Hi, my name is Gabby and I'm a senior in high school who lives in Oregon. I wanted to buy fabric from you for a prom dress, but I wanted to make sure it was fair trade. You say fair trade on your website, but I didn't see any certification. I was just wondering why that is.
Their response?
Gabby,
The third party certification process is very expensive for these small artisans, they just wouldn't be able to sell their products if they went through the process. If you are referring to the Cambodian and Vietnamese silks, the process of weaving is a long time tradition that they have passed on for many generations. Now with the global market, the villages are able to sell their products internationally but the "fair trade" certified label would make profitability impossible.
I personally know the importers, which is also a small company owned by a mother and daughter here in California. They go to the villages and pick out which fabrics to carry directly from the artisans. There is no large manufacturer who contracts the production, just real people doing what they have done for hundred's of years.
I hope that is enough for you to feel confidant that you would be buying a fair product.
Thank you, Erin
The only problem now as far as my dress goes is convincing my mom to allow me to have a hand-made dress for prom (she's a bit nervous).
There is a larger issue in this though, and it's the difficulty small fair trade businesses are facing in trying to certify themselves. Without certification from the Fair Trade Federation, these businesses face a definite disadvantage but obtaining certification is a challenge in itself. Currently, in order to get certification from the FTF, a wholesaler or retailer must be open a full year AND go through a screening process which costs $75 and can take up to nine weeks after all of their materials are received. A retailer can apply for membership after 180 days, but only if they only purchase goods directly from importers and reach $20,000 in sales.
There are also annual fees to maintain a membership:
| Gross Sales | Dues |
| $74,999 and under | $200 annual flat rate |
| $75,000 - $1,999,999 | $200 + $1.25 / $1,000 in sales |
| $2 million and over | $2,500 + $.10 / $1,000 in sales over $2 million |
While these figures may not seem like much, these fees can add up, especially for nonprofits and small businesses, who often only receive a small profit margin to keep their prices competitive and affordable with other local non-fair trade businesses. For the mid-range businesses, the $1.25/ $1,000 is taken out of their gross sales, meaning that it is proportional to how much is SOLD, not how much profit is made. This makes it especially hard for nonprofits like us, who the FTF should be supporting. While One Fair World is a certified fair trade retailer, many businesses simply cannot afford to be.
So what are the ramifications of this? One, for the individual business owner, is the skepticism they face from not being certified; they could likely lose business, like the company I contacted, from people who only choose to buy fair trade and don't trust businesses who can't prove that they are in fact fair trade. The second is on a much larger scale - the exclusivity of fair trade membership allows for more fair trade impostors. With many businesses unable to get membership because of the fees and regulations, it's become acceptable for businesses to go without the certification and still claim they are fair trade, and in many cases they are. However, there's nothing stopping non-fair trade businesses from advertising that they are fair trade and there's nothing to distinguish them from the legitimate fair trade businesses.
By preventing many smaller fair trade businesses from receiving certification, the Fair Trade Federation is causing less credibility in the "fair trade" name. If they made membership less expensive and more accessible to small local businesses, they would not only allow for an expansion of the fair trade market, but also decrease the amount of businesses that claim to be fair trade but don't follow its practices.
