Usually, yes! Making a product with care and attention requires more money to make it, and so impoverished producers often produce lower-quality products. A great example of this is coffee, which is shade-grown under fair trade conditions, and this produces a better-tasting coffee. The shaded bushes don’t ripen the coffee cherries quite so quickly, so the beans have longer to take on a more complex flavour. Non-fair trade workers often work on a huge plantation that’s clear-cut and produces a lower-quality finished product. There’s also the question of: what value-add…

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Rosette recognizes third-party fair trade organizations that review products and companies for compliance. These organizations are Fairtrade International (FLO-Cert), Small Producers Symbol (SPP), Fair Trade Federation, Fair For Life & World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO). We chose these based on their standards and relevance to the Canadian market. There are also other labels out there that are focused primarily on only one arm of the fair trade movement (such as the environment), but because they’re less comprehensive than fair trade, we don’t include them on Rosette Fair Trade.

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The short answer is yes. The longer answer is sometimes it’s actually more cost effective. Fair trade products are premium products. You can’t compare a hand-crafted, organic cotton t-shirt with one made as quickly and cheaply as possible in a sweatshop—they are simply not the same quality. So you would need to compare apples and apples. Assuming we’re doing that, fair trade doesn’t actually tend to cost more. This is because fair trade clothing is made higher-quality than the overwhelming majority of fast fashion brands. It’s common to need to replace…

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Fair trade is a system where a third-party organization takes a look at how ethical, transparent and sustainable a business, artisan and/or farmer is. Fair trade requires that workers are paid a living wage, that no forced or child labour is happening, and that the environment is respected, among other things. Learn more in-depth about fair trade in our blog post: Fair trade vs free trade: what’s the difference?

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