social enterprise.
Fairtrade as global governance
Global governance has grown dramatically over the last ten years, especially in relation to environmental issues, and governments can and do play an important background role both in providing discreet support and as major purchasers (e.g. the UK’s Ethical Trading Initiative). Global governance is a distributed, multi-level form of regulation that blends governmental, commercial and independent elements. Certification, of the sort provided by the Fairtrade Foundation, is one such form.
Fairtrade as Social Enterprise
Social enterprise is resurgent around the world. Within the UK, the range and variety of products and services available from social enterprises is now so great that it is beginning to look like a parallel economy.
It’s not just:
but:
There is a whole swathe of public service contractors from housing and regeneration through health and social care to juvenile offender management. And if you are really dying to be ethical...you can choose a green burial.
Viewed in these terms, the Fairtrade Foundation is just one of several international trading intermediaries within a burgeoning alternative, value-based economy. It has been taking shape for at least thirty years, as though under the radar of mainstream society. If you think this is just beards and sandals and idealistic amateurs, you should visit the websites of. ‘green’ businesses, trading arms of charities, co-operatives and community enterprises.
Some are purists, holding to tightly defined principles – others are just struggling to avoid the worst practices of their industries. Diversity is their strength. Like any lively family, they squabble and compete – but also know what they have in common.
Fairtrade as a major brand
Fairtrade has become the archetypal brand of this new economy.
The major retailers dare not ignore this shift in customer values – but by embracing it they also reinforce it. Tesco’s website boasts responsibility for one third of Fairtrade sales in the UK. Fairtrade messages scattered through their stores up and down the land implicitly challenge the acceptability of so many other products, business processes and trade regimes. No political party can afford advertising on that scale.
Fairtrade as a cameo of how change happens
Its social change, Jim, but not as we knew it. The Fairtrade example proves that big changes don’t start with legislation – that happens towards the end of the process. Whether it is slavery or children being sent up chimneys, change starts when practices become controversial. The loss of social acceptability is the turning point.
Professor Rob Paton, Chair of The Open University Master of Public Administration in which global governance and social enterprise are major topics.
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This feature supplied by: The Open University (OU)
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