With the introduction of fair trade, it now allows the producers as well as the workers to play a larger role in international trade. There are many supporting societies involved in this endeavor ranging from international development aid to environmental organization. such as Christian Associations and Amnesty International to name a few.
When it comes to globalization many claim that all it does is allow the producers of the product to obtain their goods from countries that are just going through developing and are exploiting people that are already poor. This has been an accusation made against fair trade coffee as well as other products.
There are organizations however in place to make sure that producers in these countries are paying a fair price to their workers for the goods that we ultimately end up consuming.
Canadians for example consume more than 40,000,000 cups of coffee a day and almost 2/3 of the coffee the Canadians drink is at the residence meaning that most of it is bought at the local grocery store or coffee chains.
Most of the producers who supplied the coffee average about $.54 for each pound of beans, which means that for every consumer that spends one dollar on the coffee $.11 of that, is going to the producer.
At least with fair trade coffee arrangements there's not so much money going to the middleman and more is reaching the pockets of the coffee grower under this agreement the grower is receiving about $.28 on every dollar.
Fair trade sales has become so popular that now several of the larger supermarket chains carry the fair-trade coffee products.
Throughout the world, fair trade sales have now become extremely popular each year at the rate of growth is increasing dramatically.
Although the fair trade movement seems like a new concept, it actually originated in the 1940s in the United States. The major benefit of buying fair trade products means that more of money spent on the item is going to the Independent farmer. It gives the purchaser peace of mind knowing that they are improving the incomes of regular people that are desperate to make a living.
Some people believe that they are only helping a small number of producers under this Fair Trade Coffee arrangement for example, but that's not really the truth as some of the money goes to the community of the producer to build schools and improve the infrastructure. Therefore, in essence by buying fair trade products you are contributing to a whole community in an underdeveloped country.
