Towards fairer trade

What exactly is the impact of fair trade initiatives on small scale producers? And what are the problems and issues that arise during the complex process of putting fair trade ideas into practice? With the recent expansion of fair and green trade markets, such questions have become not only relevant but crucial. This issue of the LEISA (Low External Input and Sustainable Agriculture) Magazine aims to provoke debate by presenting current practical experiences with fair and green trade from around the world, reflecting the variety of initiatives that have taken shape in recent years.

Articles include:

• Fairtrade fruit: successes, challenges and dilemmas
• The fair trade platform: Bolivian producers lobby for change
• Agroecological cotton and fair trade make the difference
• Filipino handicrafts provide income and protect the forest
• Fair to the last drop: corporate challenges to fair trade
• Direct trade that benefits poor communities in India and the U.K.
• Growing a local organic movement: the Mexican network of organic markets
• Building grower-consumer alliances for confronting the coffee crisis
• Community supported agriculture: an alternative local food system

For LEISA farmers, it is argued that entering the global fair trade market presents an exciting opportunity. Nevertheless, it is underlined that farmers should continue to see this market as only one of various livelihood strategies. Local, alternative marketing initiatives can offer chances to many more farmers. Farmers and their organisations will need to assess which option, or mix of options, are within their reach. They will need to use all their skills of adaptability and flexibility to keep on top of current trends and changes in the market structures, and benefit from the opportunities presented.

The authors show that farmer organisation is critical to the success and sustainability of such ventures, as only organised small scale farmers will be able to reach the scale required and build up the necessary confidence to become players, not just end receivers, in these newly emerging markets.