I agree with you – how do consumers know if a company really is fair and ethically trading? It’s a dilemma that probably doesn’t have an answer – where is the balance between a bureaucratic cumbersome system that seems to me will exclude the very producers it has been designed to support – and a system that gives consumers confidence that a company is trading fairly and ethically?

I did a bit of research into the companies in NZ mentioned on the link I gave you. In fact I rang one of them just to confirm what I felt I was seeing on their site – and that is that the company chooses to buy some product from a certified source, but doesn’t go down the path of obtaining a FT license for that product – and didn’t feel the need to.

And I guess this was what I was alluding to in my 1st comment – if a company is successful, like TCHO – and is able to convince the customers that care that it is ethical – then what is their motivation to go down the certification path?

And at the end of the day, though – it’s about the producers isn’t it. And the workers, particularly in the cocoa business with respect to using slave labour. I don’t have any answers – just lots and lots of questions…..

I think it would be great to hear what producers have to say – not from the companies who have fair trade certified products (as I feel these are more marketing ploys than truth) – but from independent sources that don’t have an interest in selling a product….

I’ve come across a couple of volunteers who have / are writing blogs about their experiences in developing countries – one person was working for a fair trade banana co-operative in Ecuador, the other is now in Ghana talking to the farmers there. These have proved to be insightful stories about producers.

I think we need to know more about what producers think and want. What do you think?

Thanks for your comments. Yes, there is a danger that the process of certification becomes so cumbersome that even those with the best intentions are deterred.

But let’s remember what certification is all about. It is a means to let consumers know that the claims made on a product package were checked out by someone who does not have a direct stake in the sale of that product. If a company feels that it has established a beneficial relationship with cocoa producers, why not take that extra step and have it certified?

At least in the U.S., the so-called “ethical” consumer segment has become big enough to attract attention from all kinds of producers. Many of the folks who buy “ethical” products happen to have levels of disposable income that make them very attractive targets. So we have a proliferation of “ethical” claims. Starbucks has its own standards, Whole Foods Market has its own standards. Without third party certification, how am I to know that all these competing claims of “fair,” “fairly traded” or “beyond fairtrade” are actually meaningful and not just a marketing ploy?

Maybe I’m too suspicious, but I remember what happened to the term “natural” or when the big food corporations discovered “organic.”

As to your second comment. Yes, that’s a phenomenon here too. Dunkin Donuts, a nation-wide chain of donut shops started sourcing fairtrade coffee for its espresso drinks but doesn’t mention that at all. I think many companies feel that once they decided to carry one fairtrade product it might generate pressure to convert their other products as well.

It’s a short, thoughtful piece about how some companies are being ‘secret subscribers’ to Fairtrade Certification.

Thanks for sharing your research on this. With so much fanfare with Cadbury’s going partially fair trade, it’s really interesting to hear the viewpoint of another chocolate company.

I was taken by your point about certification being a means of verifying that claims made are true, but in this case, where TCHO has stated it’s philosophy and approach to buying, it raises a couple of questions for me -

If companies like TCHO and the producers they are in partnership with both feel they are benefiting from the relationship, then why would they need to do anything more? What benefit would certification provide for them? What would be their motivation for going through, what many may describe, as a costly, cumbersome, and bureaucratic certification process?

As a supporter and believer in fair trade, I worry that fairtrade certification could develop the characteristics of the Total Quality Management movement of the 90′s, where certification provided no benefits to those involved, except the certifiers.

Interested to hear what you think.