ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses how empowerment, operationalised through development, is being practiced on Fairtrade-certified wine farms, with a focus on the experiences of management representatives and farmworkers on Bosman Family Vineyards and Fairhills. Unlike the majority of consumer countries, South Africa also produces Fairtrade goods and, as of February 2016, had 74 certified producers and traders across nine commodity areas. Fairhills, which is one of South Africa's largest Fairtrade wine operations, emerged out of the long-term supply relationship between Origin Wines. The Co-operative Group UK, who were looking for a reliable, quality supplier for their own-brand Fairtrade wines and 'to start a really significant Fairtrade initiative to basically improve the lives of a whole community rather than just one or two farms'. Following accreditation in 2005, the Fairhills project therefore embarked on an extensive programme of social development. The Bosman workers experienced some benefits as those expressed by the Fairhills farmworkers.
