You just picked up your purchase and continued around the supermarket aisles, none the wiser until Fairtrade International came along and attempted to make the marketplace more moral.
It must have worked because 93% of British shoppers can correctly identify the Fair Trade logo and on the face of it who could possibly be against the buying and selling of products that makes certain that the people who produce the goods receive a fair price therefore bringing a better standard of living for poor farmers in developing countries.
The problem happens in the Supermarkets when consumers look at the price of their Fair Trade products and then fall back on the usual cheaper, conventional alternatives which means less sales.
In 2016, of all the coffee grown as Fairtrade, only 34% of it could be sold at the Fair trade price, 47% of Cocoa and 5% of tea. With no takers for the rest, the farmers had no choice but to unload the surplus into the standard market and receive the lower prices that the market paid.
Obviously the conventional price differential shows how much less the chocolate or coffee farmers are being paid against the Fair Trade price but the bottom line for consumers is the willingness or ability to pay the higher price to buy fair-trade products.
It is the same dilemma faced by consumers for organic vegetables, they are more expensive and the ultimate decision is always going to come down to cost so it's one thing promoting and supporting Fairtrade standards and even aiming your advertising at consumers asking them to consider if paying more for a product that has been sourced and produced ethically and consider the harm it may be causing to others when faced with a similar product on the supermarket shelf which costs 50% less.
Obviously it is a worthwhile cause but when you are on a budget, paying more for something you can get cheaper is always going to win out.
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