Would You Buy Fair Trade?

With European markets going ga-ga over fair trade products, will those with the buying power in South Africa start doing the same? In the rush up to the silly season, here's how you can ensure that what you're buying is ethically produced.

Coldplay frontman Chris Martin writes the words 'fair trade' on his hand each time he performs. And with his DATA campaign (debt, Aids, trade, Africa), U2's Bono and his wife Ali have launched a fair trade fashion line, Edun, and are intent on hammering away at what he terms the 'unfair trade rules which keep Africans poor'.

Celebrity endorsement aside, the great thing about shopping fair trade is that it's something that we as ordinary South Africans can do. If we do it properly, we're effectively taking a stand against poverty through making wise everyday shopping decisions – especially as we rush towards the spending season. But to do so, we need to familiarise ourselves with precisely what fair trade is (see box), and then seek out products – food, gifts, children's toys, clothing – that are sourced and sold in line with the movement's principles.

'The time has come for South Africans and Africans to stop thinking of ourselves as recipients of fair trade principles but rather as active participants in the process,' says Greg Moran, human rights lawyer and owner of the African Toy Shop, a fair trade company. 'We live in two different countries – one has a developed and affluent sector, and the other is made up of desperately poor people. If you apply that principle – which is how fair trade organisations in the northern hemisphere look at producers in the southern hemisphere – each of us in the affluent part of the country should be trading fairly with those in the poor part.' But the catch-22 part of the consumer equation comes in when we realise that most fair trade goods come at a slightly higher price than ordinary consumer goods — though it's a sacrifice fair trade producers are convinced the ethically- minded among us are willing to make. A report entitled 'The Beginners Guide To Fair Trade In South Africa' by South African NGO, the Environmental Monitoring Group (EMG), puts it more directly: 'Because producers get a 'fair' price, fair trade products are generally more expensive.

Politically educated consumers are happy to pay more because they believe they are helping the fight against global poverty. So fair trade only works if there is a market of wealthy and politically educated consumers. This is why fair trade is generally between producers in poor countries and consumers in wealthy countries.'