Why do you work with supermarkets?
Although the sales of fair trade organisations like Traidcraft have grown significantly, we are still relatively small and this limits our impact on the producers that we deal with.
Supermarkets can access a far greater number of consumers and make it easy for them to buy fair trade products.
Supermarkets offer the potential to help many more producers get a fair deal and begin to work their way out of poverty. It is therefore in the interests of producers for us to work with supermarkets.
A lot of the recent growth in sales and of awareness of fair trade has resulted from the increasing ranges of fair trade held in supermarkets. Supermarkets have added momentum to the development of a wider range of fair trade products.
At the same time, Traidcraft campaigns and lobbies about supermarket purchasing practices in relation to the developing world and recognises that consumers and the fair trade movement need to encourage supermarkets to be accountable for the claims they make about their fair trade practices.
It is important for fair trade consumers to differentiate wisely between own-label Fairtrade products and the products coming from dedicated fair trade organisations like Traidcraft.
