Walk through your nearest branch of Asda, and you’re looking at the benefits of a global market. One can buy just about any product at a cheap price. Whether it’s bananas from Thailand or cornflower oil from Chile - it’s in stock throughout the year. There’s never been a greater era in the history of humanity to be a consumer in the west. This has come about through just in time stock control, economies of scale, strong market competition, and possibly most influentially, the fact that most goods are sourced, and often produced, in the poorest nations.
That last point is quite significant, and very controversial. While western shoppers are purchasing clothing, food, drink and other items manufactured from the poorest nations at cheap cost, labourers and business organisations in these manufacturing nations are oftentimes cheated in the process, and have no true sustainability as they’re the last stop of a very long chain of middle-men who determine what they manufacture, how much, and how often. This lengthy string of middle-men all demand their cut too - in the end there’s not a lot of cash for the end-of-line manufacturer.
All the same, there’s assistance for such exploited individuals and companies. Fairtrade is a cause that seeks to give some power to such end-manufacturing business organisations in the poorest countries of the world. It seeks to banish these middle men, and pay the end-producer a fair price for an item in a much more targeted way. You might have encountered Fairtrade products in your local supermarket. Sometimes they’re a tad more costly, but by buying such ethical products - such as fair trade handbags - you will be happy to realise the manufacturer is operating in a sustainable business environment that doesn’t just pay them justly via a much more direct revenue flow, but it also grants them to put this extra money into their business through higher earnings, which really contributes in a positive way toward these poorer areas of the world.
