How does Fair Trade create opportunities for economically disadvantaged producers?

How does Fair Trade create opportunities for economically disadvantaged producers?

Fair trade provides opportunities by giving people the chance to help themselves. In most instances, the things that we sell Fair Trade are things that are already being made, where the producers already have skills. Essentially, what Fair Trade organisations are doing is bringing those things into a new market and providing that access to a new market. In addition to that, Fair Trade also does things like helping artisans with design assistants - helping them to design things that will sell well in different markets, providing capital for them to work with up front. Because often the real issue is resources, they may be able to make great things that would sell but without the initial capital to work with. It is very difficult to be able to produce the kind of orders that might make it into that market. So, there are a number of pro-active ways that Fair Trade is going after, helping artisans in developing countries, but the basic answer would be that the way that we help disadvantaged producers is by giving them a way to help themselves. It is definitely not a charity, but rather a method of giving them a way to work out of poverty, by making a trade opportunity available.