Fair Trade Month

Every Purchase Matters | The Story of Fair Trade | Count Me In | Discover Fair Trade

The Story of Fair Trade

With Fair Trade, the money you spend on day-to-day goods can improve an entire community's day to day lives. Here's How.

What happens when you choose products with the Fair Trade Certified Label?

Your Purchase Means

Protecting the Environment: Rigorous Fair Trade standards help farmers become better stewards of the land, protecting precious ecosystems for generations to come

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Improving Lives: Fair Trade empowers farmers and workers to fight poverty and improve the lives of their communities

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Quality Products: Farmers produce high quality products, which means higher prices and increased income to invest in their communities

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The people who produce these products earn fair prices & community development funds. Farming communities democratically elect how to spend Fair Trade funds. In 2011 alone, these community development funds topped $20MM. Hover each item below to learn how Fair Trade has made a positive impact in communities around the world.

Women's Empowerment

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Education

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Environmental Protection

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Improved Quality & Productivity

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Health Care

[8]

Democracy

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And you can find Fair Trade in all sorts of categories

Coffee & Tea

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Cocoa

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Herbs & Spices

[12]

Cotton

[13]

Sugar

[14]

Fair Trade Certified Cotton Fruits & Vegetables Icon

Produce

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I want to support the farmers and workers who grow and make the products I love.

Buy Fair Trade

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For Maria Herminia Garcia, the first female to be elected president of the small Nicaraguan cooperative, Fair Trade is a symbol of hope and pride for women.

In Ecuador, flower farm workers voted to invest their premiums in a washing machine. They used to spend their Sundays washing clothes by hand; now, they spend them with their families.

Through Fair Trade, Honduran coffee farmer Jose Isidro Lara was able to invest in a personal wet mill and a solar drying area; his coffee is now of award-winning quality.

Access to the Fair Trade market and the organic production process has been a life-changing experience. - Gladis Marleny Chávez Cubas

Thanks to the Fair Trade Certified pepper program, Floriberto Romero is the first of his five siblings to attend school.

After struggling to see for 50 years, Brazilian coffee farm worker Maria Filha de Jesus received her first pair of eyeglasses.