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Fair Trade Facts for Kids

Fair Trade Facts for Kids

What does fair trade mean?

Fair trade is when products including food, drink and crafts, are sourced through a fair supply chain. This means the farmers, producers and artisans are all treated fairly. Standards of dignity, respect, equality and fairness are agreed upon, certified and met.


View and download our free Fair Trade Poster

What is fair trade?

Fair trade allows farmers, producers and artisans to be paid a fair price for the things they make and to have better working conditions. 

Some products that are not fair trade are made by workers who are not paid enough to live. The people might have to work in unsafe conditions and they might be children. 

When a consumer buys a fair trade product they know the workers that made the product have been treated fairly. 

Kenyan Fair Trade Coffee Farmer
A Fair Trade coffee farmer harvesting coffee beans.

 

Is there more than one fair trade logo?

Yes, there is! There are lots of different logos and each one means something slightly different. You can learn more about them on the Fair Trade Winds website.  
The first Fair Trade Label was used in 1988. It was created by a Dutch organisation to sell coffee. The label was called ‘Max Havelaar’. Max Havelaar is a Dutch book about someone similar to Robin Hood.

Fair trade sticker
A fair trade sticker

 

Facts about Fair Trade 

  1. Fair Trade and Fairtrade are not the same things. ‘Fairtrade’ is a trademarked labelling system and ‘Fair Trade’ is the movement. If you see a Fairtrade logo on a product it means that the product meets the criteria set out by the Fair Trade movement.
  2. There are over 6,000 Fairtrade products available. 4,500 of them are available in the UK. 
  3. Fairtrade products are sold in over 120 countries.
  4. There are over 1.5 million farmers and workers in Fairtrade certified producer organisations
  5. Fairtrade celebrated its 20th birthday in the UK in 2014.
  6. In the UK, 25 per cent of coffee sold is Fairtrade.
  7. A third of bananas sold in the UK are Fairtrade. The first UK Fairtrade Mark banana was sold in 2000. 
  8. The first product to get the Fairtrade Mark was Green and Black’s Maya Gold chocolate bar in 1994.
  9. Fairtrade products include food and non-food items. Non-food items include toiletries and clothes. You can view a full Fairtrade product list here.
  10. Divine Chocolate is the only chocolate company that is fully owned by farmers. 
  11. There are more than 1,000 Fairtrade schools in the UK. Read this blog to find out how you can become a Fairtrade school.
  12. In 2001 Garstang became the world’s first Fairtrade town. There are now over 650 Fairtrade towns in the UK. 

 

Fairtrade bananas
The Fairtrade mark on a bunch of bananas.

Explore our Ethical Trade ESR lessons for ready-to-teach fair trade activities

 

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Comments

Elias - September 5, 2023

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fairtrade person - March 29, 2023

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Kasra - April 6, 2022

Thanks so much! You have really helped me a lot with my homework about Fair Trade!

connor - March 2, 2022

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