Walk around your nearby Asda, and you are looking at the wonderment of globalisation. One can purchase just about any product at very low cost. Whether it’s herbs from the Philippines or cornflower oil from Peru – it’s for sale all year round. There’s never been a greater time in the history of humanity to be a consumer! This has happened by just in time stock control, economies of scale, powerful market competition, and possibly most influentially, the fact that most goods are sourced, and often made, in second and third world countries.
That final point is quite important, and very controversial. While shoppers are buying food, drink, clothing and other items produced from second and third world countries at low costs, workers and businesses in these producing countries are often exploited, and have no true sustainable business model as they’re the last stop of a very lengthy line of middle-men who control what they manufacture, how much, and how often. This lengthy string of middle-men all require their cut too – so there’s not a lot of cash left for the end-of-line producer.
Nonetheless, there’s assistance for these impoverished labourers and companies. Fairtrade is a cause that looks to give some power to such end-producing business organizations in the poorest nations of the planet. It seeks to banish these middle men, and renumerate the end-manufacturer a reasonable price for an item in a far more direct way. You may have encountered Fairtrade products in your local supermarket. You’ll sometimes find they’re a tad more expensive, but by buying such ethical products or even ethical gifts – for instance fair trade baby clothes – you will be happy to know the producer is working in a sustainable business environment that doesn’t just pay them evenhandedly through a much more direct revenue flow, but it also permits them to reinvest in their business through greater earnings, which genuinely contributes in a positive way toward these poorer parts of the world.
