The fair trade system is a trade partnership based on dialogue, transparency and respect that aims to achieve more fairness in international trade. Fair trade products are produced according to social and ecological standards that are acknowledged worldwide. The system gives peasant farmers and plantation and factory workers in Africa, Asia and Latin America access to international markets and allows them to participate in sustainable development. Besides paying producers a fair price for their products, fair trade offers them

• long-term supplier relationships,
• advance financing options, and
• support in developing their product range.

Around one million producers and their families in over 50 countries benefit from fair trade. To reach even more producers in the South in future, it is necessary to expand the range of fair trade products.

In Germany, fair trade products are available in so-called Worldshops, 22,000 supermarkets, and increasingly also in health food shops. The majority are also certified as organic products.

Two years ago the Transfair logo was introduced and applied to fairly traded products throughout Europe.
The fair trade movement has succeeded in raising the label’s recognition rate to 42% and attracting new consumer groups, e.g. supermarket customers. Between 1992 and 2002 fair trade sales amounted to approx. EUR 500 million. In 2005 that figure has already reached EUR 57.5 million to date. GTZ assisted TransFair and the Fairtrade Labelling Organization (FLO) in introducing the new logo and expanding their product ranges.

In 2002, BMZ and GTZ launched the Fair Trade Forum, the umbrella association of the largest fair trade actors in Germany. It aims to give a stronger voice to the fair trade movement in Germany vis-à-vis politicians and trade representatives and to promote the fair trade approach.

• Forum Fair trade
  www.forum-fairer-handel.de
• Fair trade
  For information and services related to fair trade, please refer to the virtual directory of 'eco-fair' businesses that is co-produced by GTZ.
  www.oeko-fair.de
• Fairtrade Labeling Organisation (FLO)
  www.fairtrade.net