ABSTRACT
Fair Trade in the United States is booming. Though Fair Trade certification was initiated within the decade and there are still only a few labeled commodities, the United States is now the world’s largest Fair Trade market. Sales are worth US$ 428 million and are growing at an astonishing 60 percent per year (FLO 2006a). The US Fair Trade market and movement were built around coffee, and to a lesser extent cocoa and tea. Yet it is bananas that are propelling the next wave of expansion. The recent launch of certification in the US banana sector holds the promise of significantly broadening Fair Trade, yet this expansion simultaneously heightens inherent tensions between market and movement forces.
