South-South Trade – A new mission for Fair Trade

Posted by Jane

October 8, 2009

One issue within Fair Trade which is becoming increasingly more important is that of South-South Trade. Fair Trade has achieved a great amount over the past few decades in terms of creating a more level playing field for the producers of a variety of goods from coffee to crafts.

However, currently that playing field still leaves the producer dependant on so called “Northern hemisphere” or “developed country” buyers. You can see from the map that Fair Trade labelling initiatives, the bodies that manage the fair trade mark are mainly based in these countries. In the wake of the recent economic crisis some producers have seen their orders plummet. Even though their country may not be suffering directly from a recession, the dependence on Northern buyers affects their income.

This is why my trip to South Africa was so inspiring, you may have read that South Africa now has it’s own Fairtrade Marketing Initiative, giving South Africa license to certify fair trade products in that country. During the trip we met with Jonathan Robinson of Bean There Coffee Company. Jonathan spent the first two years operating his business under fair trade terms without a mark on the products to show they were fair trade! Now that South Africa has direct access to this mark it will make it much easier for producers to promote their goods as fair trade. This is a really big step forward in awareness raising and market access for producers in the South. Once again Fairtrade is making pioneering steps to level the playing field across the globe for producers who are often marginalised by the free market.

Jonathan now has a café and roaster based in Johannesburg where visitors can sample wonderful coffee from all over Africa; I should know I was lucky enough to try some!