Fair Trade

Fair Trade

NEPTO is committed to upholding Fair Trade values: creating opportunities for disadvantaged producers, sustaining fair working conditions and wages, empowering women, and preserving traditional crafts and artisan skills.

What is Fair Trade? 

Fair Trade is a global network of producers, traders, marketers, advocates and consumers focused on building equitable trading relationships between consumers in the developed countries and producers in the world’s most economically disadvantaged places, such as cooperatives, women’s groups, farmers and artisans. While providing development opportunities in the Global South, Fair Trade works to raise awareness among consumers in the Global North about the realities of the producers, and to encourage them to use their purchasing power positively.

Why Fair Trade?

In today’s world economy, where profits rule and small-scale producers are left out of bargaining process, farmers, craft producers and other workers are often left without hope for their future. Fair Trade helps exploited producers escape from this condition as a way to maintain their traditional lifestyles with dignity.

What are Fair Trade products?

Fair Trade encompasses a range of goods, from agricultural products such as coffee, chocolate, tea and bananas, to handicrafts such as clothing, household items and arts. They are produced and distributed by producer groups, wholesalers and retailers who uphold the Fair Trade principles. Agricultural products that fulfill strict Fair Trade criterion can be identified by the “Fair Trade Certified” label, approved by the international Fair Trade labeling organizations such as TransFair  and Fair Trade Labeling Organization