What Fair Trade Really Means—for Producers and for You

Everyday items like soft drinks, coffee, and spice mixes are highly processed foods that differ greatly from their raw, natural forms. We probably just take them for granted without questioning how they're made and where they come from. Take the humble chocolate bar for example. 

Chocolate is processed using cacao beans, often grown by small scale farmers, in tropical regions, in some of the most impoverished countries globally. Not only will the beans travel great distances before reaching us, but they will also pass through countless hands, each one taking a share of the profit.

In traditional commerce, only approximately 6% of a chocolate bar's value will remain with the cacao farmer. On a $3 chocolate bar, the grower receives just 18 cents. Given the prioritization of cost in this system, various negative outcomes may occur to maintain low prices - regrettably, trafficking and exploitation are prevalent. Braga, A. (2024)

Guess what? Many of these people will never even taste the finished product - that’s right, they will never eat chocolate!

This is where fair trade comes in and makes a massive difference in the lives of the producers. In traditional commerce, most cacao farmers earn less than $2 per day, that’s about $730 per year. In fair trade, we believe in setting a price for goods that supports a living wage, forming the basis of what the grower makes as we work toward the end price. To empower growers, democratically run cooperatives are encouraged and supported.

Fair trade also guides environmental and labour practices and encourages trade partners to deal as directly as possible with each other. This results in less middlemen and more of the money kept by the producer. Plus, cooperatives invest toward community projects, meaning better sanitation, health, and education for producers AND their children!

Watch the video below!

Braga, A. August 20, 2024 The dark side of chocolate: child labour in the cocoa industry. Humanium, https://www.humanium.org/en/the-dark-side-of-chocolate-child-labour-in-the-cocoa-industry/