The Farm-to-You service: a new take on Fairtrade (or should that just be fair trade)?

Everybody’s heard of Fairtrade, right? The little green and blue yin-yang symbol you see on packs of coffee and chocolate, that tells you the producer of the key ingredient of your double latte received a fair price for their product.

Over the past decade the Fairtrade logo has become one of the most visible images of a broader movement to ensure the benefits of trade reach the poor as well as the rich. 

Fairtrade is essentially a certification scheme. Producers and buyers who agree to meet certain standards relating to the production process and minimum prices can receive certification and have the right to use the Fairtrade logo. The logo creates demand for a 'premium product' - a Fairtrade product - among consumers in the developed world, and that demand encourages more buyers and producers to sign up to the Fairtrade standards, lifting incomes and quality of life for the producers in the developing world. As you can see, there are a number of steps in this process that need to be achieved in order for the lives of the poor to be improved. That means a number of steps where things can go wrong - the process can be open to fraud or manipulation, and the losers can be the primary producers, the end users... or both. A lot has been written and spoken about the potential downsides of Fairtrade; for example, here, here and (my favourite) here. 

So, 'Fairtrade' may not always mean fair trade when it comes down to it.

But don't get us wrong - we think the aims of Fairtrade are spot on. We want to see them put into practice - better incomes and better lives for primary producers in the developing world. It's just that we think we can achieve those aims with more certainty by taking more direct action. Rather than relying on indirect pressure from a certification scheme for farmers to get a reasonable price for their goods, we want to be certain they'll get a reasonable price by paying them that price ourselves.

That's the essence of the Bukid Buddies Farm-to-You service. Fresh, organic produce to city consumers, delivered hours after it's picked; and a fair price and stable demand for farmers who are too often at the mercy of middlemen.

That's our idea of fair trade.