Marketers Taking an Interest in Fair Trade

Anyone who’s been around coffee for, say the last 10 years, is quite aware of the fair trade movement, which is why it surprised me to run into this article in BrandWeek, “Marketers Eye Fair Trade Certified As the New ‘Green’.” Fair trade is the next big trend?
It seems to be all everyone talks about. But I suppose that’s for folks in the industry. It’s interesting that paying a fair price to farmers should be some kind of market niche.

Reading the article, it seems organic is yesterday’s news, the green idea is hitting its stride and now fair trade will be the new in-thing for big businesses. But what it all boils down to is that unless farmers and their families have economic options outside of individual products like coffee, tea or chocolate, their problems will continue. It’s great to see the movement getting the attention of marketers and brand folks as more consumers demand it, but there’s a lot more to equal treatment than the bottom line.