Fair Trade
Oxfam was one of the pioneers of Fair Trade more than 40 years ago. Since then, we have been involved in every aspect of Fair Trade and have contributed to its success in the UK.
Fair Trade is about paying poor producers a fair price, and helping them to gain the necessary skills and knowledge to develop their businesses and work their way out of poverty.
Oxfam supports Fair Trade in a number of ways. Firstly, we sell FAIRTRADE-marked food and drink in our shops, as well as a range of fairly traded gifts.
In 1991, Oxfam helped found a FAIRTRADE coffee company called Cafedirect, which is now the UK's sixth largest coffee brand. A year later, Oxfam helped to set up the Fairtrade Foundation, which controls the use of the FAIRTRADE mark in the UK. The international FAIRTRADE mark is a registered certification label for products sourced from producers in developing countries. It is the independent consumer guarantee that disadvantaged farmers and workers in developing countries get a better deal.
Make Trade Fair
Fair Trade alone cannot address the crisis faced by millions of small-scale farmers and producers whose livelihoods are threatened by unfair competition from rich countries. That’s why we campaign to Make Trade Fair by challenging the unfair rules of world trade.
