Analysis of Fair Trade as a Concept of Sustainability

Essay from the year 2009 in the subject Business economics - Business Ethics, Corporate Ethics, grade: 1,7, Åbo Akademi University, language: English, abstract: In this essay I want to discuss the issue of Fair Trade and how Fair Trade can contribute to social justice. First I will give a short definition what Fair Trade actually is and then I will give an overview about the different Fair Trade organisations and define the standards which they follow. Then I will have a look at the producers and also the products which are available. I will analyse their sales statistic and also their market share. Fairtrade is a 'trading partnership' which tries to maintain 'respect, dialogue, transparency, and increased more fairness in international trade' . Fair Trade tries to better the situation of developing countries by paying a 'fair' price for certain products that is higher than the market price. In the last few years, Fairtrade has becoming more and more popular in the industrialized world. The supporter's base is often also engaged in debates with political decision-makers in the European institutions for the purpose of making international trade fairer. Fair Trade is definitely a form of ethical consumption, because as consumption is one aspect of human behaviour that could harm other human beings.