Fair Trade Movement

The movement did not help all the small scale producers but it helped them to improve the standard of living. In this paper, I will focus on a brief history, structure, challenges and impact of movement to the society. Purpose of the Fair Trade movement Fair trade movement was meant to transform North and South trade from their old historical practices of exploitation to a vehicle of empowerment. It was also meant to reduce the poverty levels in the South side of the globe. This could be achieved by a means of empowering the small scale producers through trade. Fair trade movement was mainly developed and organized to help small producers from developing countries from exploitative practices of importers and retailers in developed nations. These “exploitative practices were used by industrialized world against third world countries” (Krasnozhon, 2015 p.

Since the emergence of fair trade, coffee sales have significantly increased and the latter has emerged as the most important international project to counter development and globalization crisis today (Fridell, 2007 p. ii). Structure and support mobilization for Fair Trade Movement To win support from the society, pioneer organizations for the fair trade movement like Sales Exchange Refugee Rehabilitation and Vocation (SERRV) and Oxfam began by buying handicrafts from low income producers in the South side of the globe at prices slightly above the market prices and sells them directly to consumers. IFTA protects all members in the world who engage in international trade. Several countries in different continents are sheltered by IFTA. How Fair Trade movement support its claims Fair trade movement support its claims under the pretense of social dialogue, sustainable development and livable income among small scale producers (Krasnozhon, 2015 p.

They also support their claims by restricting international openness and competition while shielding inefficient firms. Distributive politics are also used to focus is to concentrate benefits to small producers in the name of promoting equality and sustainability. The movement initially had committed to working with small producers organized in cooperatives but large-scale producers greatly increased and joined the network. This of course caused chaos and small producers suffered while in the movement. The large producers pushed out the fair trade small-scale producers due to entrenched economies of scale (Raynolds, 2007 p. Fair Trade bananas for the US market come from small-scale banana farmers and producer cooperatives and plantations; all of which are substantially smaller than the TNC plantations that supply most of the United States bananas (Raynolds, 2007 p. Another challenge relates to the changing nature of the fair trade due to technological advancements.

He now recalls that fair trade helped him earn a decent living unlike in the free market. Other than that, Mr. Paiva’s beans will be stored and sold to big companies. It “will be in the store-brand coffee sold by Sam’s Club, the warehouse chain of Wal-Mart Stores. Dunkin’ Donuts, McDonald’s and Starbucks already sell some fair trade coffee” (Krasnozhon, 2015 Oct. On the positive side, small-scale producers are working closely with the fair trade certifications to get more premiums on prices so that they can improve their prices. Countries like Brazil that produces little top-grade coffee is doing their best to come up to standard so they can sell their coffee as fair trade to enable them earn more (Downie, 2007 Oct. The movement also depicted a mechanism through which small scale farmers and the peasants would connect to the global economy.

The movement helped small scale farmers to overcome obstacles and exploitative practices related to international trade (Fridell, 2007 p. Since the emergence of fair trade, coffee sales have significantly increased and the coffee production has emerged as the most important international project to boost modern economic development and industrialization (Fridell, 2007 p. Work Cited Downie, A. October 2). Fair Trade in Bloom. Retrieved from https://www. nytimes. The Review of Social and Economic Issues 1. ftp://ftp. repec. org/opt/ReDIF/RePEc/rau/rseijr/SP15/RSEI-SP15-A1. pdf Raynolds, Laura T.