Policy briefings and reports

• Exploring the benefits of the Fairtrade Premium in the context of living wages (2023, PDF).

A research study on the role of the Fairtrade Premium in reducing pressure on wages and generating the enabling environment needed to make living wages effective in improving livelihoods for workers in banana supply chains in Ghana and Colombia.

The need for climate justice is at the heart of the Fairtrade movement.

Millions of producers worldwide are on the frontline of the climate emergency. They are among those who have contributed the least to the climate crisis, but are feeling its worst effects – including ever-growing threats to their livelihoods.

We want to see trade systems working to create a sustainable future for people and planet.

• A climate of crisis: farmers, our food and the fight for justice (2021)
• How trade policy can support moves to a more sustainable, greener future (2021).

Recommendations for building fairer, more sustainable and resilient flower supply chains in East Africa

This paper is based on learning from the Building Resilience in Flower Supply Chains project.

The recommendations draw on project research and activities carried out between August 2020 and June 2021, during the Covid-19 pandemic.

• Recommendations for building fairer, more sustainable and resilient flower supply chains in East Africa (2021, PDF).

Blooming back better

This report summarises the challenges facing flower and plant workers, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the role Fairtrade is playing to address both. It looks at the ways in which we believe the flower industry and governments can work together to build back fairer.

We look particularly closely at the importance of living wages.

• Blooming back better (2021, PDF)

Chocolate is a booming business but the majority of cocoa farmers in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana live in abject poverty.

Our reports below outline how governments, chocolate companies, traders, retailers and shoppers can help make living incomes a reality for these farmers.

• The Invisible Women Behind our Chocolate (2020, PDF) 
• Fairtrade Research Paper: Cocoa and the Invisible Women (2020, PDF)
• Craving a Change in Chocolate (2019, PDF)
• Fairtrade Fortnight 2020 parliamentary briefing (2020, PDF)
• Aligning Living Income Methodologies in the Cocoa Sector: Lessons from the Ben & Jerry’s and Tony’s Open Chain MEL Working Group
• Adjusting Living Income Benchmarks for Household Size in the Cocoa Sector: Methodological Note from the Ben & Jerry’s Tony’s Open Chain MEL Working Group

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Fairtrade continued to advocate for and support small-scale farmers and workers.

Inquiry submissions into COVID-19: 

• Submission to the EFRA inquiry on COVID-19 (April 2020)
• Submission to the IDC inquiry on COVID-19 (April 2020)
• Submission to the IDC inquiry on COVID-19 (May 2020) 
• Read the wider Fair Trade movement’s statement on building back fairer

Competition Law and Sustainability

Our 2019 report brings together the findings of a series of interviews with stakeholders in the UK grocery sector. It explores how competition law affects efforts to collaborate together to tackle sustainability issues.

• Competition Law and Sustainability report (2019, PDF).

• Fairtrade response to the DEFRA consultation on a proposed Deforestation Law (2020)
• Corporate Justice Coalition (CORE) statement on the Independent Review of the Modern Slavery Act (2019, PDF)
• CORE statement on mandatory HRDD (2019, PDF)
• Fairtrade International human rights commitment and HRDD advocacy position.

• Find out more on Fairtrade International’s Key issues page.