Assignment on Success of Fair Trade Initiatives

Running head: SUCCESS OF FAIR-TRADE INITIATIVES
SUCCESS OF FAIR-TRADE INITIATIVES
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

SUCCESS OF FAIR-TRADE INITIATIVES1
Fair-trade refers to trade that takes place among the companies that are present in the
developing countries as well as the producers in order to ensure the fair payment towards the
concerned producers and companies in the given markets. The implementation of the fair-trade
practices is considered to be beneficial for the incorporation of the sustainability within the given
markets. The fair-trade practices that have been taking place within the given international
markets tend assist the development of the operations and the payment that is extended towards
the concerned producers as well thereby creating a sustainability in the given markets.
The essay opens with a general discussion on the fair-trade and proceeds further to
discuss the success rate of the initiatives of fair trade in the world that is still developing. The
essay further discusses the implications of the fair trade in the near future as well as provide a
few examples of the successful fair-trade initiatives in diverse sectors. The essay further
involves evaluative measures that are important for the development of the fair-trade
initiatives. The essay concludes with a discussion on the sustainability of the operations of
fair-trade in the international markets.
Fair-trade generally refers to the initiatives that are implemented in order to bring
about a proper improvement in the livelihood of the poverty-stricken people residing in the
developing countries. These initiatives generally provide the concerned people with the better
terms as well as providing them with the required assistance so that they might organize
themselves. However, a very small market share belongs to the various products that are fair-
trade certified. It might be stated as an example that the in the year 2009, only 1.8% of the coffee
exports all over the world had been fair-trade certified products (Dragusanu, Giovannucci
&Nunn, 2014). In the sector of coffee exports, the growth in the past decade has been observed
to be rapid. The largest single product in the fair-trade market is coffee. According to the data

SUCCESS OF FAIR-TRADE INITIATIVES2
retrieved from monitoring the scope and benefits of Fair-trade (2012), an estimate can be derived
on the number of the workers and the producers of the products that are enlisted in the list of
fair-trade products. The highest number of producers and workers who have been dealing in the
coffee industry is 580000, that in the tea industry is 258100, in the cocoa industry the number of
producers involved is 141800. The seed cotton industry involves 66500 people, the flower and
plants industry involve 37500 people, the cane sugar involves the participation of 37200 people.
The fresh fruit industry and the nut industry involve 18700 and 14300 people respectively. The
fair-trade initiatives are majorly aimed at the improvement of the living conditions of the
workers and the farmers who have been residing in the developing countries. The fair-trade
products that were implemented in the Netherlands are marketed under the label that was
highlighted especially for the purpose of fair-trade. The trade label was named Max Havelaar.
The name was derived from the name of a fictional character who was known to have stood in
favour of the coffee pickers against the exploitation that they had to face in the Dutch colonies.
This settles the fair-trade activities to have an economic sensibility as well as to be sustainable
for the future days.
The activity of fair-trade is considered to be beneficial for the farmers of the developing
countries. The benefits that are faced by the farmers tend to vary from a low range to a
considerable range. A variety of marketing strategies are implemented by the various
organisations that deal in the ethical marketing and fair-trade activities (Ballet & Carimentrand,
2010). A greater number of the marketers practising fair-trade tend to believe that it is necessary
on the part of the sellers to sell the products through the various supermarkets in order to attract a
larger number of clients. This is turn is believed to help the developing economy as well. The
system for marketing both the fair-trade and non-fair-trade coffee variants is the same in the