DEVELOPMENT-WORLD: What Is So Fair About Fair Trade?
But, whatever the definitions, the charters and the organisations' role in the chain, both the PFCE and Minga admit that certification is the weakest link in ensuring that trade is indeed fair. Both networks rely on self-evaluation. There is no independent verification that producers do in fact abide by a network's charter and principles. In order to join Minga and have its products sold by the association's outlets, a producer must fill in a questionnaire with about 400 questions. ``We also encourage a participatory system of verification where a member organisation visits another and evaluates economic, social and environmental practices,'' says Besson. For Maisonhaute, it is unthinkable to systematically verify production standards on the ground in developing countries: ``Given the number of producers and the distances to cover, the cost of travelling to each location would be unbearable.'' This allows the Adam Smith Institute, a British think tank that promotes free trade and is one of fair trade's harshest critics, to denounce what it sees as a marketing initiative rather than a new model for economic justice. ``Just 10 percent of the premium consumers pay for fair trade actually goes to the producer. Retailers pocket the rest,'' the Institute claims in a report titled ``Unfair Trade''.
Oh, that everything "distorts" markets... Except for the wealthy and powerful dominating trade on their own terms?
I can't rid myself of the impression that, if producers were getting, not 10%, but just 1 or 2% more for their products through an "undistorted" market system, we'd be hearing a lot about how global free trade with added trickle-down is "lifting millions from poverty".
the best ways to respond to the accusation are to (1) make verification thorough, (2) provide evidence that fair-trade producers, even if they are only getting 10%, are still getting significantly more than what they would otherwise get through "free trade", and (3) convert as much as the supply chain from "free trade" to "fair trade", and do it verifiably. Point n'est besoin d'espérer pour entreprendre, ni de réussir pour persévérer. - Charles le Téméraire
So it already means that more of the value stream goes to the producer.
Now, they say that 10% of the extra price goes to the producer (that may be, I have no idea). Any guess as to how much of the price goes to the producer in a standard distribution ? I can't remember (I did read it once) but I reckon we are talking around 1-2%. So if they get 10% of the difference, it probably means they double or treble their income. That's quite major -and the true metric for the effectiveness of such schemes.
So what they are saying is that retailers that can't have the kind of economies of scale, or pressure on all intermediate actors as major stores (and therefore probably higher costs), still end up giving hugely more to the producer, while more or less ensuring that workers are treated decently and that crops are grown in a reasonably environmently friendly way.
I guess that, from them, it counts as criticism. Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi
