ST PHILIP'S HAS MADE A COMMITMENT TO OPERATE AS A FAIR TRADE CHURCH
WHAT IS FAIR TRADE?
In the developing world, many commodities produced are agricultural commodities and local commodity producers tend to be small operations, with most falling into the categories of SME's. As such, they have problems selling their produce on international markets as commodities tend to be sold in standardized bulk contracts, to make things cost effective from the freight cost point of view. Local producers tend to have problems in producing their products in sufficient quantities and also problems in raising financing to provide the commodities in sufficient quantities to be traded on normal international contracts. add this to the fact that world prices to the commdities typically produced by Developing World have fallen for a number of reasons (sudsidies to farmers in developed countries, structural adjustment programmes etc) and you get a situation where many producers in developing countries are very poor and can hardly afford to produce their crops and the local economies also suffer.
Conventional Fair Trade helps address these problems in the following ways.
- Producers receive a fair price - a living wage.
- For commodities, farmers receive a stable, minimum price.
Fair Trade products can be identified by the "Fair Trade Certified" label or the Fair Trade Federation logo on a product. The "Fair Trade Certified" system involves non-profit organizations in 17 different countries, all affiliated with Fairtrade Labeling Organizations International.