The trouble with the two principle fair trade certification is two fold:
- Fairtrade (FLO certified; depending on the country the Max Havelaar label is used instead) is a product certification. As such it is somewhat straight forward applicable to commodities such as coffee, cocoa, palm oil, or cotton fibre.
Issue number one here is, that there is, in fact, only a limited number of products that can be Fairtrade certified in first place (note: the official gold FLO standard will be launched in early 2011). So, anyone trading fairly but relying on a different type of raw material, cannot be FLO certified at all. Alpaca wool or silk are, for example, not FLO certifiable at this stage.
Issue number two is, thinking of clothing in particular, that the certification only relates to the origins of the cotton fibre, but does not tell much about what happens with it once it is harvested. It is theoretically possible, and very likely happening somewhere on this planet, that a T-shirt made from Fairtrade cotton is produced under sweatshop conditions. - The FTO mark – the label by the World Fair Trade Organisation – fills the gap left by the FLO certification to some degree. Other than the FLO certification, it is applicable to producer and manufacturing (=> supplier) units. However, it is a “logo, not a product mark – it is used to brand organisations that are committed to 100% Fair Trade. It sets them apart from commercial as well as other Fair Trade businesses, and provides a clear signal to retailers, partners, governments and donors that their core activity is Fair Trade.”
What does this mean concretely for the brands and organisations whose products cannot be FLO certified?
– No easily recognizable product label that identifies their products as having been produced under fair trade conditions.
– No recognition among consumers of their efforts, and hence, they’re thrown into the same pot as all those that produce – clothing in our case – fast, cheap, with little respect for the labourers in the manufacturing sites.
This situation leads to some interesting effects. Looking at, for instance, the most recent People Tree catalogue, the FTO mark is found at the bottom of nearly every single page, to constantly remind the potential shopper that the products displayed were produced in WFTO registered manufacturing sites. But none of the pictured clothing items is allowed to carry the label as such.
The new WFTO Sustainable Fair Trade Management System (SFTMS) now is the first certification approach that has a go at solving aforementioned challenges. It is intended to verify (and subsequently certify) that an organisation practices Fair Trade in all its activities. Once certified, the organisation will be able to use the label on all its products across the whole of its product range.
Whether or not the SFTMS certification will live up to its promises on the long run remains to be seen. This said, for those that managed are already to certifiy, the initial experiences seem to be positive and fulfill the expectations.
At the time of writing (late November 2010), only 2 of 67 companies piloting the certification system have finished the certification process. These are:
– Pachacuti (World 1st; details here and here )
– Level Ground (Canada, details here)
2 companies are currently heading towards to finish line:
– People Tree
– Sasha (details here)
Unfortunately, the names of the 63 remaining companies have not been made publicly available to date.
