Fairtrade: Make a Difference at Your Local Supermarket
Walk through your nearest branch of Morrissons, and you’re witnessing the miracle of global market forces. You can buy almost any item at a very low price. It could be from Vietnam or tea from Columbia – it’s procurable all year round. There’s never been a better era in the history of humanity to be a shopper! This has happened by intricate stock control and logistics, economies of scale, powerful competitive forces, and possibly most influentially, the fact that many goods are sourced, and often produced, in the poorer countries.
The final reason is rather significant, and very contentious. While western shoppers are purchasing food, drink, clothing and other items manufactured from second and third world countries at rock-bottom prices, labourers and commercial enterprises in these manufacturing nations are frequently cheated in the process, and haven’t any real sustainable business model as they are at the end of a very lengthy line of middle men who determine what they produce, how much, and how often. This lengthy string of middle-men all receive their share too – so there’s not a great deal of revenue for the end-of-line manufacturer.
Nonetheless, there’s help for such impoverished workers and companies. Fairtrade is a cause which looks to empower these end-producing commercial enterprises in the poorest nations of the planet. It seeks to banish the middle men, and renumerate the end-manufacturer a fair price for an item in a far more primary way. You might have encountered Fairtrade products in your nearest supermarket. Sometimes they’re a tad more pricy, but by purchasing such ethical products or even ethical gifts, you will know the manufacturer is working in a sustainable business environment that not only pays them evenhandedly through a much more direct revenue flow, but it also grants them to reinvest in their business through higher profits, which actually contributes in a positive way toward these poorest areas of the planet.
