How does Fairtrade work?

Importantly this is not an official government-backed programme, but a worldwide independent accreditation body set up to protect, support and reward people looking to making an honest living in under developed countries producing products that people in the developed world want to buy.

If a product carries the FAIRTRADE Mark you can be assured it is following these key principles:

•  the ingredients in the product have been produced by small-scale farmer organisations or plantations
• those organisations all meet Fairtrade social, economic and environmental standards
•  those standards include protection of workers’ rights and the environment
• each farmer or participating organisation is paid both a Fairtrade Minimum Price and an additional Fairtrade Premium that goes into a fund for farmers and workers to spend on local projects.