Purchasing Power

The purchases we make for everyday products like coffee, chocolate, tea, sugar, fruit, or olive oil can have a significant impact on the people who produce them. Too often, these products are grown in ways that are devastating to the environment, employing business practices that don’t help to build strong communities. When you buy Fair Trade Certified™ products, you’re supporting socially responsible business and environmental practices that can change the lives of thousands of farmers and workers, while helping to preserve the land that provides their livelihood.

Money spent on Fair Trade Certified products actually gets back to the people who produced them, because at Fair Trade farms the workers receive fair wages, as well as an additional payment, or “premium”, which they can invest in projects of their choosing. This premium is used to create real benefits for communities all over the world – things like health care, scholarships, land stewardship programs and even computer classes.

The following chart – taken from TransFair USA’s 2008 Almanac – highlights data for the year 2008 and shows additional farmer income and premium money farmers received. The full report is available for download from TransFair USA’s website.

All of these products, with rice and vanilla as the only exceptions, realized an increase in imported pounds over 2007.

Remember – your dollars count! To learn more, visit www.fairtradecertified.org.