Fair Trade Circuit
A small cooperative with great expectations!
L'Unione del Porto:
the Fair Trade Circuit
The Cooperative is actively engaged in the development of Fair Trade. The Fair Trade movement, composed of associations, cooperatives and NGOs operating in the field of development cooperation, aims to create an alternative market capable of supporting the development of producing companies in the Global South and consequently reducing the North-South gap produced by the current economic system.
A typical characteristic of Fair Trade is direct product sale to end users, thus limiting the intermediary chain.
What's more...
Some history
The original Fair Trade body was founded in the Netherlands in 1967 by a Catholic group and spread progressively over the following years. This group was innovative because it sought to take everyday action to make the capitalist economic system less unfair and identified consumption and buying power as a means for rebalancing the North-South gap, considering it fundamental to make ethics an intrinsic element of the choices made by man as consumer, and thus instilling a different logic from that strictly economic. Since its foundation, Fair Trade has expanded significantly, developing in many European countries.
In Italy
In Italy In Italy, there are two structures: importation hubs and world shops. The purpose is still to supply shops with fair trade goods, promote development projects in the Global South, perform awareness raising of the issues affecting developing countries and of the neo-liberal market mechanisms generating the North-South gap. World shops are not just sales points for buying products but places for the exchange of information and promotion of campaigns, awareness raising and cultural exchange (through product purchase).
Strategy
In general, the logic behind Fair Trade is founded on a development strategy that enables producing companies (NGOs, artisan cooperatives, etc.) not just to have mere sustenance but also to improve production (buying more modern technology) and producer life quality (funding social projects). Producer relations are based on several principles: · paying a fair price that ensures producers a level of sustenance and margins to reinvest · transparency regarding the individual items that make up the price · direct, long-standing contacts with producers that guarantee security and that reinvest · the producer is pre-financed on order with an advance payment of 50% of the goods value
Caratteristiche
Il Commercio Equo e Solidale è stato in grado di diffondere una diversa concezione del prodotto inteso come un bene a cui si aggiunge la valenza di comunicazione e di diffusione di una cultura diversa, diventa funzionale e simbolico, coerente con la scelta etica fatta, libera la fantasia e concretizza il valore della solidarietà sia per il produttore sia per il consumatore.
Le diverse realtà del Commercio Equo e Solidale si sono riunite in un coordinamento europeo nell'EFTA (European Fair Trade Association) e riunite in un coordinamento internazionale nell'IFAT (International Federation for Alternative Trade) con lo scopo di ottimizzare le risorse delle diverse realtà e per svolgere un'attività di lobbyng più efficace a livello internazionale.