Have you heard about fair trade? Fair trade is an export and import business process different from general trade. In general trade, intermediaries play a decisive role and make good or too much profit. Many supporters of free trade say free trade can stimulate economic growth and can give a good effect to the world marketplace.

Supporters of fair trade insist that farmers don’t get an appropriate payment in free trade. Coffee farmers in Ethiopia or Uganda can earn just 100 won for 1kg of coffee, but it sells at more than 200 times the original price in America, the U.K, or in Korea. Even though shipping charges, other manufacturing expenses, and personal expenses are included in the price, there are enormous profits on coffee. Supporters of fair trade claim that intermediaries should pay the farmers a proper price at least two or three times more than now.

When coffee farmers sell the coffee beans, they don’t know about the market, so they sell them to traders in their village. Then, the farmers earn too little pay, but the traders make a good profit when they sell the coffee beans abroad. In fair trade, the traders make minimum profit and sell the product directly to other countries, so fair trade can exclude traders’ high-profit trading.

Farmers in underdeveloped countries have to work harder and harder, but they cannot escape from poverty. The world market is insecure, so they can do nothing but run up a debt which they cannot pay because of poverty. Fair trade, also called direct trade, can contribute to solving poverty problems in underdeveloped countries like Ethiopia or Uganda by giving the people opportunities to work so that they can become economically independent.

Fair trade also has its weaknesses. First, the product can have a lower quality because it is unprocessed. However, quality is improving day by day, and a great variety of free trade products are hitting the market which are competitive in terms of price and quality. The second thing is many companies use the fair trade logo only to advertise a good company image. Nevertheless, it can also be good because their advertising can let many people know about fair trade.

Fair trade is not perfect yet, but it is valuable making people think about trade. When you choose products, think once more and give the right pay to the farmer. It will be helpful for making a proper world trade market. If we are concerned about free trade and select products based on it, the trade market will be fair. If you want to get more information, you can visit the Website www.fairtradekorea.net.