Connie Lou
Textile Design
Definition on Fair Trade
Fair Trade is an organisation which helps people in the world’s poorest countries such as Dominican Republic, South Africa, Ghana, Ethiopia, Uganda and many more, escape poverty and promotes sustainability. The Trade is made up of many organisations from producers, marketers, traders and charities. These organisations are there to make sure that farm workers in these marginalised countries get a fair price for their goods to assure better living and a safe working condition. Products are marked with the FAIRTRADE mark when the product has met the FAIRTRADE standards set and owned by Fair Trade Labelling Organisations International (FLO). FLO is made up of 24 organisations across Europe, Japan, North America, Australia and New Zealand as well as producer organisations from Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. There are many Fair trade products which hold the FAIRTRADE mark such as Bananas, Coffee, Tea, Honey, Olive oils, Nuts, Cotton and many more. Places which sell these products range from high street shops such as Top Shop and Marks and Spencer, to supermarkets such as Tesco and Co-op, charity shops such as Oxfam and online shops such as People Tree and Gossypium.
This is the Fair Trade Foundation Logo from the Fair Trade Foundation website (2010)
Brief History on Fair Trade
“The concept of Fair Trade has been around for over 40 years” (Fair Trade Foundation (2010a)) but hadn’t taken off till the late 1980s. Fair Trade is a dynamic range of movements and campaigns to the negative effects of globalisation. The Fair Trade movement is comprised of a set of groups identified as FINE. The Name came from the first letter of each group. Each group have their aims to improve Fair Trade but all have the same goals which are to improve the livelihood and wellbeing of producers through market access, promote development opportunities for disadvantaged producers, protect children from exploitation, raise awareness among consumers, changing the international trade and to protect human rights by promoting social justice and environmental sustainability. The Fair Trade movement started after a market-based approach to globalisation and Consumer boycotts such as the Grape boycott and Nestle boycott. (Reynolds, Murray, Wilkinson, 2006) These boycotts were used to tackle the hard working conditions of farmers in South Africa. They lasted 5 years which led to Fair Trade in the 1960’s.
The earliest traces of Fair trade in Europe date from the late 1950s when “Oxfam UK sold crafts made by Chinese Refugees”. (Witkowski, 2005) Later in 1964 The Fair Trade Organisation was established. In the early days fair trade organisation’s traded mainly with Handcraft producers as crafts provided extra income to their families which were sold through world shops. World Shops or Fair Trade shops are specialised retail outlets offering and promoting fair trade products. “The European world shop conference took place in 1984” (European Fair Trade, (2010)) which led volunteers to work in the shops from all over Europe.
In the early 1990s food stuff sold in fair trade was rivalling crafts due to the change in consumer marketing by the Alternative Trade Organisation (ATO). In the later 1990’s, new ATOs such as Cafedirect and Day Chocolate Company were “consciously established to operate in mainstream markets, usually specialised in food marketing”. (Tallontire, A. 2006) By the 21st century these businesses became very successful and beneficial to producers.
In 1997 the Fair Trade Labelling Organisation (FLO) was created, which was later split into two organisations. They certified products with the FAIRTRADE mark and their goal is to make Fair Trade more accessible to consumers They did this by moving fair trade into “supermarkets where most people do their shopping” (Raynolds,Murray,Wilkinson,2007). The best known initiatives within FLO is the Fair Trade Foundation in the UK, they’re an organisation licensed to use the Fair Trade Mark on products in the UK. “Fair Trade bananas were first sold in supermarket Co-op in January 2000 in 1,000 shops throughout UK which other supermarkets soon followed.” (Fair Trade Foundation (2010b)) “Fair Trade has evolved rapidly over the past half century, with consumers spending over £1.6 billion on fair-trade certified products, benefiting over 7 million people – farmers, workers and their families in 58 developing countries.” (Fair Trade Foundation, (2010c)) In 2008 findings show that 70% of consumers recognise the FAIRTRADE mark and 64% are aware of the idea behind the mark. The success in Fair Trade has helped the workers, one cotton farmer from India quoting “I did not get any education but I want my children to, Because of Fair Trade price, I can send them to school” (Fair Trade Foundation, (2010d))
This is a picture taken in the Oxfam Charity Shop by Connie Lou with all the Fair Trade Products
Design Practice and Fair Trade
There are many design issues within Fair Trade, cotton is one of them as it’s only a tiny percentage of all fair trade products sold in the UK, compared to coffee which comprises 50%. Textiles and fashion is a main issue to look at within Fair Trade products due to the use of cotton. Cotton is a relatively new fair trade product which started in 2005. Textile and fashion design has become increasingly popular and are made all over the world in unethical conditions. Even if textile or fashion products use fair trade cotton, it isn’t to say that the products are constructed ethically. Some companies which use and produce products ethically with fair trade cotton are People Tree and Gossypium. People Tree is a high fashion company with designers who aim to “create a garment that’s truly beautiful” (People Tree, 2010) with the producers in mind at all time and tries to maximise the benefits to them. The People Tree fashion is aimed at the upper market as the prices are higher; this is due to the organic cotton used and the hard working labour of each product. On the People Tree website there are little symbols beside each garment showing techniques and craftsmanship involved when making each garment. This gives the consumer a better idea of what they are buying and where the product has come from. Fair trade cotton is generally more expensive and better quality. Although consumers may understand the reasons behind fair trade, people generally don’t think about it while they shop and would still go for the cheaper alternative which is not ethically produced. Fair Trade is always looking at new ways that can improve the understanding of fairly traded products by trying to push the ethical fair trade garments to all markets. Fair Trade has recently tried by putting in fair trade products into high street shops such as Top Shop and Marks and Spencer which have had a positive effect. Other ways which have had a positive effect on fair trade cotton is Tesco’s new range of clothing made from organic fair trade cotton. This new range was in a lot of newspapers and on internet web pages where the biggest and most powerful marketing is made effective. Fair Trade Foundation has recently put out a project to Northumbria University to the fashion students, where they had to design a fashionable piece made from cotton produced in the developing world. The effect on this project deepened the students understanding of Fair Trade cotton which may influence the way they work, planting a seed for the future. Fair Trade are placing workshops in some Fashion courses which will continue to expand around the UK. This way more designers will be using Fair trade cotton and will learn to produce ethically. Fair trade foundation quoted ‘we want fair-trade cotton to become the norm” (Fair Trade Foundation, (2010e))
European Fair Trade, (2010) www.european-fair-trade-association.org/efta/Doc/History.pdf
Fair Trade Foundation (2010a) www.fairtrade.org.uk/what_is_fairtrade/history.aspx
Fair Trade Foundation (2010b) www.fairtrade.org.uk/what_is_fairtrade/history.aspx
FairTradeFoundation, (2010c) www.fairtrade.org.uk/what_is_fairtrade/facts_and_figures.aspx
Fair Trade Foundation, (2010d) www.fairtrade.org.uk/producers/cotton/agrocel_pure_and_fair_cotton_growers.aspx
Fair Trade foundation (2010e) http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/products/cotton/questions_answers.aspx
People Tree, (2010) http://www.peopletree.co.uk/content/handcrafted.php
Raynolds, L. Murray, D. Wilkinson, J, Globalisation and its antinomies, Fair Trade The challenges of transforming globalisation, Routledge, 2007, pg8
Tallontire, A. Chapter 2 The development of Alternative and Fair Trade: Moving into the Mainstream, Ethical Sourcing in Global Food System (Barrientos, S. Dolan, C) Earth Scan London,2006, pg37
Witkowski, T. Fair Trade Marketing: An Alternative system for Globalisation and Development, California State University, Long Beach, 2005
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