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Extreme poverty remains a persistent problem across the globe. Academics, practitioners, politicians and activists have sought ways to address this persistent problem. Traditional approaches to dealing with endemic poverty have centered around international aid and trade. The band aid approach of using aid alone to alleviate poverty has, at best, been ineffectual. International trade has also often been used as a means to increase the economic standing of an impoverished country. Trade has the potential to increase a country's economic position (e.g., gross domestic product) however it does not necessarily reduce poverty. It has become apparent that more effect means of reducing poverty are needed. In recent years, several bottom-up alternative approaches have emerged. Fair Trade is one such approach that seeks to balance the inequalities of traditional trade and provide a market where those on the bottom can participate more fully and fairly in economic enterprise. This study investigates the state of the alternative form of trade known as Fair Trade. Specifically, this study examines the development, functioning, and sustainability of the North American Fair Trade market. Realistically speaking, Fair Trade, which accounts for only a very small percentage of global trade, currently does not appear to be a replacement for traditional free trade. However, this study investigates if the Fair Trade market has the potential to become an important component of general efforts (e.g., by the United Nations and World Bank) to raise the living standards of the world's poor and function as an alternative market to the traditional free trade market. Two key areas of the market were examined in this study to ascertain the sustainability of the Fair Trade market. Specifically, the financial sustainability of the Fair Trade market was assessed. Quantitative data on sales and growth of Fair Trade goods over the past several decades was compiled to illustrate the relative significance and the future prospects of this market's financial status. These data were supplemented with an analysis of the financial records of available years of operation from a sample of Fair Trade businesses. Also, the organizational structure of the Fair Trade market was examined to ascertain the operational sustainability of the market. Organizational data were compiled to identify the business choices made by Fair Trade businesses. Results suggest that financially the North American Fair Trade market is growing at or above the pace of comparable non-Fair Trade businesses. Further, this study highlights a distinct and largely self sustaining organizational structure of the North American Fair Trade market. / Sociology

What consciousness (awareness) do Northern Fair Trade coffee consumers have of Southern coffee producers and how do networks and social capital among consumers and Fair Trade promoters shape this consciousness? This study sought to answer these questions, based on a data analysis of semi-structured interviews of 20 coffee consumers, roasters, distributors, café owners, and baristas in Long Island, New York, augmented with documents from some key organizations in the Fair Trade (FT) coffee supply chain. This study is important because a conscious (aware) consumer of Fair Trade coffee products has the potential to make a substantial difference in the quality of life of the Global Southern coffee producer. Additionally, social capital concepts can help us better understand how this consciousness of FT coffee operates. Analyzing this data has shed light on the conscious coffee consumers' attitudes towards FT products, and FT coffee in Long Island specifically. Finally, this study has led me to a new and important research question that future research might address: how does the process of active participation in a FT-related social movement enable a coffee consumer to become more conscious of their connection to Global South's coffee producers? To explore this link further, an analysis of interviewees with a sample restricted to such movement participants -perhaps in a larger city - would be needed. / Ph. D.

This research has investigated local fair trade in Kitchener-Waterloo, seeking to determine its extent, the supports and obstacles it experiences, and the reasons people engage in it. Local fair trade combines localism with the ethical principles of fair trade, and is defined as 'any business for which profit-making is a means to achievement of social goals through local action'. Twenty-eight key informant interviews were conducted with local practitioners of fair trade, and with experts knowledgeable about fair trade, business, and Kitchener-Waterloo. Five follow-up interviews with practitioners added to the data on people's motivations for working in local fair trade businesses and organizations. The research revealed that many local fair trade businesses exist in Kitchener-Waterloo, but these businesses do not see themselves as connected with one another in the practice of local fair trade. No formal or informal network exists among them. The research findings indicated numerous major supports for local fair trade including: funding, volunteers, public awareness, a focus on business management, connections between producers and consumers, support from community and individuals, and action for change on multiple levels. Interestingly, the major obstacles to local fair trade were all associated with major supports. Obstacles included financial issues (high costs, low income), need for funding, difficulties with business operations, and a lack of public support, awareness, and understanding. People were motivated to work in local fair trade by a sense that what they did was 'good' or 'right', by a desire to work towards increasing people's economic security and human development, and because they wanted to promote sustainability, human health, and a healthy environment. The findings suggested that business issues are an ongoing source of challenge for many local fair trade businesses and organizations. They also suggested that local fair trade involves a difficult balancing act between business goals and social goals. The research highlighted a perceived need for greater public awareness and support for the goals of local fair trade, as well as, contradictorily, a sense that local fair trade would be more successful if it could reach 'mainstream' consumers through good business practice (rather than shared values). The research concluded that local fair trade, while present in Kitchener-Waterloo, needs better support and promotion for existing businesses to represent a serious alternative to conventional economics. Promotion must occur on various levels, from the education of individuals to advocacy at the international level, in order to promote fair trading rules and the rights of localities to make decisions in favour of localization and of environmental protection. Promotion should also include making information on local fair trade available to prospective and current business-people, investigating a long-term solution to the problem of funding, and developing a network for local fair trade business and organizations.

The rise of ethical consumerism has contributed to that organisations increasingly include CSR policies in their business and marketing strategies. Consumers want to make more ethically based purchasing decisions, and are guided by organisations’ ethical claims and by product labels. However, there are many different ethical organisations and labels on the market today and consumers find it difficult to separate them and know what each of them stands for. Ethical consumerism stems from green consumerism and has contributed to the development and rise of the Fair Trade movement. The general idea of Fair Trade is to support producers in poor countries, and by purchasing Fair Trade products consumers can contribute to realising the Fair Trade objectives. Previous research has identified a gap between consumers’ attitudes and actual behaviour regarding Fair Trade consumption. Consumers clearly express a positive attitude towards the Fair Trade movement and Fair Trade products, but their attitudes are not reflected in actual purchases. Researchers suggest that the gap could depend on lack of information and proof that Fair Trade actually contribute to better working and living conditions of producers in poor countries, but this had not yet been investigated. Our main purpose with this degree project is to identify factors that could affect the attitude-behaviour gap, and more precisely how access to information affects the existing gap. Our conclusions and recommendations are providing valuable insights for Fair Trade and other ethical organisations and businesses that are part of ethical value chains. We therefore formulated the following research question: In what ways can Fair Trade certification organisations and retailers diminish consumers’ attitude-behaviour gap in Fair Trade consumption? In order to answer our research question, we formulated the following four sub-purposes; to investigate the dialogue between Fairtrade and consumers; to investigate how Fairtrade and retailers communicate and share information with each other; investigate retailers’ expected and perceived responsibility as part of the Fairtrade value chain; identify what factors consumers believe are important regarding Fairtrade and their Fairtrade consumption. Our study is delimited to Sweden and is based on content analysis of communication between Fairtrade Sweden, consumers and retailers, on Fairtrade Sweden's Facebook page. The study has both qualitative and quantitative characteristics, although focus is on qualitative data analysis. We collected a total number of 1671 posts and comments, where 357 were published by Fairtrade, 1215 by consumers and 99 by retailers and other businesses. All data were collected and categorised manually and copied into an excel sheet where each post and comment were coded. The analysis and discussion of our empirical findings are further based on theory within the fields of Fair Trade consumption, ethical and political consumerism, online communication, retail marketing and branding. The main findings from this research are that consumers view retailers as an important actor in the Fair Trade value chain. Consumers put high value in communication and cooperation between Fair Trade and retailers, but these two actors have not realised the advantages and opportunities of it. We have also observed that consumers seek to maximise utility and that the existing attitude-behaviour gap thereby is influenced by several factors. Branding and labelling within Fair Trade consumption are important for consumers' purchasing decisions. Although, we have observed that product brands that have the Fairtrade mark are perceived as more important than the Fairtrade brand itself. Consumers are loyal to brands and do not show a willingness to switch brands to buy a Fairtrade marked product. Moreover, Fair Trade consumption is influenced by other ethical and environmental concerns. Consumers want Fair Trade organisations to be ethical and also environmentally friendly at all stages and throughout the entire value chain.

This research has investigated local fair trade in Kitchener-Waterloo, seeking to determine its extent, the supports and obstacles it experiences, and the reasons people engage in it. Local fair trade combines localism with the ethical principles of fair trade, and is defined as 'any business for which profit-making is a means to achievement of social goals through local action'. Twenty-eight key informant interviews were conducted with local practitioners of fair trade, and with experts knowledgeable about fair trade, business, and Kitchener-Waterloo. Five follow-up interviews with practitioners added to the data on people's motivations for working in local fair trade businesses and organizations. The research revealed that many local fair trade businesses exist in Kitchener-Waterloo, but these businesses do not see themselves as connected with one another in the practice of local fair trade. No formal or informal network exists among them. The research findings indicated numerous major supports for local fair trade including: funding, volunteers, public awareness, a focus on business management, connections between producers and consumers, support from community and individuals, and action for change on multiple levels. Interestingly, the major obstacles to local fair trade were all associated with major supports. Obstacles included financial issues (high costs, low income), need for funding, difficulties with business operations, and a lack of public support, awareness, and understanding. People were motivated to work in local fair trade by a sense that what they did was 'good' or 'right', by a desire to work towards increasing people's economic security and human development, and because they wanted to promote sustainability, human health, and a healthy environment. The findings suggested that business issues are an ongoing source of challenge for many local fair trade businesses and organizations. They also suggested that local fair trade involves a difficult balancing act between business goals and social goals. The research highlighted a perceived need for greater public awareness and support for the goals of local fair trade, as well as, contradictorily, a sense that local fair trade would be more successful if it could reach 'mainstream' consumers through good business practice (rather than shared values). The research concluded that local fair trade, while present in Kitchener-Waterloo, needs better support and promotion for existing businesses to represent a serious alternative to conventional economics. Promotion must occur on various levels, from the education of individuals to advocacy at the international level, in order to promote fair trading rules and the rights of localities to make decisions in favour of localization and of environmental protection. Promotion should also include making information on local fair trade available to prospective and current business-people, investigating a long-term solution to the problem of funding, and developing a network for local fair trade business and organizations.

The objective of this study is to explore possible factors affecting college students¡¦ preference for fair trade coffee. The investigated factors included four of the values listed in Sheth, Newman and Gross's (1991a) theory of consumption values, as well as price, convenience (of buying fair trade coffee), and demographic variables. The values were functional value, social value, emotional value, and epistemic value. This study further divided emotional value into caring value and mood value; the formal reflected caring about farmers, child labor and the environment/ecology, and the latter focused on the possibility of having a good mood from consuming fair trade coffee. A convenience sample of 198 college students studying in Kaohsiung who often drank coffee were interviewed. Results from regression analysis suggest that college students would be more intended to buy fair trade coffee if they believed it had high caring value or high mood value. Furthermore, respondents spending less than 200 NTD per month on coffee were less intended to buy fair trade coffee than those spending between 200 NTD and 499 NTD per month on coffee were. Finally, functional value, social value, epistemic value, prices, and convenience¡Xall assessed by respondents' perceptions¡Xdid not have significant impact on the respondents¡¦ preference for fair trade coffee. Based on these findings, several recommendations were made to the government, schools, and organizations interested in promoting fair trade coffee.

The Domestic Fair Trade (DFT) movement is based on the idea that family farms and small-to -mid-scale farms in the global north are facing many of the same pressures that producers in the global south are facing. Therefore, those participating in food, fiber, and fuel systems in North American should also benefit from fair trade practices. Through the formation of the Domestic Fair Trade Association in the United States, there are now a variety of stakeholders that have come together to find a viable and progressive solution to issues related to fair prices and wages, human rights, environmentally harmful agricultural practices, and food safety and traceability through the framework of fair trade. This study examines how the Domestic Fair Trade movement has been realized in one of the participating groups of stakeholders; consumer food cooperatives. Five cooperatives are assessed to determine their experiences with integrating Domestic Fair Trade into their business practices. Research includes interviews with co-op managers, surveys taken by co-op shoppers, and document analysis of Domestic Fair Trade Association meetings. The research methods provide insight into how DFT intersects with this group of stakeholders and how their experiences relate to what is being discussed at the organizational level of DFT. The research reveals that with the help of the DFTA and the ongoing participation of its members, the United States DFT movement has the potential to create ethical linkages within the food system.

Master of Arts / Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work / Gerad D. Middendorf / The label “fair-trade” might seem to be a definitive designation: either a product is or isn’t. In fact, a continuum exists, resultant mostly from the participation in fair-trade by diverse groups of producer organizations, buyers, certifying organizations, and consumers. Therefore, the way fair-trade is perceived and practiced cannot be presumed to be homogenous. In order to better understand the complexities of fair-trade, a qualitative study was carried out to examine one fair-trade product and its producers. Two Nepalese handmade paper companies, Bhaktapur Craft Paper (BCP) and Get Paper Industry (GPI), were studied to gain insight into the producers’ perceptions, interpretations, and practices of fair-trade. This study also assesses the impact of fair-trade affiliation on the socio-economic conditions of producers and workers. To provide the opportunity for comparison, the cases of BCP and GPI were also compared, where possible, to those of a non-fair-trade company, Bagmati Paper Industries (BPI). The study finds that the fair-trade producer organizations were affiliated with fair-trade networks primarily to promote their business by way of the multiple and committed trading partners involved in fair-trade. Also, affiliation seemed to have positive impacts on the overall business of the paper companies, contributing to growth in sales over the years. Likewise, different training programs sponsored by fair-trade organizations, such as Fair Trade Group Nepal and World Fair Trade Organization-Asia, and fair-trade buyers also contributed to the capacity enhancement of producer organizations. The producers in the paper companies lacked an understanding of fair-trade due to a lack of participation in decision making, a high level of illiteracy among producers, and because management did not consider producer awareness of fair-trade as significant. The study finds positive impacts of fair-trade involvement on the producers’ socio-economic position: a company’s participation in and practice of fair-trade is positively related to improvement in the socio-economic conditions of producers. Considering wages, work-hours, working conditions, and job satisfaction of workers, the fair-trade companies were determined to more favorably affect workers’ lives than the non-fair-trade company.

The main goal of the Fair Trade movemement is poverty reduction based on equal trade partnership. The alternative trade methods appeared as a reaction on the market failure and increasing consumer interest in working conditions in developing countries. Nowadays the sales and awareness of the population are significantly increasing and new markets are emerging the region of Central and Eastern Europe. In Czech republic the most significant position have coffee, cocoa and tea. The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the potencial of Fair Trade products on the Czech market based on comparison with the development in Austria, Germany and Great Britain and describe trends which might be expected in this segment.