Fair Trade: how will we work it out?

During the month we discussed Fair Trade in all kind of aspects. Now it's my job to come to a final blog describing our findings and opinions.

First of all, we've chosen to approach Fair Trade by the effect it has on global health care. While we're working this out in our paper we can't avoid the role of the government. Together with some statistic data and graphs we will show that Fair Trade really does change the global world.

Furthermore our opinion is to make the presentation attractive and instructive, to tell something that the youth will keep in mind. We will try to reach this by bringing in some modern aspects. Show the increasing role of promotion, and especially, celebrity endorsement by giving some examples. Together we can discuss if this form of promotion is effective and ask the opinion of students to get some interaction.

So this was a brief description of how we will work out the concept Fair Trade during the year. We're all glad that we've chosen this as our subject, because it's so nowadays and we think it's important that the younger people get in touch with it.

Tessa De Clerck

No sources used

Fair trade changes women’s lives

Seventy percent of the world’s 1.3 billion poor people surviving on less than a $ 1 a day are women. In general we can say that women work in inhuman conditions, earning less respect and pay. In this blog I will show you how fair trade tries to help women by focusing on the important role women play in providing all the needs of their family.

Fair trade directly benefits women by allowing them the opportunity to work and earn money while tending to their daily tasks. They spend twice as much time as men on unpaid activities like cooking, cleaning, child care…

Investments in women’s well being by offering them paid work can have far-reaching positive effects. When they are able to generate an income, they tend to spend it towards the well-being of their family. This results in better schooling, healthier food and improved health care.

I conclude that the fair trade organization can end the cycle of poverty only by enabling women to earn money. It is the key to help developing countries!

Lynn Decuypere

Used sources:

http://www.ourmomentum.com/fair_trade_women.html
http://www.lwr.org/fairtrade/docs/womenandfairtrade.pdf

Fairtrade and distribution

 

In this blog I would like to write about one of the disadvantages Lynn mentionned. The distribution of fairtrade products is something that certainly needs to be mentionned in our next tasks. It is clear that fairtrade is sometimes hard to find in supermarkets and even harder to find in grocery stores, everyone links fairtrade to the Oxfam shops. We can question usefulness for the progress of fairtrade to find its products everywhere.

On the one hand we can say that the more places the products are available, the more the consumer is confronted with these products and the more they will buy these products. A problem for many consumers who really want to buy fairtrade products is that not all products are available in a fairtrade version, so when you implant the fairtrade products in a supermarkt they can buy all their products they need at one place. 

On the other hand we can doubt if the effect will be that big as aspected. Most of the people are rationalist and will buy the cheapest products and not the fairtrade products. People who really want to buy these fairtrade products because they believe in its concept will definitely go to the Oxfam shops if that is the only place to find this products.

I conclude that increasing the distribution of the fairtrade products is a good cause, but we may not overrate the effect of it.


Cédric De Prol
(no sources used)

Lipton for the future



On the Lipton tea plantation

As you can see in my first blog fair trade does not only guarantee a fair price for the producers in the developing countries, beside that companies also have to respect the living conditions of their employees, especially women and children.

Lipton is a great example of a multinational who is very motivated to improve the standard of living on their tea plantations. That is why they are rewarded with the rainforest alliance certification. On these plantations the workers are treated fairly. On the one hand the work conditions are good. The farmers get a fixed income and they aren’t allowed to work more than eight hours a day. On the other hand the living conditions are respected as well. They have a decent house to live in and there is clean water available. Lipton is also taking care of the families of their workers. They provide medical service to them and the children can enjoy free education.

For me this is a praiseworthy project from Lipton, they do really help the poor people in the world. But it’s obvious why Lipton is showing this commercial on TV so often, so I realize that Lipton is using their certification as a PR-tool.

Used sources:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6bD1Sd1lmU&feature=related

http://www.liptonforthefuture.be/?lang=nl

Stefanie De Lille

Government and fairtrade

I think we should better not forget the role of the government, it  is elementary when you want to reach all these  benefits like poverty reduction, community development,  improvement of environmental health and consumer awareness.  I doubt it if fairtrade would exist without this support of the government?

What the most of us probably don’t know is that the government pumps millions into fairtrade, however, only the multinationals make big money by selling this fairtrade products. Would these  multinationals also cooperate at the fairtrade program without the governmental support?’

First of all, I think companies would continue the fair-trade when government suddenly stops donating money. The fairtrade brand is to important for their image nowadays. Furthermore, I have to notice that the government probably never will stop to subsidize fairtrade organizations, it actually boosts their image as well. Finally the best solution might be that the government gives loans in stead of subsidying the companies projects. By that way the government makes fairtrade possible whitout investing money.

Cédric De Prol
http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/press_office/press_releases_and_statements/october_2009/uk_government_announces_12_million_investment_for_fairtrade_on_15th_anniversary_of_the_fairtrade_mark.aspx

Disadvantages of fair trade

So far we have especially described the advantages of fair trade. In this blog I will discuss some disadvantages.

First of all we can say that the export of non-processed supplies is much cheaper than processed goods. For example: the export of coffee beans instead of roasted coffee. That’s why multinationals are not encouraged to invest in new technological facilities for Third World countries.

Second, most fair trade products are still sold in specialized shops like Oxfam-Wereldwinkel, not in mainstream distribution chains. Nowadays this trend is changing, as some traders offer the possibility of on-line shopping.

Another hindrance to become fair trade certified is the certification cost and the process of acquiring registration. Mostly the cooperatives do not have the money to pay those costs and the process can take a long time.

The last disadvantage refers to the blog of Tessa: ‘The benefits of fair trade’. On the one hand, as Tessa refers to in her blog, organic farming improves the farmers’ health and their independence. But on the other hand, this conversion from agrochemicals to organic farming asks some expensive investments from the farmers.

In spite of these disadvantages, I conclude that fair trade creates a better life for the farmers in developing countries!

Lynn Decuypere

Used sources:
http://www.copacgva.org/about/2005/uganda-fairtrade.pdf

http://www.fair-trade-hub.com/disadvantages-for-fair-trade.html#top

The benefits of Fair Trade

Each blog described one part of the advantages of Fair Trade. My goal for this blog is to join all these together.

When you ask someone after the benefits of Fair Trade, the first thing they imagine is the poverty reduction. This contains less illiteracy, more healthcare, etc. However Fair Trade aims for more benefits.

To begin with we have community development. Nowadays organizations in developing countries are more transparent and democratic, both men and women have a say. Beside this we can notice a huge increase in cooperatives, a company where farmers all work together and so they have more to say (because they eliminate intermediate trade).

Second is the improvement of environmental health. Fair trade tries to reach this by encouraging organic farming and avoiding the use of agrochemicals. This would improve the farmers' health and their independence towards developed countries. Namely, agrochemicals are produced by them.

At the end of the list of benefits stands the consumer awareness. More often people will chose to buy products with an Ecolabel or Fair Trade Label on it. If everyone is in favour I recommend that we can work this topic out as a part of our presentation.

Tessa De Clerck


Used source:
http://www.fair-trade-hub.com/benefits-of-fair-trade.html