How it started
The fair trade commodity and crafts movement credits the United
States initiative called Ten Thousand Villages (formerly Self Help
Crafts) with taking the first steps in this trade. Ten Thousand
Villages began buying needlework from Puerto Rico in 1946. Another
US organization known as SERRV began trading with poor communities
in the South in the late 1940s. The first formal fair trade shop
which sold these and other items opened in 1958 in the United
States.
Oxfam UK started to sell crafts made by Chinese refugees in
Oxfam shops, then set up the first Fair Trade Organization in 1967.
The Netherlands created an importing organization, Fair Trade
Organisatie, in the same year. The first Third World Shop opened in
1969.
Many organizations credit UNCTAD with giving the equitability
concept a boost in 1968 with its "Trade Not Aid" motto at its
second conference.
Handicrafts were the main fair trade initiatives at first,
followed in 1973 by coffee, which today accounts for 25-50% of the
turnover of industrial countries' fair trade organizations.
Fair trade labels
Max Havelaar is generally credited with introducing the first fair
trade label, in 1988 in the Netherlands. Max Havelaar now sells in
Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Denmark and
Norway.
Fair Trade Mark is found in Ireland and the United Kingdom.
TransFair is known in Austria, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the
United States, Canada and Japan. Finland and Sweden sell products
with the Rättvisemärkt label.
In 1997, Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International became
the umbrella organization for the European Union's four main
labelling groups. FLO states: "It permits more than one million
producers, workers and their dependants in 50 countries to benefit
from labelled Fairtrade."
Fair trade networks
In the United States, the Fair Trade Federation, based in the
offices of Coop America, is an association of fair trade
wholesalers, retailers and producers whose members are committed to
providing fair wages and good employment opportunities to
economically disadvantaged artisans and farmers worldwide.
IFAT, the International Fair Trade Association, a
Netherlands-based global network of 270 fair trade organizations,
held its first international conference in 1991. It sees its job as
threefold: market development; fair trade monitoring; and advocacy.
It works closely with the credit-provider Shared Interest.
The Netherlands-based European Fair Trade Association (EFTA)
unites the 11 largest importing organizations in Europe.
The Network of European World Shops (NEWS!) claims 2,500
associated outlets with 100,000 volunteers in 13 European
countries.
FINE, a combination of FLO, IFAT, EFTA and NEWS!, started to
meet in 1998.
Oikocredit, based in the Netherlands, is the world's largest
source of private finance in the micro-financing sector with an
active investment portfolio of €160 million. Troidos Bank, also
based in the Netherlands, provides finance to certified fair trade
and organic producer organizations.
Similar initiatives can be found in the United Kingdom's Ethical
Trading Initiative, the Dutch Fair Wear Foundation and France's
Ethical Labelling Collective. STEP and Rugmark specialize in labour
conditions in the carpeting industry. There is also a Flower Label
Program (FLP).